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A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS — Page 2

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#30

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

Ha.

I have nothing to compare the revival to, hence my enjoying it. I'm sure if I had seen the film/original production before hand, my tune would be quite different.

It's lite and fluffy...you can't read into it. A great production it ain't (it looked as cheap as Apple Tree), but in a season with tough and dense (though some extraordinary) shows like Moon for the Misbegotten, Coast of Utopia, Inherit the Wind, etc, it's good to have 1 show at the very least that you don't have to think about.
#31

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

Oh, I love things I don't have to think about. Love them. I was prepared for a nice, light comedy.

But PRELUDE TO A KISS is, actually, a metaphor for AIDS.

It's not a light and fluffy nothing...it's something quite deep and meaningful.

It's obvious that this production was a last minute thing, and that the leading couple was NOT their first choice in casting.


"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy." -Charlie Manson
#32

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

I've heard that and am still trying to figure it out (the only thing I can think of is dealing with the "loss" of your significant other).

It's obvious that this production also did not take that metaphor to heart.

Would you mind humming a few bars and explaining the metaphor?
#33

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

Well, I don't think PRELUDE is a good play to begin with, or even that deep, but it's certainly a play with a message disguised as a romantic comedy.

The play can be interpreted as a young, gay man watching his loved one deteriorate into nothingness. The physical and mental deterioration and the obvious death that lays ahead.

The whole "switched souls" thing is, essentially, the virus.

They touch on it in this revival, but Sullivan's efforts are curtailed by the incapability of the young cast, and vice-versa.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy." -Charlie Manson
#34

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

Very interesting, but it seems by that logic that it can be a metaphor for cancer (along with any other fatal disease), as well. However, solely based on the "sudden transformation" aspect, it would indeed be AIDS.

Thanks for the explanation.

Updated On: 3/5/07 at 06:33 AM

#35

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

People often cast Rita as just another pretty ingenue, but she's much more mysterious than that. It's a tough to cast part.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
#36

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

Actually, according to a recent piece on Bloomberg.com, Lucas didn't set out to write an AIDS metaphor:

Frank Rich, in his 1990 rave for ``Prelude' (the original production starred the late Barnard Hughes as the old man and Alec Baldwin and Mary-Louise Parker as the young couple) called the play a metaphor for AIDS, as the young woman suddenly finds herself in an old person's withering flesh. In a telephone interview, Lucas, a chatty 55-year-old, said that wasn't his intention. When he wrote the play, he said he was involved with a man who was closed off. Lucas wanted to explore the elusiveness of truly knowing another soul.

``It was the idea that I could be with someone but it wouldn't really be them, that the self is an illusion,' said Lucas, who now shares an apartment in Inwood and a house in Putnam County, New York, with the set designer John McDermott. ``It's a Buddhist idea. I had this image of being on a vacation with someone and not really knowing who they were.'

"I cried during the Frug." - MC
#37

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

After finding the movie quite dull. I must admit I was amazed how much I liked this revival. A very enjoyable afternoon of theater.
TWOGAAB "A Class Act" will never die!
#38

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

Oh, the movie is just lifeless. Meg Ryan--as usual--was AWFUL!!!
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
#39

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

back in the day... when I was a young pup...

I used to go to the Berkley Rep and saw a couple of Criag Lucas' plays. I still have to go with

Blue Window as my favorite play he ever wrote. It totally was nothing like you expected. It was amazing. And the set at the Berkley Rep was phenominal.

But I have to say I also loved Prelude and I did like Reckless
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
#40

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

re: A Pleasant and Quietly Devastating PRELUDE TO A KISS

I needed an excuse to post this hot pic of Alan Tudyk.


"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad

"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)

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