Kill Floor LCT3

Has anyone seen this yet? What did you think?

Right after the show ended, I thought it was fine. After thinking more about it and discussing it, I think it's pretty bad. Usually I don't have a problem with a show being 90 mins but the playwright was trying to touch upon too many things in such a short time. I think it could have actually been shorter because there is the superfluous character of Sarah that adds nothing to the evening.

I'll start with a positive which would be that all the actors are good. I've seen Marin Ireland multiple times before and like her as an actress but I don't know if this is necessarily the best part for her. She's a little too pretty for such a gritty role. Samuel H Levine is possibly the weakest for me but I think it might be because of the way his character is written. There is just a stilted awkwardness that didn't really work for me.

I wish the set were designed better because I've seen some really spectacular things at LCT3. There is a white "tile" wall in the back of the set behind some large windows. Since this was set at a slaughterhouse I really thought there would be a cool scene done with that space to make a great visual impact. That space is never used and turns black suddenly at the final scene for reasons I couldn't figure out.

So this play is the professional debut of Abe Koogler and I honestly don't have any interest in seeing what else he does. With most new playwrights you can find something in their work that is original or has a distinct point of view. I found none of that here. Instead it came off as just a bunch of play cliches mashed together and saying very little. There were a couple things that really annoyed me during the show. The first was the undetermined setting because it doesn't say what year its supposed to be yet there are very specific references to outdated technology like Discmans. Another was when Andy's character does something almost at the end of the play that was counter to what she was saying previously and there was no explanation for this sudden 180. The last was the ending although there really wasn't one and the play was just over.

This one is a big miss for me.

I saw the play too and mostly agree with your thoughts. I went because I'm a Marin Ireland fan and I did like her more in the role than you did. There was a play a few years back called This Wide Night (I think?) with Edie Falco and Alison Pill about ex-cons trying to make it after being released and I think it dealt with the same subject matter as Kill Floor in a more effective way.

The play is way to scattered and unfocused. There are so many subplots that there actually isn't really a main plot to follow, but rather a bunch of (at times unrelated) loose threads to try to grasp onto.

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I didn't think the son's struggle to come to terms with his homosexuality was necessary to the story and I strongly disliked the white rapping stuff. That whole subplot was trying to tackle like 10 different issues in 10 minutes.

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The best stuff was watching Ireland self-destruct at every moment. The way she never took responsibility for her problems, grappled with her rage, etc was effective stuff. I actually enjoyed the scene with her new "friend" at Dairy Queen. Ireland was a trainwreck and I felt for her.

The ending (or non-ending as you correctly said) should have been rewritten. Personally, I wanted to see her really screw up at work somehow and possibly get arrested again. Even though Ireland was her own worst enemy, she was also trapped in a system where she was never going to succeed.

I completely agree with you about the use of discmans and CDs. Was this taking place in the 90's? Also, I found it weird that the son kept calling his friend and leaving voicemails when most teenagers would be texting, right? Especially about pot and fooling around? I too won't be seeking out Koogler's other works, but I'll always be down to catch Ireland's next performance.

I had a strong sense of the 90s/early 2000s based on the discman and the flip phones.The costumes also seemed a little 2001 as well, but it was so hard to tell.

I really don't understand what the point of it all was. Just a showcase of a pattern of abuse and self-destruction.