I was thrilled by the scope of the play and all the turns it took. Had bursts of the family-power-dynamics of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And I felt the most exciting scenes were between the gay son and the male sex worker whom he was so mixed up with.
There were some forced twists and turns of plot/synchronicity, and perhaps the examination of making the choice for suicide was under-cooked, but all the talkiness was fun. It reminded me of August Wilson. Gab that didn’t necessarily serve the Aristotelian unities, but it was fun to hear all that talk for its own sake. And I admired that Kushner was stretching himself to write about ‘nuclear family’ and to create a female character grounded in an ordinary reality (whereas Harper and the Angel in ANGELS had been so unmoored.)
I thought Spinella’s frailty was overused, and, probably, he was miscast. But the others worked well and hard. Special brava to Ms Emond. |
