PRYMATE- Page 2
PRYMATE
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: PRYMATE#25
Posted: 5/8/06 at 11:16pm
Here's the Times Review if anyone else would like to read it. I actually didn't think that MARGO JEFFERSON totally bashed the play, but i guess all the talk of urination and masterbation could turn off audience goers (ha).
Times Review
Chorus Member Joined: 11/5/05
re: PRYMATE#26
Posted: 5/8/06 at 11:45pm
ANDRE DID *NOT* APPROVE OF THE STEREOTYPE OF BLACK MEN BEING SUBHUMAN PRIMITIVE AND APELIKE. HE WAS PLAYING THE STEREOTYPE TO PUT IT INTO SPOKEN DISCOURSE. SAME PROJECT AS ARTISTS LIKE KARA WALKER CURRENTLY AT THE MET!
SOMETIMES I BELIEVE I'M COMING TO STORMFRONT.ORG WITH YOU GUYS!
Updated On: 5/8/06 at 11:45 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: PRYMATE#28
Posted: 5/9/06 at 12:36am
Why are you a douche?
I don't get the whole stereotype thing. I don't see what having a black actor play the part matters?
re: PRYMATE#29
Posted: 5/9/06 at 12:51am
Not a douche, just hate when people refuse to be proactive about learning. If you had asked a question about something in the show, fine. But why is it this board's job to find an article that you can easily find yourself? Especially for a show that was only a few years ago. You are (whether you know it or not) asking people to do your work for you, in terms of easy things. For example, you asked when the Tony Awards were this year, when you could have easily looked yourself. Just comes of as a tad ignorant.
I hope this isn't how you write papers for school. Good night.
re: PRYMATE#30
Posted: 5/9/06 at 12:57am
Calm down, there.
You must have misunderstood. I meant Andre was fine, as a black man, playing the gorilla. Not that he liked the stereotype.
re: PRYMATE#31
Posted: 5/9/06 at 12:59amIsn't a black actor playing the role the whole point of the stupid show?
Stand-by Joined: 5/3/06
re: PRYMATE#32
Posted: 5/9/06 at 1:02am
I would like to see this done with an all female transgender Asian cast who play their own instruments. I think it would be revelatory.
And a douche is something that refreshes the genitals. Is that really so bad?
re: PRYMATE#33
Posted: 5/9/06 at 1:07amWow, in that case, I've been a douche for a very very long time.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: PRYMATE#34
Posted: 5/9/06 at 1:43am
Nice.
Why does it matter what I ask. I knew people knew when the Tony awards were off the top of their heads. And I actually went to the damn website but I couldn't find anything.
And in school I was always told to ask questions. I'm sure there are many people on this board who didn't know about this show, etc. I was just hoping to start a dicussion about the show by asking some general questions. Don't see why you have to be such a jerk about things. It's just a damn message board. If you don't want to answer the question, don't.
Stand-by Joined: 5/3/06
re: PRYMATE#35
Posted: 5/9/06 at 1:46amDon't know if I'm the jerk in question, but I was just trying to lighten things up a bit.
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
re: PRYMATE#36
Posted: 5/9/06 at 2:11amHahahah no, not you. I was talking to BobbyBuddy. He hates that I ask questions instead of trying to find the answer out for myself.
Stand-by Joined: 5/3/06
re: PRYMATE#37
Posted: 5/9/06 at 2:12amIn that case, let me make it perfectly clear that I was not in any way being racist when I said, "lighten things up."
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/10/03
re: PRYMATE#39
Posted: 5/9/06 at 2:19am
Alrighty then. I was going to stay out of this, but as the resident defender of Prymate during its brief existence on Broadway, I guess I should dust off a couple of my comments:
Prymate reconsidered
Posted On: 4/27/04 at 11:50 PM
If I'd have listened to Roxy (who reported that it was an abyssmal train wreck) or Corine (who found it crude, rude, and disgusting), I'd have missed out on what I found to be a thought-provoking evening of theater. Jeesh, the way a particular scene has been talked about on this board (and others), I expected to see something graphically offensive. The marking (because that's what the gorilla is doing when he urinates) and manual sexual stimulation (oh, ok...hand job) scene is brief, but pivotal, and it was done in a very "clothed" manner which emphasized the impact, not the action itself. I thought it fit within the context of the play, and while the emotion of the sequence was intense and disturbing, I wasn't offended. It needed to be there for the story to make sense.
I think the plot is brilliantly conceived, but I have some minor issues with some of the dialogue and plot points. Nothing major. There's a lot going on in this play, and a lot of issues are raised for consideration including animal rights, animal testing, the nature of violence in relationships, and basic questions of morality. The use of sign language and an interpretor (who is initially a bystander in the play but shape-shifts into, arguably, the central character) added extra layers to a play which questions whether verbal communication has more value than signed communication, and whether a being with a vocabulary of 400 words is more expendable than one with a human vocabulary. Prymate is a complicated play, under the surface, and has given me a lot to think about. Now, isn't that what theater is supposed to do?
re: Prymate reconsidered
Posted On: 4/28/04 at 05:17 PM
Orion... I'm going to try to address the race issue, which of course, bleeding heart liberal that I am, I was sensitive to going in.
Once the play started, I never gave it a second thought. Andre DeShields is a proud, intelligent, educated black man with a solid career. It would seem that he took this role because he found it interesting, not because he needed a job. He was fearless in this role and he totally *became* the gorilla. His graying darkness implied the dignity and power of a silverback male. It was a hell of a role, and DeShields is awesome in it. The word demeaning just doesn't seem to apply.
re: re: re: the show that sucks
Posted On: 5/3/04 at 07:52 PM
FrontRow, there you go again with eating the turds. I kept wondering if I missed something in the show, but then I realized, oh, silly me, you're speaking metaphorically again. Now, I can understand someone not liking the play or finding it offensive, but jeesh, it "demeans anyone who gets within 10 feet of the theater"? Over-react much?
As I believe I made clear in my initial post, I don't think this is a GREAT play, but I found seeing it a worthwhile experience and it made me think about a lot of things. Ruffian said it well, it could have been much more than what it was. I'll admit that while I absolutely found it disturbing, I wasn't offended. As for calling the play Prymate...I agree, it's a little precious, but lets not pretend this is the first time catchy spelling has been called into play to make a title memorable. It doesn't seem to be a huge transgression.
As for the bestiality, how was this more offensive than say, The Goat. Now *that* was bestiality. Sex born of passion on the part of a human for an animal. The "bestiality" in Prymate is never about sexual attraction on the part of the human. It is an act of self defense. Whatever. I guess everyone has a different tolerance level.
I also have dispute your impression that the play implied that the scientist was guaranteed to have contracted AIDS from the girl, be it via sex or a bite. What mattered was two-fold....the violence of her INTENT in exposing him and the POSSIBILITY that he'd been infected. If you've ever had unprotected sex with someone and then found out they were HIV positive, my guess is it would be a threat to your well-being. I have worked in an environment where I routinely draw blood and occasionally give injections to HIV+ individual. I can tell you first hand that a needle stick, no matter how superficial, is a threatening experience if only because the POSSIBILITY of infection exists. The odds be damned when you're the one at risk.
Anyway, it was never my intent to become the champion of Prymate as an outstanding play. But I defend its right to exist and believe that there is an audience out there to whom it will have something to say.
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