#1
Posted: 5/31/13 at 10:58pm
Saw this tonight and it was harmless, but dull and without dramatic thrust.
The plot revolved around Tom, played by David Morse, who was just released from prison after serving a 5 year stint for Bernie Madoff type crimes. His family has cut all ties and want nothing to do with him, but he talks his son into letting him crash for one month while he attempts to get his life back on track.
There were some positives:
David Morse gives a nice, restrained performance. He's a very fine actor and did the best overcoming any shortcomings in the script.
The dialogue, while never sharp or clever, never felt forced or phony. The characters didn't sit around discussing Neapolitan ice cream for 15 minutes either.
The big issue was that the characters kept having the same conversation over and over. The first act lasted an hour, and it was A LOT of set-up. I expected act two to have some pretty hefty payoff, but alas all they did was discuss the same things they talked about in the first act again! The play never built up to anything. It wasn't pointless- it just became very uninteresting pretty quickly.
My other major complaint was that several of the play's main character were never seen. They were talked about, so much so that they were more fully drawn than some of the characters on stage, but we never got the satisfaction of seeing them interact. It's not dramatically interesting to hear people go on and on about characters we don't get to experience.
This is an interesting progression for Steven Levenson after Language of Trees. The dialogue wasn't so believable in his earlier work, but that play was more ambitious and the themes more interesting. This play starts to bring up some worthwhile ideas, but only scratches the surface when exploring them.
The plot revolved around Tom, played by David Morse, who was just released from prison after serving a 5 year stint for Bernie Madoff type crimes. His family has cut all ties and want nothing to do with him, but he talks his son into letting him crash for one month while he attempts to get his life back on track.
There were some positives:
David Morse gives a nice, restrained performance. He's a very fine actor and did the best overcoming any shortcomings in the script.
The dialogue, while never sharp or clever, never felt forced or phony. The characters didn't sit around discussing Neapolitan ice cream for 15 minutes either.
The big issue was that the characters kept having the same conversation over and over. The first act lasted an hour, and it was A LOT of set-up. I expected act two to have some pretty hefty payoff, but alas all they did was discuss the same things they talked about in the first act again! The play never built up to anything. It wasn't pointless- it just became very uninteresting pretty quickly.
My other major complaint was that several of the play's main character were never seen. They were talked about, so much so that they were more fully drawn than some of the characters on stage, but we never got the satisfaction of seeing them interact. It's not dramatically interesting to hear people go on and on about characters we don't get to experience.
This is an interesting progression for Steven Levenson after Language of Trees. The dialogue wasn't so believable in his earlier work, but that play was more ambitious and the themes more interesting. This play starts to bring up some worthwhile ideas, but only scratches the surface when exploring them.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
