Can Anyone Tell Me About The Water Engine?

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:20pm

I'm a high school theatre critic, and I'm deciding whether I want to see and review a local high school production of "The Water Engine." All I know about it is that it's by David Mamet and Patti LuPone was in it. Can anyone in the know tell me anything about the show that I might want to know?

Updated On: 12/17/08 at 06:20 PM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:33pm

It's an incredible play, in my opinion.

It's about a working class scientist who works for a big corporation. He does research in his own lab at home as well. Anyway, on his own, in his own lab, he invents an engine that runs only on water.

He naively goes about telling the right people about it so he can get credit, and some wealthy lawyers and scientists at the company he works for deceive him and try to steal his patent.

There's more to the story than that. Patti LuPone played his blind sister who lives with him.

Absolutely see it and review it. You may want to read it before you see this production.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:46pm

Ooh, this sounds very interesting. Thanks so much for the information! I'll check and see if they have a copy of the play in my theatre classroom.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:49pm

isn't there a VHS version from...90something floating around? although that's only useful if you have a VCR.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:50pm

I have the VHS version!

[Jack King]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 6:56pm

Great idea. Storyline is nothing new as a general template. That is, it's the genius inventor whose work is stolen by the those far wiser in commerce and industry, which the inventors are not.

Look up a terrific Alec Guinness Brit movie, "MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, in which he plays an inventor put out of work. However he
gets his retribution. Great example of this. He has come up with a cloth that will seemingly last forever. Of course, this will put the mills out of operation because they will only have to make one lot. I won't tell you the rest. But I bet that perhaps the water fuel will end up with the same fatal flaw.

And here quick! Here's a great idea for a play. Take the current plight of the outmoded U.S. car industry. Some genius comes up with a car that will give unlimited mileage and the body will never wear out. Aha! But then the big 3 weenies figure out that ****man they won't have to make some many cars. And so they'll be in an even worse situation.

Of course, they has to be a fatal flaw in these perfect cars. For that see THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT all the way to the end! :)

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:03pm

I don't usually like to see the movie version of a play before I review it, because I don't like to compare the film actors to the high school actors, or have preconceived ideas of how the characters should look and sound. If it's something like "Fiddler On The Roof," that's pretty much unavoidable, but with the more obscure stuff, I try to skip the movie until after I've seen the play.

Jack... your post utterly confuses me.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:06pm

Smart, Schmerg. That's why I didn't mention the movie in my first post.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:19pm

Schmerg, that makes sense. I don't mind seeing movie versions first, but I definitely understand not wanting to watch it. (sometimes I just like pretending I have valid things to contribute to threads. =P)

[Jack King]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:19pm

That's because you're not very smart. Not your fault. Hopefully, the more intelligent people will understand.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:24pm

Jack, that personal attack was completely uncalled for.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:37pm

Jack, it is true that I'm not a genius and that I'm obviously a lot younger and less experienced than you are.

But that doesn't make sentences like this one make sense:

Aha! But then the big 3 weenies figure out that ****man they won't have to make some many cars. And so they'll be in an even worse situation.

Though I guess it takes a special sort of person to appreciate the subtle beauty of expletives, grammatical mistakes, and direct contradictions ('some many?')

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 9:42pm

I love love LOVE this play. You should go see it.

[A Director]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 10:20pm

I like the play. It's written in the style of a 1930s radio play. I think it's a good idea not to see the movie version of a play you are going to review because many times, the two a very different.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 10:31am

Schmerg, be sure to post your thoughts here after you see it!

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:41pm

Schmerg, you've proven yourself much smarter than those douches who resort to invective to make up for the absence of thought.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 12/18/08 at 5:51pm

Schmerg, Jack's post confused me as well. Guess I am not intelligent. Being stupid rocks!

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 2/7/09 at 12:33pm

I just came back from the production that I saw, and I thought that the acting was fantastic, and the material was intriguing, but the production itself was a bit confusing. It was performed as a radio show, so the actors were standing in front of microphones to speak, while foley artists sitting on the sides were making the sound effects of walking down the street or pouring water-- which was interesting, but it meant that you couldn't really see any bond between the characters, especially Lang and his sister. I loved the foley artists, though-- they were great.

There's more to the story than that. Patti LuPone played his blind sister who lives with him.
In this production, you couldn't tell that she was blind, since it was never specifically stated, and all she did was stand in front of a microphone and talk into it. No one else I was with knew she was blind until I brought it up (because of this thread!) Her character seemed a bit of a throwaway, which is odd, because she's very important to the plot. She was a good actress, but I felt like the production was downplaying her-- it was the only part she played, and some other female characters were on stage so much more.

Having some actors playing multiple roles was confusing because they wore the same costumes and you couldn't tell which character was which. I'm still not entirely sure which character was supposed to be which-- for example, WAS the reporter the policeman under cover, or was he just playing two characters? The lady who worked at the world's fair played about five characters, and it was hard to know exactly which one of them had the chain letter.

I enjoyed the show, but I felt like nobody there had any idea what was going on-- including some of the actors.

Schmerg, Jack's post confused me as well. Guess I am not intelligent. Being stupid rocks!

After seeing this production, I'm beginning to feel that maybe I AM stupid. After all, a high school play just went over my head!

Updated On: 2/7/09 at 12:33 PM

[Scott Briefer]

Posted: 2/8/09 at 12:00am

The Water Engine got it's premiere at The Public Theater's short-lived, dinner theater. I was a waiter there and saw The Water Engine performance after performance for it's entire run before moving to Broadway. Runaways also started at The Public's dinner theater.

Even the original production was confusing. Many audience members left confused and would often ask us what they had seen. Of course, having seen it many times, I became quite familiar with the material and would answer questions.