The Treasurer at Playwrights Horizons

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 9/7/17 at 7:57pm

Saw the first preview, it was a little shaky (some line stumbles, a prop falling off a wall). But this play by the end is a real stunner anchored by yet another incredible performance by Peter Friedman who almost never leaves the stage for almost an hour and 45 minutes, I can't believe he was in rehearsal for this and doing Hamlet at the same time. I didn't see Max Posner's last play Judy, but this piece about a son and his guilt for how he treated his absent mother is very promising and I look forward to going back again later in the run to see how it's all come together.

[HBBrock]

Posted: 9/7/17 at 8:58pm

I absolutely loved the first preview last night.

Peter Friedman was spectacular. This will be one of the best plays of the season.

[wolfwriter]

Posted: 9/7/17 at 10:57pm

I just saw this and hated every second of it. A 100 minute slog. I hated it so much, that it actually made me mad. It's such a poorly constructed piece that it plays like a first draft of something that will never be good, no matter how many re-writes it undergoes.

It says David Cromer directed this piece, but there were numerous times I wondered if they had a director, at all. 

I was really looking forward to this and very excited to see Deanna Dunagan back on stage. I'm sorry she's stuck in this Freshman writing exercise. In fact, all four actors are very good and transcend the banal, superficial material they are given to work with.

Max Posner has a lot of ideas but, like his characters, none of them are fleshed out, in an interesting manner. And, if you're going to write about something that's very close to home, you have to go all the way "in" to where it really hurts. You can't just sort-of go "there," which seems to be what he does.

Much of the dialogue is telephone conversations. It becomes a tired idea very quickly and I have no idea if the awful sound, static and feedback was intentional, but it was annoying and only served to make me think about the sound and not the words.

This is simply bad, but more and more, it seems to be what passes for quality these days. And the absurd ending is pulled from the Sartre Cliff Notes, I guess

I can't wait to see the cast in something worthy of their talent, but I am so sorry I wasted 100 minutes of my life on this.

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 9/10/17 at 10:52pm

David Cromer works wonders on a sloppy sloppy play. Wondrously staged, fabulously acted, and fundamentally a limp, pointless play.

[little_sally]

Posted: 10/2/17 at 11:37am

Peter Friedman and Deanna Dunagan are great in this slog of a play. I don't know what Brantley saw. The play felt like three in one, and none of Posner's ideas were original or captivating. I'm tired of plays about elderly parents, especially at Playwrights Horizons.

Also, the set was one of the ugliest I've seen in awhile.

Between this and For Peter Pan..., PH is off to a dreadful start this season.

Updated On: 10/2/17 at 11:37 AM

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/2/17 at 12:56pm

little_sally said: "I'm tired of plays about elderly parents, especially at Playwrights Horizons."

Oh, boy. Please tell me it's not another dementia play. Is it worth seeing for Peter Friedman's performance?

 

[AC126748]

Posted: 10/2/17 at 1:04pm

I reviewed the production for Exeunt Magazine (link below, potential spoilers). As good as Friedman and Dunagan are, I wouldn't see the play on account of them. I found the play incredibly smug and largely unbelievable.

 http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-treasurer-playwrights-horizons/

[Alfie6]

Posted: 10/2/17 at 4:17pm

I agree with Little_ sally, Peter Friedman and Deanna Dunagan both give stellar performances but the play itself is a 90 minute nap. The woman next to me was out cold and had to be shaken after the lights went on. What bothered me the most is how heavy-handed it all seemed about going to Hell,  basically the son is convinced he is going there because he doesn't love his mom (not a spoiler, he says this in the first few lines of the play and he comes back to repeat this a lot). I honestly have no idea what the playwright was getting across here or how this is different then the myriad of other plays dealing with senility I've seen over the past two years. Is this a play about senility? Is this a play about religion? I can't recommend this on the acting alone. I will say that for a play with some heavy subject matter there are more than a few laughs. 

[little_sally]

Posted: 10/2/17 at 4:29pm

VintageSnarker said: "little_sally said: "I'm tired of plays about elderly parents, especially at Playwrights Horizons."

Oh, boy. Please tell me it's not another dementia play. Is it worth seeing for Peter Friedman's performance?
 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Yep, another dementia play.

And no I don't think it's worth it for the performances.

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 10/2/17 at 6:44pm

Thanks @AC126748. This sounds like the kind of play that wouldn't outright irritate me but would probably bore me. I will probably skip it unless I have a free night and a comp ticket. I've had enough of this genre/subject unless the play has something new and worthwhile to contribute. At the very least, there's more to aging than this. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 10/16/17 at 12:48am

Well I, for one, really enjoyed this tonight. I agree with some of the criticisms; "poorly constructed" and "sloppy" are both fairly accurate descriptions of the piece. It's sort of all over the place. But I was consistently engaged throughout, even with the deliberately slow pacing. And I don't agree that it was pointless. I thought it had a very strong emotional resonance, and shed light on this sort of mother/son relationship in a way that really rang true, and seemed worth exploring. People keep saying it's "another dementia play," which is a fair enough reason to dismiss it if you've seen many of them, and they all feel the same. But for my part, the only other play that came to my mind while watching this was "The Father," especially in a short sequence with the mother toward the end. Yet even so, I think "The Father" and "The Treasurer" were approaching the subject in very different ways, and for different reasons. 

And as everyone else has said, it's flawlessly acted. 

Updated On: 10/16/17 at 12:48 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/16/17 at 1:04am

AC126748 said: "I reviewed the production forExeuntMagazine (link below, potential spoilers). As good as Friedman and Dunagan are, I wouldn't see the play on account of them. I found the play incredibly smug and largely unbelievable.

http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-treasurer-playwrights-horizons/"

Nicely written, AC. Thanks.

[Willie4316]

Posted: 10/25/17 at 2:33am

I saw this the other night with a friend who had to review it for a project he is involved with, and I personally thought it was fairly good. The acting definitely helps to elevate the material which at times seems a bit poorly written or introduces multiple characters with little to no purpose. The set I found to work in certain instances but ultimately I wish they had perhaps done a bit more with it.