"The Trees" at Playwrights.

Very long with no intermission. It’s cute, but eh

JoeW4 said: "I agree it was cute and amusing, with a sort of warm charm, but didn’t really come together. Circles around some interestingly themes and ideas without really committing to any of them. Overall I’m glad I saw it, but I wouldn’t call it a must-see."



Thanks for a bit more detailed response. What was the run time?

This was fairly disappointing to me. I couldn't tell if it was trying to say something specific or act more as a slice of life piece, and I agree that it has some interesting moments but they don't go anywhere satisfying. Some of the characters are written with fairly broad strokes and it was also pretty difficult for me to discern the relationships between some of the characters, so if this was meant to be an exploration of community amongst the different characters, I never felt like I was really seeing that because my impression of each character kept shifting. There seemed to be a few people in my audience (last Tuesday) who really enjoyed it, but it was just not for me.

uncageg said: "So there are references to the Jewish community in the essays. There is also a reference to the queer community. I am just wondering how the two play into the story."

One of the major characters is a Rabbi, another character is a member of his congregation. I think there's some talk of the Jewish community as well but doesn't go super into depth. Another two of the major characters are a queer couple, and there was one that almost seemed bicurious (but this was one of the confusing relationships I mentioned).

It's basically a slow-moving acting exercise, not really a theater show. Many are making their off-Broadway debuts here and it shows thru unconvinving forced acting. I loved their last show about the people on parole living in the house, but found this a tedious bore. My show started 12 minutes late and ended 1hr45min after, and we were told walking in the runtime was 2hrs, which ended up being true. I'd recommend A Bright New Boise down the block instead, as its 90 minutes fly by.