First, let me say that the acting was great. Technically brilliant, the play is practically 90 minutes of long monologue after long monologue, intercut with intricately choreographed rapid fire dialog. I would say that it was a triumph of form over substance, except that there wasn't enough substance to triumph over.
The point of the play is that corporate culture is shallow and meaningless, values youth and energy over age and experience, and will suck your soul and throw you aside. The points are made with all the subtlety of schoolyard sarcasm, and repeated ad infinitum and ad nauseum. In case we didn't get the point by having a forty something office guy contrasted with two twenty something go getters, we are later treated to a grade schooler dressed up in a business suit who joins their team. Oh yes, we also get sports analogies and a heavy handed example of how business will use anything - including "art" - as grist for the corporate mill.
I think the only reason I didn't walk out 15 minutes into an excruciating and seemingly interminable 90 minute show was that I'd have had to walk across the stage in the middle of the performance in order to escape.
This play comes across as someone who wants to show off their mastery of technique but has only high school level playwriting skills with which to demonstrate them. The Griffin's 2009 logo is "2009" traced out in pyrotechnic sparkler, and this play was ultimately about as flashy and satisfying as free fireworks. I've been somewhat disappointed with the rest of this season's offerings from the Griffin, but this was by far the worst of the lot.
2 comments:
I'm curious what the general reviews were like? I went to see an abysmal pile of crap that everyone here was raving about, it didn't even know what point it was trying to make, was it abou serial killers, child abuse, are the causes of evil behavior genetic or environmental censorship, something... everything, nothing. At times it was hilarious but I don't think that was intentional. I mercifully forgot the name of this play, but what bugs me so much about "art" is that there's no objectivity, and in Austin, merely completing a project gets you accolades no matter how godawful it is. They've also obliterated the meaning of the standing ovation here. I don't know what I would have to do if I actually LIKED a performance, burst into flames or at least glow a bright white or something.
Hah! Thanks for triggering that vent!
There were few reviews, none raving about it, and a few sort of guarded. In retrospect an ominous sign, but sadly not clear enough to have kept us away even if we'd been paying more attention.
It was excruciating even if I hadn't had the school aged actor's understudy sitting behind me kicking my back.
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