SHINING CITY - (Spoilers Inside)

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:12pm

I saw this show tonight and we left the theatre just shaking our heads. Can someone please explain to me what the hell this play was about? In all my years of theatre going having seen hundreds upon hundreds of shows I can't ever recall feeling this way after a performance!

It seems that each of the 4 long scenes (not counting the short last scene) are completely disconnected from each other having absolutely no common thread tying a "story" together. I did find my mind wandering a bit during each of Oliver Platt's 20 minute monologues where he rambled on and on about absolutely nothing relevent or even remotely interesting, so I'm curious if that's where I missed the plot.

And as for the very end, what in God's name was that? The Doctor's character wasn't the one who saw a ghost so why have her show herself to him? And for that matter, who was she? He never mentioned anyone dead that he knew, did he?

Oy.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:20pm

Oh, Jordan, you've just made me want to see this play even more.

I very much admire Conor McPherson's work. He is a wonderful storyteller playwright.

He does tend to have some otherworldliness going on in his plays. Sorry i haven't read or seen this one yet to give you my take.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:22pm

He's a marvelous playwright and that's why I couldn't wait to see this one, but I gotta tell you the vast majority of it just bored the hell out of me. Martha Plimpton who is a brilliant actress was in only one scene and was fantastic, but it never went anywhere. I think that was my problem with it. The whole show just never "went anywhere". Strangely enough, and I'm sure it's a credit to the writing, I really feel like I should go back and examine it closer to see what it was exactly that I missed.

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:23pm

I agree, WHO in the world was the woman at the end?
Remember, it's only early early previews.
The scenes did seem very discounted, and I hope they try to fix that.

Updated On: 4/25/06 at 11:23 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:25pm

I was there tonight as well, Jordan, and I enjoyed it. Here are my thoughts. (and this will entirely ruin the show if you haven't seen it)

First of all -- are you familiar with Conor McPherson? This is very much in his standard style of writing, the "rambling" type of monologues. Very Irish conversational. I've done one of his shows, and the scripts are written like that -- lots of "you knows," trailing off sentences, etc.

The stories of Ian and John are quite parallel. John was in a loveless marriage for years, but only in the last years of it did he act out on it -- first with the thwarted affair with Vivian, and later with the botched attempt at the brothel (this was all in that monologue). His wife later died, which left him with that guilt, manifesting itself into a horrifying vision of his dead wife in the house they had lived in. It was so bad, he couldn't stay in that house.

In the two non-John scenes, we see Ian treat his girlfriend/fiancee/mother-of-his-child rather indifferently and a bit cruelly as he dumps her. They have the same type of relationship as John had with his wife. In the other, he has his own botched attempt with a prostitute, as obviously Ian hasn't come to terms with his feelings of homosexuality.

In the last scene, Ian is suddenly moving out of the office that has been his home to live with Nessa, once again his fiancee, and his daughter. The last thing we see is that he had been haunted by the same type of vision that John had so vividly described, probably because their situation was so similar. And that's why he's leaving the office, just as John had to sell the house and move into an apartment.

I could be completely misinterpreting everything, so grain of salt not included.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:30pm

Calvin, Thank you for that. :)

I am familiar with his work and it wasn't the "rambling" monologue that bothered me so much as what was said in them. To me it just wasn't enough to truly hold my attention. There was just something missing in there.

I see what you mean about the ghost in the end, but Platt's character saw the ghost of his wife who died. Who was this woman? No other dead woman was ever mentioned in this show.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:33pm

I had trouble seeing her, to be honest, because Brian F. O'Byrne had her perfectly blocked from where I sat, and her appearance was so brief...

But I don't think it was a "ghost" so much as a copy of the terrifying vision that John had described, because he could see Nessa possibly suffering the same fate that John's wife had. If you didn't notice, you could also hear the ice cream truck music that John had mentioned in his description right before you saw the woman.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:36pm

I did hear the ice cream truck and wondered about that. I saw that woman perfectly and let me tell you we jumped out of our seats. Scared the s*it out of my friend and I.

Actually after writing all this I guess it could have been Platt's wife, although it just doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. None of it really did. lol

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:37pm

McPherson is very much into spiritualism and hauntings, it is that "otherworld" that permeates his plays.

The Celts, both Scottish and Irish, have a longstanding reputation as seers.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:39pm

I just realized -- he also had the radio on, tuned to a talk show, at the beginning of the last scene before John entered, another parallel to John's vision.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:40pm

So....was he actually John?

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:40pm

Oh, and the Irish for blarney.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:43pm

No, I don't think it was that much of a twist.

Like I said, it's just two men who are trapped in a loveless relationship for different reasons (bad choice in spouse for one, unable to come to terms with homosexuality for the other). However, while the vision finally gives John the drive to move on with his life -- he's dating another woman at the end -- it ends up pushing Ian into his loveless relationship, which he had tried to end.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:43pm

Calvin beat me to it. Thanks, though, Calvin, for the great explanation.

Spoke to Byrnne for a while after I saw it and he said that yes, it seems disconnected, but you need to look at the character's connections.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:46pm

Did you enjoy it, iluvtheatertrash?

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:47pm

I guess I need to go chat with the cast about it, too. This is one of those shows where the more I think about it, the more I like it.

I did The Weir not too long ago. The first time I read through it, I didn't care much for it. But once I got used to the style and background, I was hooked.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:52pm

The bartender in the Weir was terrific. And that was a play about a haunting.

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/25/06 at 11:55pm

Just sitting on the stage and listening to Valerie's story is one of my favorite acting moments ever.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 12:04am

Thanks for your input, guys. It really is something I'm going to have to go back and see again.

What do you think the title of the show refers to?

[Calvin]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 12:12am

The "shining city on the hill" was the Puritans' (and later Reagan and the rising religious right's) idea of utopia.

eta: And is this the first Broadway play to ever have an affair unfold by text message? Updated On: 4/26/06 at 12:12 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 12:30am

Officially yes, since the whole "Fiyero & Galinda text messaging" thing was cut from WICKED in San Francisco.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 9:14am

Hmmm...I haven't seen this yet, but this discussion got me very interested. I need to see it before Tony time. It sounds very intruiging.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 4/26/06 at 9:34am

I didn't hate it, and I didn't love it.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 4/28/06 at 11:08pm

I will see it in the next couple days and give you my take on it, Jordan.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 4/29/06 at 8:07am

Add me to the "didn't love it, didn't hate it" camp. It seemed a bit more disjointed than THE WEIR, which I loved, but there was that connecting thread throughout: John and his wife ending badly, with them fighting when she died; Ian and Neasa on the verge of splitting up, etc. *MAJOR SPOILER* I thought that the gay subplot was very undercooked. If they really were going to present Ian as a closeted homosexual, they should've invested more time towards it. As it stands right now, it registers as barely an afterthought. *END SPOILER*

The performances were very good overall. I would predict that Oliver Platt and Martha Plimpton will both be nominated. O'Byrne underwhelmed me, but I think that had more to do with the way that the character was written.