Dada Woof Papa Hot previews- Page 3

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/17/15 at 6:27pm

 

 

I don't disagree with your characterization of the play as a kind of stage soap, newintown, but I also don't think "soap" is a bad word.  Even ANGELS IN AMERICA is very soapy, often in its most honest and cutting moments.  And I'm not sure I understand the complaints about it focusing on upper-middle-class white people.  Don't get me wrong; I'll never be that demographic's biggest champion, but that doesn't mean their lives can't be effectively dramatized, and in DWPH, I thought they were.  The issues surrounding monogamy and open relationships and the ramifications of how their emerging macro and micro patterns will interact with the definition of marriage going forward are frequent conversation topics in my own life, and I thought the play navigated them smartly without being academic or pedantic.  My date and I had a very spirited discussion afterwards.  I didn't find it a perfect play (your comments on the peripheral characters are spot-on), but I did find it a very worthy one.

Maybe I wasn't bothered by the characters' social/financial positions because I found verisimilitude in them.  They are, yes, on some level, shallow people, but even the shallowest people have deeper interior lives, and I thought the play spent a lot of time finding them.  All of the characters start out pretty guarded, but eventually we get to the kernels of their vulnerabilities.  And when we do, some fizzle and some explode, which I also thought was very true to life.

And lastly, to address the info contained behind your spoiler tag -- you're right that it's a stretch -- and certainly a plot device -- but you also know that a good writer can sell even the craziest things with proper setup and verisimilitude.  And it's clear you found neither of those things at work here, but I thought it spoke to exactly the kind of couple they're presented as and exactly how prickly and insecure Breen's character is.  It doesn't make them especially sympathetic, but I had no trouble buying it in the framework of the play's given circumstances.

It's funny because I'm highly allergic to the sort of lazy, manipulative, primetime-network-drama kind of writing you describe.  I just don't think DWPH fits that bill.

[newintown]

Posted: 12/18/15 at 8:47am

You're a much more generous audience thank I, growl (at least for this show), and I get what you say.

 

Only one thing do I think needs a bit more exploration, as several others have voiced similar objections - I don't think anyone is calling for a total ban on all plays about wealthy white folk. But (for me, at least) in this case, the play is about uber-whiny, uber-shallow wealthy white folk. You know - annoying navel-gazers making mountains out of what would be (to all of those who are far less white, comfortable and privileged) teeny-tiny molehills. I will always enjoy satires about such fools, but Parnell has joined their solipsistic ranks, and this play seems to me to be strokingly sympathetic to their narcissistic maunderings. In other words, it's all been done better by Chekhov (who, more wisely, always provides the other classes' point of view on these well-to-do numbskulls).

[RippedMan]

Posted: 12/19/15 at 1:47am

newintown: I agree. It's different if the playwright is commenting on those people, but I assume, he is one of those people. The people with nannies and summer houses. And yet they're annoyed their kids don't like them? Um... maybe cause you have a nannie yet you're a stay-at-home dad? It all felt very manipulated. 

And I agree about that central plot point. Obviously nothing happen, and there were no emotional feelings. 

I just didn't get the central point of "hetero-normative?" So it's a bad thing for me to want a husband and kids? That makes me hetero-normative? I'm suppose to be sleeping around all the time because that makes me "gay?" Huh? That seems like such a stupid point to try and make. 

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 12/19/15 at 3:06am

This play is exactly the kind of smug, insular garbage a millionaire-deathbead-serving New York institution would find progressive and relevant and saucy. 

Updated On: 12/19/15 at 03:06 AM

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 1/4/19 at 10:49am

I'll be curious to check out the Chicago production of Dada Woof Papa Hot this month. They've cast two people of color though that doesn't change the fact it's about three wealthy couples. Sounds like there isn't much plot but there is some clever dialogue for the target audience.

http://aboutfacetheatre.com/about-aft/dada-woof-papa-hot/