Transport Groups House For Sale

Caught this last weekend and wanted to gouge my eyes out. I managed to fall asleep three times in 70 minutes. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. I feel horrible for that poor cast. Why this was ever allowed on stage is beyond me. This isn't even train wrecky fun. DO NOT GO.

Transport Group likes to take things outside the box, usually works but this one is a huge disappointment. I did not care for this at all. Boring, Lacking and monotonously repetitive. I too felt bad for the cast.

I gave up my TDF ticket because I did not want to have to sit through this.

Why can't they just do a straight forward adaption? I'm curious to see the show for the story, but I guess I'd be better off reading the essay.

Ah, wish I had known this earlier. I already have tickets for Saturday.

An unusual but complete misfire from The Transport Company.
"it is hard to understand the point of just about any of director Daniel Fish’s choices. Some of the stagecraft might be intriguing in and of itself, given a different context, a different text — say, perhaps, one more familiar and thus more open to deconstruction, or one more avant-garde on the page and thus more fitting for an experimental treatment on the stage. At the Duke, it is as if somebody gave the directive to make Franzen’s “House for Sale” as inaccessible as possible."
Jonathan Franzen, from Page to Stage: House for Sale Review

Apparently I am in the minority with my feelings for this show. I thought it fascinating. It is definitely unlike anything I've ever seen before and cannot possibly be compared to other mainstream plays. The Transport Group does some 'out of the box' and arguably fabulous productions, and 'House For Sale' is even a digression from their norm.

It is a piece that will get extreme dissension, which director Daniel Fish typically strives for, and will unabashedly upset critics and theatre goers alike. However, it is not a "42nd Street" or a "Mary Poppins", but a piece of theatre that makes you think and doesn't hand you it's themes on a silver platter. The text, cut down significantly from the original essay, germanely deals with the loss of a parent and the selling of that parent's house/estate. While cleaning out your mother's home, and meeting with realtors to see who can give you the best deal, and shoving old pictures into envelopes, into cabinets so potential buyers can't see any reminisce of your mother or your family is quite an emotional time in anyone's life. "House For Sale" delves into what goes through your mind during this time. You begin to think of your childhood, your family, of life in general, and what really and truly matters. I walked away with a chilling question driven into me by the man dressed as Minnie Mouse at the end of the show: what is happiness and why do we fake it so much?

I have gone off on a tangent and I apologize. The piece is not perfect, nor is it going to have you dancing in the aisles, but to me it does what good theatre should do: spark thoughtful conversation that my colleagues and I are still debating about this morning. I continue to have moments today where I am brought back to something in the show that makes me think a bit more. It's a piece I would want to talk about in an English/drama class and dissect it for a long while. It's not going to win any awards or anything, nor do I think it was the best thing I have ever seen, but it not a play one can either call BAD or GOOD. It will make you think. And days after will still have you thinking.

I am planning on going back to see it. So, if anyone on here is frightened away by some of these BAD reviews, I'll gladly take your ticket!

On another note, the acting is superb. It is a lesson in instincts to watch these talented actors deal with this bear of a piece...which changes every night for them.

Mark
I was going to say the same thing.
Lloyd
I agree with you about Jonathan Franzen's "House for Sale." I thought it was a lovely essay. What was it that you liked about Daniel Fish's *production* that you could not have gotten simply by reading the text? (not rhetorical: I'm asking)
House for Sale Review

i know someone that works at the theater that has unfortunately seen this multiple times, the lights and cues are always the same.

i have seen the show twice - it was absolutely different both times, so, PlayItAgain, whoever told you that is wrong. My understanding from speaking to people at the theater, etc. is that about 10% of it is recited by the same actor each night, while about 90% of it changes.

Thanks for the offer, but I'll refrain from taking it from your friend. I know for a fact that more than 2-3% was different from the first to the second time I saw it - I was there, I saw it, I heard it. So your friend can say what they want, but I know what I saw and heard. We can agree to disagree - I won't be responding anymore.

I'm confused. What changes nightly?

They claim that the five actors are each assigned a colored light, and only speak when their light goes on. The sequence is supposed to change every night.

When I saw it, I noticed times when the light changed after someone began speaking, and playitagain says it is all a hoax.