Emcee's ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR review

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/8/05 at 10:15pm

I feel like it's been a while since I posted a review. Then again, it's been a while, save for Sides, since I saw anything new (or anything that wasn't Chitty).

Anyway, the one word that I can think of to describe this show is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. It's very funny, but I really don't know if I'd say I liked it. I didn't hate it, but I'm definitely not sure that I liked it. I think maybe it was because I had one big, general gripe with it, which I guess I'll try my best to explain.

The play is about three couples and three consecutive Christmas Eves they spend together. The premise is sort of an examination of the different absurd things people do, and the ways in which they can be "crazy," but it's also a very, very exaggerated demonstration of this portion of the human psyche, if you will. So, not only do we see things that make us go "oh, that's totally insane," but they're done at this completely off-the-wall level. I found myself thinking a lot of things along the lines of "where would someone come up with this stuff?!"

For example, in the second act, one husband had that morning informed his wife that he would be moving out to live with another woman. His wife, Eva, is quite clearly a wreck. When he is present, she is almost as if turned to stone; when he leaves the room, we find her frantically writing. I won't give too much away in the way of what happens, but it turns out that early into the act, we find out that she has intentions of killing herself over this. The ways in which she attempts, and the things that happen as her company arrives during her attempts are, horrible as this may be, funny. I felt it really disconcerting that I was laughing at a character who was attempting to commit suicide; it's not a laughing matter, but the context of it forced me to laugh, and there's something very hard to like about something that has the ability to force you to laugh at that which you don't wish to find funny.

On the topic of the show's humor, it takes a bit of time to pick up. It doesn't become funny until the plot becomes predictable, which, while it's nice to laugh, isn't too high of a compliment. Predictabilty, or humor that stems from it, shouldn't be a show's highest attribute.

The cast is fine, mostly. They're better as an ensemble than they are individually, with only two true standouts in Alan Ruck and Mirielle Enos. Ruck is very likable and real, and Enos' performance is hysterical, but not too far fetched. Clea Lewis, as Jane, however, is a stereotypical anal housewife gone completely too far. I found so much about her performance terribly irksome and annoying, and I really rarely say such harsh things about actors. Her accent was off, her articulation hence poor, her inflection too fake, and she sounded like she had some sort of unexplained speech impediment, honestly. Nothing about her, not even the way she moved on stage, felt real, but rather like some cartoon character that I wanted to flick on the side of the head.

I think overall it's not by any means a terrible show, but it's just... odd. Certainly it's not everyone's kind of humor, either. I didn't love it, but I wouldn't *not* recommend it. It is, for what it's worth, fairly entertaining.

Updated On: 10/9/05 at 10:15 PM

[twogaab2]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 12:46am

I caught the new production. As it is a revival the quatlity of the piece should be a given as it is a very famous English play. I saw the Original Broadway production and have many good memories about (esp Sandy Dennis in the second act). The new cast is quite fine and is directed with apropriate pacing.

[Corine2]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 1:03am

I wanted to kill the first husband. He was so horrible to his clean freak wife. If a man treated me that way they would not live past that night.
The show made men horrible!
Updated On: 10/9/05 at 01:03 AM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 1:12am

twogaab2, I agree. I haven't seen this play, but when I read it, I could tell it had a very British sense of humor.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 7:56am

Emcee, although I enjoyed this production on a whole, I agree with you 100% about Ms. Lewis being unbearably annoying as Jane. She's a very good actress (or, at least, she has been in other shows), but she just doesn't gel with this production.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/9/05 at 10:30am

Thanks, MEF. You know, I saw exactly what she was getting at, but everything down to her voice just made me cringe. :-/