We Live Here

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 4:32pm

Zoe Kazan is a talented actress. In her new play, We Live Here, at the MTC, she shows that she can write sharp dialogue and well-etched characters.

Unfortunately, for all that, her play fails to satisfy, and frustratingly so. At the beginning of the play, we learn that a terrible event occurred in a family's past that has impacted all their lives, and looms large in the events taking place on stage. The event is alluded to constantly, and yet the audience is left in the dark about what exactly happened, who did what to whom, and why people are acting the way they do. The play takes place as if shrouded in a veil that the author resolutely refuses to lift, to the detriment of a play that seems continually to be marking time.

It isn't until the end of the play that we find out what had happened. Too late, by about an hour and a half. If you're going to tease an audience throughout a play's length, you run the risk of irritating them until they cease to care.

I was irritated until I ceased to care.

The set was very handsome, and the cast and direction expert.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 4:35pm

A play about family secrets? How original!

[DonelBee]

Posted: 9/27/11 at 6:00pm

After Eight, my sentiments almost exactly. However, from what I heard and observed during my viewing Sunday eve., changes (hopefully the needed ones) are in process. And there are still two weeks of previews remaining where much re-writing, etc., could occur before the official opening on the 12th. Let's hope it does get whipped into shape, 'cause there's a great deal of admirable effort already evident. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

[KChenowethfan]

Posted: 9/28/11 at 7:21pm

I saw the play on Saturday night. It has promise, but it needs some structural help. The end of the play just kind of dies off. I did think the acting was quite good and Zoe Kazan does have some talent for someone so young.