Posted: 5/22/15 at 10:18am
I was a big fan of DOMESTICATED and CLYBOURNE PARK (plus gotta love Pam McKinnon) so I'm interested to see how this one turns out.
Anyone lucky enough to win the LIVEforFIVE lottery and attending tonight?
Posted: 5/25/15 at 1:10am
Gonna try this week, but didn't get a great review from the Times in Chicago. I hated Clybourne, but like Domesticated, so I'm interested to see it.
Posted: 5/25/15 at 2:34am
didn't realize the Times had already reviewed a production of this last year at Steppenwolf http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/theater/the-qualms-by-bruce-norris-at-the-steppenwolf-theater.html?_r=0
Posted: 5/25/15 at 12:41pm
I saw The Qualms on Sat night. I think the NY reviews will be similar to the one in Chicago. It's a fun play, funny, entertaining... but it does have a lightweight quality to it. Not every play is going to be important enough to win a Pulitzer, and there is nothing wrong with that. There are some wonderful performances. Which leads me to Jeremy Shamos. I haven't seen him in everything he has done, but I'm beginning to think, he often seems to be the same. He's always very believable, but very mannered. It became clearer to me perhaps because I was in the third row. I would be interested in hearing what other people think.
Posted: 5/25/15 at 1:33pm
What is the content of this show? I read the synopsis, and PH says 16+. Any specific reason why?
Posted: 5/25/15 at 1:56pm
Cursing, suggested cunnilingus, sex basically...the usual reason why movies get NC-17 ratings.
Which is rather interesting because the play is precisely about how much modern American society has repressed sex and indulged in things like war and racism instead. Very thought provoking stuff.
Posted: 5/25/15 at 9:57pm
I do think it has one of the worst logos/poster/playbill covers ever. It's two monkeys, in black silhouette, in a sexual act. I think it's vulgar and I'm no prude. lol. I'm joking but it is in bad taste and tacky at the very least. imho
Posted: 6/2/15 at 11:23am
I saw the show last week and thinks it's a bit of a mixed bag. Probably my least favorite of Norris's plays.
CurtainsUp said that the play has a lightweight quality about it which I don't totally agree with. Just because there isn't a plot to speak of (it's really just a slice of life play) doesn't mean there aren't thought-provoking ideas on stage. While normally I think Norris is deft at bringing up sensitive topics and not coming across to preachy there were moments where I felt it was a little heavy-handed. This might have been helped by cutting down on the number of couples attending the party. There are four couples but one of them didn't work at all for me and I felt brought nothing of note to the proceedings.
The other thing I love about Norris's writing is that it doesn't go for the most obvious path and there are moments where you find yourself hysterically laughing while the rest of the audience sits in awkward silence. That happened twice at the performance I saw but I won't say at which moments because it'll spoil what I feel is some of the best writing in the play.
As far as the actors go everyone did a pretty great job. Kate Arrington, Donna Lynne Champlin and John Procaccino were the standouts for me. They were able to handle the comedic and dramatic elements of the material and move fluidly from one to the other. Now for the review of Jeremy Shamos. CurtainsUp noted that he is often the same and I can pretty much agree with that after seeing him in numerous roles. Norris might have written the role for him after CLYBOURNE PARK but I'd love to see Shamos playing something other than the uptight, married white guy.
Pam MacKinnon's direction was really great. She is able to have all these different couples onstage and interacting simultaneously but still let you know where to focus your attention. There is a bit of an extended awkward scene similar to one in THE FEW but it worked exponentially better here.
Definitely recommend this one as long as you're no prude.
Posted: 6/5/15 at 2:09pm
"Definitely recommend this one as long as you're no prude."
Does the content you are referring too include any... "distasteful" nudity. Or any for that matter? I am going with a friend who I am unsure of how she would react to that, so I want to prepare myself for either a pleasant or awkward evening. Lol.
Posted: 6/5/15 at 2:14pm
"Does the content you are referring too include any... "distasteful" nudity. Or any for that matter?"
There is no nudity in the play. The only thing that comes close is some simulated oral sex but it's all covered and there is a lot of other stuff going on during that scene. I was fairly close to the stage by the kitchen which is where that happens. I was mainly referring to language.
Posted: 6/5/15 at 2:21pm
""Does the content you are referring too include any... "distasteful" nudity. Or any for that matter?"
There is no nudity in the play. The only thing that comes close is some simulated oral sex but it's all covered and there is a lot of other stuff going on during that scene. I was fairly close to the stage by the kitchen which is where that happens. I was mainly referring to language."
Noted. Thank you!
Posted: 6/7/15 at 10:39am
Saw the matinee yesterday.
Does every Bruce Norris play eventually devolve into a the cast getting in a semi-circle and just berating each other? That seemed the case in CLYBOURNE PARK and DOMESTICATED, and that's what comprises a good chuck on the last half of THE QUALMS. It didn't entirely work for me -- I imagine Norris was going for the whole "holding up a mirror" trick, and that worked to a degree, but sometimes it just felt like people being mean for mean's sake. Still, there's also a lot of delicious and thought-provoking writing, being performed by a top-notch cast.
Jeremy Shamos didn't bother me as the straight man (quite literally). The role is written to serve a certain purpose, and Shamos carries that off well. The best performances come from Donna Lynne Champlin (she owns the stage from her first entrance), Kate Arrington (perfectly airheaded, especially in her killer monologue), and Noah Emmerich (a complete departure for those who only know him from THE AMERICANS).
Overall, it's a spry 90 minutes, and even though I have some reservations about the turns the play takes, I'd recommend it.
Posted: 6/22/15 at 12:36am
POSSIBLE SPOILER:
Saw the matinee earlier today. It mostly held my attention, primarily owing to Jeremy Shamos' uncomfortable, comic reactions as well as the fine performances from Champlain, Arrington, Goldberg and Emmerich. But the energy that had been building up was pretty much destroyed by the extended, wordless clean-up scene that must have gone on for a good five or six minutes. I sensed some audience restlessness as it went on and on, and for a valid reason--it stopped the play cold. Aside from that misstep, I think it was well-written and directed.
Posted: 6/22/15 at 2:15am
I went to middle and high school with Sarah Goldberg. She was a star in our theatre dept and a delightful grounded person. So glad to see her living her dream and that the reviews are for the most part positive. Hopefully she will be doing another show on the spring when I visit the city.
Posted: 6/26/15 at 2:53am
I saw this tonight and really liked it! It's basically Clybourne Park but sub racial tension for sexuality. They all sit around and talk. There's not plot and there are some bizarre directing choices... *Spoilers* like when they all look out the audience. Nice choice, but I felt like that should have been the end of the play. And then the 10min cleaning up sequence. Not sure why that was needed or in there. *END*
The performances were solid, but Shamos wasn't given much in way of development. He kind of escalated to "prick" status and then just stayed there. I was hoping Norris would have given him some revealing tid bit or something juicy as a twist or something, but no. But I wasn't sad for it. I was still super entertained.
It's def. worth seeing.
Posted: 6/26/15 at 3:36am
"Does every Bruce Norris play eventually devolve into a the cast getting in a semi-circle and just berating each other?"
Yeah, pretty much. I welcome it as a contrast to the silences that annoy me to no end in Annie Baker's work. His signature is presenting well-meaning liberals and pitting them against each other, tearing apart their worst qualities. I think he does this best in The Pain and the Itch, but I've thoroughly enjoyed all of his work that I'm familiar with.
Interesting that you guys say the cleanup scene was so long. When I saw the same production at Steppenwolf last summer, my memory of that sequence was it being two or three minutes at most, and that they moved quickly. Perhaps that has slowed down. Also of interest, one actor stayed with the production, the wonderful Kate Arrington.
Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:32pm
It closes this Sunday; In case you missed it, our review of THE QUALMS and our interview with leading man Jeremy Shamos (we talk about some weird stuff!)
Click here for Interview with Jeremy Shamos
Click here for review of THE QUALMS
~AA
Updated On: 7/7/15 at 12:32 PM
Posted: 7/7/15 at 12:51pm
It's the kind of play that features a grown woman having no idea that there is porn on the internet.
Bruce Norris, please go away.
Posted: 7/7/15 at 1:40pm
She was surprised to find that there was 'free porn' on the internet, not just porn. Did you even see the show?
