FIFTY WORDS - Funny and Poignant

I thoroughly enjoyed Fifty Words, a well-acted, touching and insightful two-person play, written by Michael Weller. It's a story about the complexities of long-term relationships, the resentments that build, the memories that endure and what happens when the things that are often left unsaid between a couple abruptly surfaces in one roller coaster of an argument.

Norbert Leo Butz plays Adam, a brash, testosterone-driven architect with lower middle class roots.

Elizabeth Marvel plays Jan, an uptight, neurotic former ballerina-turned-entrepreneur, who comes from money.

The relationship seems to be a case of opposites attracting, beginning with one wild and crazy night in a cab, which they both reminisce about at the start of the play.

What struck me about this play was how realistic Michael Weller's dialogue is. I know couples who I could imagine having this fight behind closed doors. Heck, I think portions of it could have been taken from my own marriage.

The play is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with no intermission, and takes place over the course of one evening in Adam and Jan's stylish apartment. During this time, you see them fondly recalling their youthful impulsiveness, desperately trying to re-create the feeling, and cruelly slashing each other to pieces with bitter criticisms. One minute they seem to be on the brink of ending it all, and then the next minute one of them will be gently tending to the other's wound. There is such an enormous spectrum of emotions being revealed, yet it is all so true and honest.

I caught one or two slips in the conversation, which I'm sure they will fix before the play opens. It is in very solid shape already. The only criticisms that I have are that Elizabeth has one expression - a grimaced smile, which she uses a bit too often, and Norbert occasionally overplays his part and is a little too theatrical, calling to mind his performances in Is He Dead and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (in which I thought he was perfect).

Overall, I would highly recommend this play. There is great chemistry between the two leads, and the dialogue is smart and illuminating.

It's interesting how the person who just joined this message board TODAY rated it so highly, yet 5 members who saw it with Goldstar rated it only 2.0 out of a possible 4 stars.

Some of their comments:

"I really wanted to like it. I like the players. But so much of the dialogue and interaction didn't ring true to me. There were some interesting moments, however. This play needs serious editing as well. It was too long, had no intermission, and the theater was very hot and airless. Would not recommend",

"....story was boring and seemed to drag on for 50 million words."

Thanks for your review. I'm looking forward to seeing this.

I agree with you Gigi5, after seeing the show last night I found it funny and poignant
as well. That could have been MANY marriages that I know, Although seeing Jan's
breasts really had nothing to do with much except maybe shock value.
I would recommend this show, it will leave you thinking about your relationships.

I was also initially surprised by the nudity (and the extended length of time that Jan remained topless onstage), but it was more Adam's groping that threw me. However, the display of Jan's breasts does underscore her vulnerability despite her harsh criticisms of Adam, and emphasize his sexually charged nature. He seemed bent on making her lose her train of thought while she was on the telephone, but I think it had more to do with establishing his sexual prowess as opposed to acting on pure lust. So I suppose I do see a purpose to the nudity and in my view, it contributes to the realism of the play.

Given the length of time that Adam and Jan had been married (9+ years), I think it would have been odd for Jan to try to cover herself. Being naked in front of Adam would be such familiar territory that she wouldn't even think twice about it, especially when caught up in a heated argument. *SPOILER*

Though Jan's shock and hurt are evident when she discovers Adam's infidelity, she is still a proud woman, and I think covering up would have made her appear weak. I like how she really bares her claws at the end, demanding the phone number of Adam's mistress. Both characters are made more realistic by the fact that they aren't entirely likeable.

Just got in from seeing this and was totally mesmerized by both performances, but especially Elizabeth's.

*spoilers*

Her moment of sheer rage and freaking out ~ clawing at her body, pulling at her hair... Absolutely raw, powerful and amazing.

I don't know if they've made changes since y'all saw it, but there was really just the tail end of a scene where she's topless now ~ the phone call about Greg going to the theme park ~ so it didn't seem that extended to me. But since it is still in previews, that could have been changed.

Just... Wow. If this pops up on tdf (I'm in a cash crunch situation at the moment), I definitely want to go back and see it again.

Edit to add (having reread the other discussions), I think everything Jan does is pretty realistic for someone who's used to having everything in control and suddenly has the rug ripped out from under her and there is no semblance of control whatsoever. She'll do what she has to (be it aggressive/violent sex, demanding a phone number, whatever) no matter how out of her normal sphere of character to try and get that control back. As she was learning, it's not that easy.

(And before Foster asks, NO, neither is in this. See? I told you I can like other things! (If you don't get it, don't worry.))

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Updated On: 9/20/08 at 10:56 PM

It looked to be pretty well sold on Friday night ~ or at least pretty full. I know some people bought regularly priced tickets that night. I don't know what the Lortel's (or MCC's) policy is on student rush.

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I saw the play on a Thursday night. It was fairly full, but there were some empty seats on the far sides of the theater. It's a very intimate theater, only a couple hundred seats, so you don't need to worry about seat location. I used a discount on broadwaybox.com, so my ticket was $45 instead of $59. On the MCC website, it also mentions student rush (20 minutes prior to curtain) for $15 or under-30 tickets (2 hours prior to curtain) for $20.

i won tickets at the fleamarket i was looking to get rid of them ?

What day/time? And how much would you take for them? Out of curiosity.

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