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| infinite Life- Spoilers | |
| Posted by: workerbee 08:17 am EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| Annie Baker's INFINITE LIFE at The Atlantic is filled with interesting and stimulating formal ideas about playwrighting. But The story is that six people (5 women and 1 man) are all in the same place because they have chosen a fasting treatment for very difficult and painful conditions like cancer and Lyme disease. The failure of the play is that for 1 hour and forty-five minutes these different individuals with the same radical decision, never talk about anything in an interesting or engaging way. They don't discuss their treatment choice with any insight, they don't discuss disease and pain with any insight. and they have no interesting and contrasting world views and experiences to share. The other failure of the play is that one of the women is Black, one is Fillipina, one is lesbian, but none of them have any specificity of experience. The selection is arbitrary and cynical. The central character is someone - presumably resonating with the author- going through personal sexual dilemmas. But the casting of Christina Kirk, who is a wonderful actress, is not the best choice because she is too buttoned up for the words coming out of her mouth. This really was a huge disappointment. |
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| re: infinite Life- Spoilers | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 10:51 am EDT 10/07/23 | |
| In reply to: infinite Life- Spoilers - workerbee 08:17 am EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| a 45 minute play with an hours worth of pauses. The performances I was at this week had the audience in gales of laughter almost continuously. laughing because they were seeing the funniest play they had ever seen. Call me baffled. | |
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| re: infinite Life- Spoilers | |
| Posted by: Chatty2007 02:17 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
| In reply to: infinite Life- Spoilers - workerbee 08:17 am EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| Agree on this in general. Seems to me they could have talked about a lot of other things that would tell us more about them or their battle with disease/pain. Not sure that the lack of "specificity of experience" for LGBTQ characters or people of color is a bad thing. At the very least, we'll probably see more of it as theaters try to diversify casting - using actors of color in roles conceived as "white" or not written for any specific ethnicity. |
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| re: infinite Life- Spoilers | |
| Posted by: lordofspeech 07:16 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
| In reply to: re: infinite Life- Spoilers - Chatty2007 02:17 pm EDT 10/06/23 | |
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| I found much to identify with. The leveling power of being fragile, weak, and sick. And our current climate where there are so many inexplicable maladies floating (or swimming) around, and our former certainty in pills and pharmaceuticals is disappearing. We’re adrift as these people are adrift, and the very real, idiosyncratic characterizations fascinated me. So, it held the mirror up to nature, and I loved the performances. | |
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