A.R.Gurney's Indian Blood- All Reviews Welcome (NY Times is in)

buzzy bump

previews begin tonight

Linda Winer of Newsday doesn't:

"Won't someone please call a moratorium on scripts that begin with the protagonist explaining to the audience, "This is a play about ..." - particularly when the next word is "me." Indeed, this is a 90-minute play about Eddie, whom we first meet during a formal family dinner in which the poor actors must sit at an invisible table and mime their manners."
Newsday review

Charles Isherwood gives a thoughtful and very positive review for the NY Times:

"As slight as it is sweet, A. R. Gurney’s latest play, “Indian Blood,” is like a snow globe for the stage, in this case a memento of wintry Buffalo in the mid-1940’s. ... Written with delicacy and old-school craftsmanship, “Indian Blood,” which opened last night at the 59E59 Theaters in a Primary Stages production, is a modest memory play that is endowed with a measure of emotional heft by its unchallenged but unusually strong cast.
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More welcome, and far from cheap, is the finely tuned performance of John McMartin as Eddie’s grandfather. He amassed the family fortune but has retained the perspective of an outsider (he’s the one who brought Eddie his cherished Indian blood) and gives voice to the play’s few forays into serious thought. Only Grandpa senses that the seemingly prosperous city is on the brink of precipitous decline and mourns the clannishness that keeps Buffalo — and the larger American culture — from fully embracing the energy of its diverse races and classes.

Mr. Gurney specifically evokes the more darkly hued nostalgia of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” in Eddie’s apologies for the absence of scenery, props and a sufficiency of actors to portray the whole family. He reminds us that bare-bones magic-spinning is what the theater is all about."

Isherwood's last touch is to praise Rebecca Luker's "beautiful soprano" and acting, and rightly so.


NY Times Review

Updated On: 8/9/06 at 11:05 PM

The funny thing of it is, while Indian Blood may not be getting much attention on this Board, Gurney is one of our most respected classic American playwrights. His plays have been performed extensively in regional and community theatres all over the country and at universities.

Adding this charmed review from the NY Times, I think you can count on Indian Blood finding open arms from Artistic Directors across the nation. An extended life with roles for many actors for years to come. Accessible and suitable to be seen by families with children, this is a show that will not alienate the audience base of any theatre.

In particular, famous older actors with loyal followings will have a joyful time portraying the grandmother and grandfather, the family scions who are at the center of this play.

Just my thoughts and prediction for the play.

So most of the reviews are positive right?

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That is a paraphrase from the Dining Room!

Can you describe what is the play about in a few words?

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muscle, it's a memory tale told by a young teenage boy about growing up in Buffalo, New York in about the 1940's, his conflict with a fatherless cousin, and his relationship with his parents and grandparents, and the family's relationships among themselves.

Also about the gradual decline of Buffalo as an important American city.

How's that?

Yes, Dollypop, but you know what?

I am just happy that threads about Off Broadway shows and other kinds of theatre like that Grendel opera are welcome to exist here.