PURPOSE Previews- Page 2

[quizking101]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 8:19pm

Went this afternoon,

I found a lot to like about it, but the endless narration really messed with the pace for me. I get that it’s supposed to emphasize his feelings of isolation, but very little requires his stream-of-consciousness commentary. APPROPRIATE succeeded because the twists were mostly show, not tell. Here, nearly every aside sets up some soap opera level foreshadowing that deflates the suspense.

 

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When Jon Michael Hill’s character mentions the rifle in the basement in the first five minutes of the show and says “More on that later”, it’s basically pistol whipping the audience with the concept of Chekov’s gun.

Cut about 15-20 minutes of that and you’ve sold me. I’ll go back after it’s opened.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 3/2/25 at 9:54pm

Yes, that line was cringe when it was delivered, and the foreshadowing here is so clunky and obvious it really undercuts Act 2. I think these missteps--all arising out of the narration--is so frustrating because Jenkins is such a brilliant writer that its confounding AND because the rest of the production is so so strong. Very odd. 

As I likely wont have time to see it again, very curious if this gets cleaned up before opening.

[quizking101]

Posted: 3/3/25 at 12:36am

It’s almost as if he doesn’t trust the protagonist or the audience to connect the dots of the many soapy twists