I'll resist the urge to go into more detail until more people have seen it, but this play is certainly worth seeing: it's a bloated and slightly unfocused look at many generations of French Jews, taking the three hours to paint a portrait of family lineage throughout challenging times and the pervasive impact of anti-Semitic sentiment on a well-to-do French family of doctors, academics, and piano salesmen.
Joshua Harmon continues to prove himself as his generation's greatest playwright and many of his previous staples are on display here (namely characters giving Olympian monologues railing against a variety of ills, some large and some petty). David Cromer gets great performances out of his cast but the staging and design is oddly amateur ... the lighting design may be the worst I've seen on a professional stage. Ugly stage pictures, loose transitions ... hopefully this is the stuff that will be streamlined throughout previews.
Touching, rich, complex ... the time moves quickly and the play is well-worth an examination. Joshua Harmon plays should be on Broadway. |
