John @ Signature Theatre Co. — Page 2

Theatergoer: Thanks for taking time to share your insight and opinion. I'm seeing this in two weeks and, as a fan of both The Flick and 10 Out of 12, I was happy to read your take on this.

I bought the ticket more out of curiosity to see Georgia Engel and Lois Smith. But thanks to you, I'm also very, very excited!

Oh please. We heard the same things from previews (and well into the run, even after the good reviews) of "The Flick". And that won the Pulitizer and broke my heart. I loved it. Now, I'm pretty sure this play won't match "The Flicke" (or "Circle Mirror") but she's too quality of a writer to have written anything near what the bitches on this thread report.

Updated On: 7/31/15 at 10:25 PM

Yes. I'm a bitch because I paid for my ticket to a show and didn't like it and chose to express my opinion. What a terrible, evil, awful bitch I am.

I really don't think the negative opinions expressed toward previous Baker stagings and this production in this thread have been bitchy at all.

Even if he's sort of on auto-pilot.

Sorry, but I think this play was a total piece of garbage.

At the 30 minute mark, I was like "am I being Punked??"

This was my first (and last) Annie Baker play but if her other plays are like this, it boggles the mind that the woman has a career, not to mention a freakin Pulitzer.

Characters that are barely drawn. Zero plot. Endless pauses. Lots of time with no one on stage and the audience just staring at the set. What the hell?

A totally boring couple checks in to a bed and breakfast and a dottering old bat checks them in. We hear the couple bickering off stage. We see them eat breakfast. We learn that the guy chews loudly and the woman is annoyed by it.

That's about as deep as the plot in Act One goes folks.

There is no improvement in the rest of the play.

I want to lock Annie Baker in a room for three hours and fifteen minutes and make her stare at a blank wall because that was my experience watching this piece of crap play.

Numerous walk outs. I wish I had joined them. Even though I only paid twenty five bucks, I felt mugged at the end of one of the worst, plotless plays I have ever seen.

I will, I just didn't find any of the characters all that interesting. The main couple are both annoying people. I didn't care about their relationship or getting to know them. They both seemed like quite a pain. I was more interested in the two older ladies, but alas, we don't really get any lengthy time getting to know them - besides all the unanswered questions.

"The pauses didn't bother me at all. Human interaction can involve lots of awkward interaction & we don't go to the theater to watch actors quickly cover up those kind of things."

I totally agree with you, forgetmenotnyc. Absolutely. But, I didn't find the pauses here to be real, earned pauses. It seemed like the actors were told "count to 4 and speak" because there'd a nice flow, and then...pause. And, maybe it's the actors or the director or the writing, but it wasn't the kind of pause where it was dramatic or the character was thinking of what to say or lost their train of though or anything. It was just stagey.

I caught this last week and I totally fell head over heels for it. This was my first exposure to Annie Baker (aside from seeing some scene work done from The Aliens) and I was worried I'd be rolling my eyes given her reputation for seemingly pointless situations and dialogue, but I was sold from the get-go.

As others have said, Georgia Engel is the heart of this piece. Everything in the play relies on you buying this bed and breakfast as a real destination and her character's presence in it and she had the audience in the palm of her hand. Christopher Abbott, Hong Chau, and Lois Smith are also wonderful, though not quite as compellingly written. But something anout this play just chilled me to my core. I read an interview with Sam Gold where he said the tone of the play lives somewhere in the dark spaces we can't see and that it evokes a feeling we know but can't quite put a label on and that's exactly right. It delights in the ambiguity of "Is something happening here? What is is it? Is it all in their head?" and what being haunted can be defined as.

The design team has created a world that at once feels photo realistic and highly theatrical, which feels very in line with Baker's script (the play jumps from hypernatural dialogue scenes to an act two-closing monologue that completely shatters the fourth wall Gold's staging has painstakingly put up). From top to bottom, I was entranced by this production. I highly recommend it, even if it will be very much a "love it or hate it" evening.

Updated On: 8/12/15 at 11:11 AM

"It's just interesting that here ambiguity is a good thing, but in other pieces we'd call them plot holes or loose threads? Hm. "

Hm, indeed.

One of the perks of being a critics' darling.

One of many.

Updated On: 8/12/15 at 07:36 PM

Just got back to NY after a few weeks out of the county. This one sounds very intriguing. Would someone be so kind as to post the Playbill cover?

Seeing this later in the month, but just curious... has After Eight ever raved about something? Ever just fangirled out and lauded praise over a show in the last 5 years? I just want to see what that is like... one imagines it has existed at some point.

I agree with you that mostly it flew by. But I just didn't feel like it added up to anything by the end of it. Which is why I was disappointed.

"We're considering this for Labor Day weekend. We enjoyed The Flick and were hoping this would be as good. Comments here are concerning, though!

Noticed the performance we are considering (Sun matinee) has lots of seats available but we couldn't find any discounts, anyone seen any out there?

All tickets are $25, which is a pretty good discount on its own.

"