Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Better Dead Than... Canadian | For Once »

Monday, January 21, 2008

A Regret Deferred

posted by on January 21 at 15:52 PM

I’ve always regretted the first sentence of my review of Ariel Dorfman’s Purgatario, which played at the Seattle Rep two years ago:

There’s no nice way to say it—Purgatorio stinks.

Today—specifically, the first sentence of this NYT review—taught me why:

Ariel Dorfman’s “Widows,” having its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters, is the kind of play that makes you feel bad for being bored.

That’s what was so irritating about Purgatorio too, why writing a bad review of that bad play felt so terrible: not just because Dorfman is an allegedly nice man who suffered under Latin American tyranny—but because his work slyly abusive, like one of those traps that gets tighter and more uncomfortable the more you try to wiggle out of it.

Purgatorio stinks, but that’s only half of its damage—the other half is its tricky way of making you feel bad for its flaws. It way of making you feel bad for being bored.

That’s what I meant to write.

RSS icon Comments

1

I saw Purgatorio at the Rep, and to save my life, I can't remember a single f-ing thing about it. Sad.

Posted by Brad | January 21, 2008 4:55 PM
2

What really stinks is the Stranger's theater reviews. You suck.

Posted by reader | January 21, 2008 11:34 PM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).