My Review of Theater of a New Ear

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 9/18/05 at 12:20pm

SAWBONES by The Coen Bros. **** out of ****

This brief yet hilarious 15 minute play was up first. A satire on television addiction, it tells the story of a Dr. Quinn-esque TV show called "Sawbones" about a doctor (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and his adventures in the frontier with his friends, which include Steve Buscemi and Marcia Gay Harden. Meanwhile, the play then takes us into the lives of the Sawbones viewers, a husband (John Goodman) and wife (Brooke Smith) who are going through their own issues. Needless to say, the stories collide in twisted Coen fashion and the result makes for a very very hilarious and very very surreal time. This one is easily the more abstract of the two and I could imagine that many listeners could find it very hard to follow due to the intercutting of dialogue between the TV show and its viewers, the constant and brilliant foley work (Like using baloons to imitate an intestinal operation), and the incredible music provided by Carter Burwell. It's another example of the Coen Bros. taking a genre or an entire medium and commenting directly on it, as they did with the "Based on a true story..." movie with Fargo and the "Southern hayseed" movie with O Brother Where Art Thou?, this time they're taking the cliches and trappings of live theater and stage acting and using them to create their best work since The Man Who Wasn't There. Anyone who believed that they are in a slump due to Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers (Both of which were both better than people gave them credit for) should listen to Sawbones and be disproved.



HOPE LEAVES THE THEATER **** out of ****

Next came Charlie Kaufman's absolutely brilliant play which lasted just over an hour. Reminiscient of Kaufman's Adaptation, this one starts out with Hope Davis trying to find her seat in the theater while she begins a very Kaufmanesque monologue in which she literally rubs vitriol in her eyes. Then the play-with-the-play starts and it is a perfect satire of the facile surrealism and whimsy that Kaufman is often criticized for employing. Starring Peter Dinklage and Meryl Streep, the play eventually comes to a halt so that Streep can yell at Davis for her ringing cell phone. This is when Kaufman's twists start percolating as we learn that this is the final thing that Kaufman wrote before he took his own life. Hope then...leaves the theater and ends up on a late night odyssey that I really really really do not want to spoil. Yet the twists and the whimsy and the surrealism all intertwine to create a narrative that is full of poignance, humor, and is easily the equal of any of Kaufman's movies.
Updated On: 9/18/05 at 12:20 PM

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 12/3/05 at 2:49am

Mmmmmmmmmm just relistened to this and it was even better. Hope Leaves the Theater is so much more poignant and so much more touching once you get past the brain twistiness.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/3/05 at 3:05am

Did he really include a fake audience member gets yelled at by actor for having cell phone bit? Ick.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 2/1/06 at 11:16pm

Indeed he did.