Theater Department of Municipal Theater Envy
posted by on April 30 at 10:57 AM
For those of you who enjoyed the seven-plus-hour Gatz, by Elevator Repair Service, at On the Boards last September…
… please enjoy/chafe under today’s NYT review of ERS’s latest project: The Sound and the Fury.
Take it away, Benjamin D. Brantley:
… after a few first minutes of resistance, I let myself fall into the shifting swirl of voices and movements. Sometimes it was the stylized, seemingly incongruous elements in this activity that most sharply summoned Benjy’s dissociative worldview.
Antic, jaunty dances, for example, become a sensual metaphor for Benjy’s watching social rituals without having a clue as to what they mean (and perhaps also for our own bewilderment). In a scene where the carriage in which Benjy and his mother are riding suddenly turns around, Ms. Sokol’s body is physically twisted by others, conjuring the disrupting disorientation Benjy feels.
When he cries, as he often does, the haunted bellow that fills the air usually comes not from the person playing him, but from some unspecified source. It’s a device neatly matching Benjy’s inability to connect cause and effect, even when the cause is himself.
Remember how great Gatz was? How hypnotic? And surprising (like reinventing the character of Jay Gatsby by giving the role to a brooding John Malkovich type instead of a golden playboy)? Remember the way time stretched and bent around the actors and the story? Stretching in the aisles afterwards, some people said it was like a transcontinental flight. Others said it was like a drug trip. Pretty much everyone said it awesome.
So who can we convince to bring TSaTF here? Seattle Rep? Can you put it on your smaller second stage? Maybe in conjunction with the International Children’s Festival (like you’re doing with Aurélia’s Oratorio)?
Maybe under the rubric of a helping-adults-understand-developmentally-disabled-kids program?
Maybe we can score some education grant money to make it happen? Can we get the Mayor’s Office and 4Culture in on this?
Hm?
No. But I remember how you complained about the time length of Young Frankenstein. Not because you weren't drawn in, not because you didn't enjoy the play, but because it was "three hours".
I guess it's different when OtB is involved and you can rest assured that nobody in Seattle will disagree with the "brilliance" of ripping off Andy Kaufman--because we can all sit through it, so we're all intellectuals. I enjoyed the first thirty minutes. Then I wanted to die.
Hugz!
Do you willfully misunderstand, Mr. Poe? Seven hours is fine if the show is good, thirty minutes is too long if the show sucks. Gatz was good, Young Frankenstein sucked. Simple as that.
I'm sorry Gatz made you want to die. (Sorta.) And yes, I'm a big fucking fan of OtB. I'll stop being a big fucking fan when they stop being so fucking awesome.
GATZ was a miracle, and I'll bring the new show here myself if I have to. (I've got a truck and a good-sized living room.)
Of course I willfully misunderstood. I only pointed it out because you didn't say yourself that that's the reason why, although that much was obvious. I like complaining. So do you.
I don't want you to stop being a big fucking fan of OtB. I want you to sort of not care when I want to die, or refrain from caring at all. I will still read all of your reviews, and Slogs, because I love the Stranger, and you, and I will continue to be a little bitch when you praise something I don't like, because that's just how things are on teh Slog.
You need to make an appearance at the next Slog Happy. Don't be afraid of us. You all seem to forget that we come here because we're diehard fans of the Stranger. That includes all of you. And if we didn't give you shit from time to time, or all the time, nonsensical or not, we'd be boring-ass fans.
/power hug
Aw, Poe. That's sweet.
(And I've missed Slog happy hours more because I have shows to see on Thursdays than any other reason. But I'll try, try, try to attend the next one.)
Power hug back!
I saw Gatz. It was... not terrible. But I was falling asleep through the last two hours. Generally I prefer theater that doesn't require the use of stimulants to enjoy.
I'm with Brendan and David; Gatz was great and if they don't mind performing TSATF outside, they could do it in the courtyard of my building. There is even a grill and a picnic table.
Mr. Poe, where's that Scott Heim interview? I was with you all at the Six Arms after the reading.
@7
I didn't send it to Paul because shh.
And Paul, if you see this, don't explain why. Shh!
Mr. Poe, I'm totally going to talk unless you pay me.
I'll go when they do this for War and Peace.
I will give you $3.50.
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