Intimacy - New Group - wow

They sent me a code for $25 tickets and I went tonight. Think it was the first preview.

I did not see Thomas Bradshaw's previous play with New Group, Burning, but I read all the posts about it. So I was prepared for some insanity. Nothing prepared me for what was on that stage tonight and I am rushing home to take a shower.

My first reaction to this is: Does Thomas Bradshaw hate actors? Did an actor defecate on him as a child and is he spending his adulthood exacting revenge? The humiliating things the actors in Intimacy are forced to do are too numerous to count but they include:

Sitting on a toilet and taking a very loud and disgusting dump right on stage.

Showing hard ons.

Extended full frontal nudity.

An actor getting whacked off with another actor's feet.

More full frontal nudity.

Sperm spewing across the stage not once, but twice.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things.

I don't know what the hell this thing was, but it feels like Bradshaw is just trying to be shocking for the sake of being shocking.

The play itself is a mess. It is all over the place and doesn't seem to know what it is trying to say, aside from jamming as many nude scenes into a play as possible.

I'm as liberal as they come and if any of this served a purpose, I'd be the first one to endorse it but Bradshaw seems only to want to shock.

I will say this: it's never boring, but you will want to take a shower afterwards, which is where I'm heading now.

Updated On: 1/14/14 at 10:52 PM

Oh, so the first two rows are $25 because it's in the splash zone?

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That last play, Burning, was so ridiculously bad, it was truly hilarious (but for all the wrong reasons).

What the New Group thinks they're doing presenting this idiotically badly written stuff is beyond me; it really is nothing more than childish porn performed live, more prurient than Naked Boys Singing. I was hoping that this new play would show some small growth or maturing, but from your description, it sounds like Burning II.

I hope the actors get a kick out of it; there will always be a small set of pretentious acolytes for this sort of thing. I hope they get a kick out of it, too. I'm sure I would enjoy it the way I enjoy watching Showgirls, or Valley of the Dolls, or Mommie Dearest, but that's not what I would think a writer, director, and cast are aiming for...

Matt, this subject line is very doge-y.

Intimacy

New Group

wow

so Bradshaw

much jizz

amaze

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The love we share for doge is really rather special.

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Ummmmm......I don't get it.

Yes worth it for train wreck theatre. Again, it's never boring. Just don't pay more than twenty five bucks and you probably won't feel too cash-raped.....but you'll still want to take a shower afterwards.

I'm going to ask a dumb question. How are they able to perform full erections and everything else you mentioned without getting the law involved? How many shows a week do they have? I haven't seen the cast picture, but good for them if they can do this eight times a week.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Lemme guess!

The title is ironic, right....right...am I right???

Ooooh, I think I got it! Viva subtlety!!

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I meant how are they able to show sexual acts, to that degree, without the law coming in and closing down the show.

"The law"?

Ha ha. That sounds like we are in Macon County, Georgia. Be careful, ya'll, the law might show up.

Kidding. I know what you are saying and I actually wondered the same thing myself. I am totally anti-censorship, but some of this stuff really crossed into what could possibly be considered porn. I cannot swear to it based on where my seat was, but I think someone actually got his c**k sucked for a few seconds.

I don't know what the laws are on this kind of thing. I think Eve Ensler has run into trouble in the past but possibly only because she had a grant from National Endowment for the Arts, and Republicans went bat****. There are other examples of the envelope being pushed but I don't know if there are actual laws of what the limit is on onstage in terms of sexual portrayals.

THE PIED PIPERS OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE was a lousy show that sold like hotcakes because it showed full frontal/full tumescence. Cheap way to get attention.

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Broadwayworldreader, any suggestions? I visit again in June.