#1
Posted: 8/24/17 at 11:30am
Has anyone caught this at Atlantic yet? Would love to hear thoughts!
On The Shore of the Wide World
#2
Posted: 8/24/17 at 11:31am
I'm seeing it Saturday.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#3
Posted: 8/24/17 at 11:43pm
Simon Stephens needs an editor.
(No spoilers)
Holy crap, this is one of the most soporific plays I've seen in a long while. Lengthy, beyond all comprehension or necessity, with absolutely nothing worthwhile to say, the play reads like a Hallmark Channel movie about several generations of a family caught up in a soap opera, where there is nothing at stake and what little conflict exists, is internal.
A full hour into the play, after a series of extended jump-cuts, a major event happens and by the time it does, we've listened to an awful lot of pointless dialogue, so much so, that we don't care that something big happens. It's all like a soap opera, and not a very good one, at that.
The English accents are all over the place and many times, incomprehensible. At one point, I thought to myself, I wish they had subtitles. This sums up the problem with the play, as a whole. It maintains its English setting, but it might as well be set in Paducah, Kentucky. Sometimes, this speaks to the universality of a piece, but, here, it speaks to the generic, superficial and inert blandness of the work.
On the up-side, it's always nice to see Blair Brown. I wish she had better material and Atlantic had decided to do a more worthwhile play.
#4
Posted: 9/1/17 at 9:44am
I completely agree with wolfwriter. The play is long, slow, and tedious, and could not hold my attention at all. It really does feel like a Hallmark movie. Why the Atlantic chose to do this play from 2005 is beyond me.
A little swash, a bit of buckle - you'll love it more than bread.
#5
Posted: 9/1/17 at 9:55am
Yikes. This doesn't sound promising. I was supposed to see it last weekend, but missed the performance due to an emergency. ATC allowed me to change tickets to this weekend.
ATC has a long relationship with Stephens so it's not really surprising they'd choose to do one of his older plays.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#6
Posted: 9/2/17 at 1:02am
Wolfwriter, you are spot on. I saw it on 8/31, but was so bored (and nodding off a bit), that I left at intermission. I wasn't the only one either - one couple actually drove away, so I know they left rather than just going to grab a snack somewhere. And the accents were hard to understand sometimes.
Was hoping for much better as I loved Curious Incident 
#8
Posted: 9/2/17 at 3:55pm
Tedra Millan was a disappointment after her scene stealing in 'Present Laughter'. At least she has 'The Wolves' at LCT to look forward to.
#9
Posted: 9/2/17 at 5:41pm
God, what a bore. I felt every minute of the 2:40 running time.
I cant remember the last time I cared so little for any character in a play or anything that happens to them. Stephens' writing is so flat and uninvolving, and he rarely digs beneath the surface of any situation.
A couple good performances (especially Ben Rosenfeld), a couple bad performances, and a couple that are just bland. Neil Pepe's hyperstylized production doesn't do the play any favors. The lighting design is the most memorable aspect of the entire affair.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
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