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| I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 10:00 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - writerkev 08:40 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| ....and, for that matter, her performance did not seem to be the problem in SEX AND LONGING. So, to to this day, I can't explain what happened with VANYA AND SONIA. | |
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| Did anyone see Sean Young play the role? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 12:06 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:05 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... - Michael_Portantiere 10:00 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| I think she played Masha out on Long Island (perhaps Sag Harbor?). I always liked her as an actress, and she was very good in some comedies. I have a feeling she'd have been excellent as Masha, especially as someone who lived through all the highs and lows of being a movie star. | |
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| re: Did anyone see Sean Young play the role? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:29 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: Did anyone see Sean Young play the role? - PlayWiz 12:05 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| YES, I saw that production with Sean Young as Masha, at the Engeman in Northport, and I thought she gave an excellent performance. I also liked the overall production better than The New York Times reviewer (see link). | |
| Link | VANYA AND SONIA review |
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| re: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... | |
| Last Edit: mikem 11:51 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:46 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... - Michael_Portantiere 10:00 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| I think part of the issue with Weaver here is that her acting choices clash with those of the rest of the cast. Masha lives in a world of her own that doesn't always have much resemblance to the real world. Her comments about her acting abilities or her resume are what she wishes were the truth. She is always playing to an audience, but it's not clear how much she truly believes what she is saying. Despite her words, that she is so threatened by Nina means that she knows on some level that Spike is not truly interested in her. Weaver says many of her lines in a semi-artificial way that kind of highlights this, but the other characters are all at least somewhat grounded in reality, and no one else is doing this. So Weaver really sticks out as sounding phony to me. Also, Weaver's long history with Durang may mean that she's highlighting the artificial/surreal aspect of his characters, but she's the only one doing it. |
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| re: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:18 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... - mikem 11:46 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| ***I think part of the issue with Weaver here is that her acting choices clash with those of the rest of the cast. Masha lives in a world of her own that doesn't always have much resemblance to the real world. Her comments about her acting abilities or her resume are what she wishes were the truth. She is always playing to an audience, but it's not clear how much she truly believes what she is saying. Despite her words, that she is so threatened by Nina means that she knows on some level that Spike is not truly interested in her. Weaver says many of her lines in a semi-artificial way that kind of highlights this, but the other characters are all at least somewhat grounded in reality, and no one else is doing this. So Weaver really sticks out as sounding phony to me. Also, Weaver's long history with Durang may mean that she's highlighting the artificial/surreal aspect of his characters, but she's the only one doing it.*** I think you're absolutely right about this, but the issue is that many people seem to feel Weaver wasn't able to properly calibrate her performance to play Masha in a way that communicated what the character was supposed to be while also meshing with the style of performances beginning given by the other actors. Yes, Masha is written as a very different kind of person from Vanya and Sonia, but I don't think it's supposed to come across as if she's in a different play. I've always thought of Nicholas Martin as a wonderfully talented director, but maybe he bore some responsibility for Weaver's misguided performance. Or, who knows, maybe she was a big enough name and had such a long history with Durang that Martin felt he should just leave her on her own. |
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| re: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... | |
| Posted by: mikem 02:37 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... - Michael_Portantiere 12:18 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| I agree that Weaver seemed to be acting in a totally different play from everyone else. I also agree with you that Martin was a very talented director, and I speculate that your second hypothesis may be correct: Weaver was a big star and a box office draw, and the playwright was happy with what she was doing, so Martin let her do it in a certain way. When Julie White took over, her interpretation was much more integrated with that of the rest of the cast, so I don't think that Martin necessarily felt that Weaver's choices were the "correct" ones. For myself, whatever Weaver was trying to do didn't work, whether the issue was the concept or the execution. |
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| Wasn't Sigourney Weaver's performance intentional and given Durang's imprimatur? | |
| Posted by: portenopete 12:07 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: I should mention at this point that I thought Sigourney Weaver gave a wonderful, perfectly gauged, heartfelt performance in THE GUYS.... - mikem 11:46 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| Is the other poster suggesting that Sigourney Weaver THOUGHT she was giving a naturalistic, verisimilitudinous account of a real actor of a certain age and was embarrassingly unaware of the results seen from the stalls? As I read (all) and saw (a few productions) of Durang's one-acts written in the 1970's and '80's, the impression they left on me was that everyone in his world was living in a madhouse and infected with a warped sense of behaviour cobbled together from excessive exposure to modern popular cultural (high and low). As I recall his one-acts rarely had a "normal" character ( a Marilyn Munster type) through whom the audience was meant to interpret the play. EVERYONE was nuts and the fun of the plays was to revel and bask in their collective lunacy. V&S&M&S is admittedly a different beast. A generally formulaic and simple family comedy in two acts and over 2.5 hours in which we get the hint that we should invest in an emotional attachment to the titular siblings (if not the fourth arriviste "other"). Except I don't think that he has successfully found a way to blend that rather run-of-the-mill knock-off of Chekhovian family dramedy with his innate, three decades-old anarchic and antic humour. Because Weaver worked so closely with him in their professional adolescence, her rhythms seem perfectly attuned to his early work and I can only think he wanted that voice in this new piece. I would hardly call Kristine Nielson's performance- or her work in general- "naturalistic". She is forever gazing out at the audience with her wide, stunned mullet expression, to my mind reminding us that what she just said or is just about to say was funny. If there was one performance that seemed of a piece with the play it was DHP (or in my experience in L.A., Mark Blum)'s performance as Vanya. Maybe by necessity he was quiet, reserved and deeply felt. (I do think that being a middle-aged man, it's easy to view the play through his lens and in a way it could just as easily be called VANYA AND HIS SISTERS. (Perhaps this was a title considered but the proximity to Woody Allen seemed unwise?) |
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| re: Wasn't Sigourney Weaver's performance intentional and given Durang's imprimatur? | |
| Posted by: writerkev 03:11 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: Wasn't Sigourney Weaver's performance intentional and given Durang's imprimatur? - portenopete 12:07 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| I don’t think anyone is suggesting they expected or wanted a realistic portrayal. As you suggest, Nielsen was offering a highly exaggerated portrait in the Durang style. Weaver was—again, my opinion—hopelessly amateurish. It’s not about degree of naturalism. | |
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| re: Wasn't Sigourney Weaver's performance intentional and given Durang's imprimatur? | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 12:43 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: Wasn't Sigourney Weaver's performance intentional and given Durang's imprimatur? - portenopete 12:07 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| ***Is the other poster suggesting that Sigourney Weaver THOUGHT she was giving a naturalistic, verisimilitudinous account of a real actor of a certain age and was embarrassingly unaware of the results seen from the stalls?*** I don't think anyone is suggesting that. I certainly did not mean to, and I think/hope I was clear about that. Regarding your comments about Nielsen, no, I don't think anyone would describe her performance as "naturalistic," but in my opinion, her style of acting worked beautifully in this play. Same for David Hyde Pierce -- and, I'm sure, Mark Blum -- in a VERY different role. That character is meant to be quiet, reserved, and deeply felt, as you said -- also, not quirky at all. So any comparison of the actors who performed that role with Nielsen seems rather pointless to me. |
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| re: Wasn't Sigourney Weaver's performance intentional and given Durang's imprimatur? | |
| Posted by: portenopete 04:31 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Wasn't Sigourney Weaver's performance intentional and given Durang's imprimatur? - Michael_Portantiere 12:43 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| Fair enough. To my surprise I seem to be painting myself into the corner of being a huge Sigourney Weaver fan, which I'd never really considered myself. Although it's not so much that I LOVED her as much as I thought she didn't stick out unfavourably the way most people here seem to feel. I'll stick to my guns, such as they are, and remember her Masha fondly! Looking forward to the day when we can have these conversations about new productions! |
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