Will Eno's "GNIT" at TFANA (Did anyone else see it?)

It's been almost 2 months since this show (like many others) was closed suddenly and far too early, after something like 5-7 previews. But I felt like posting about it because it so happens that this was one of my absolute favorite shows of the season, and it's the one I think of first when I think of the shows I'm glad to have caught just in time. (as for the shows that I regrettably didn't catch, the first one that comes to mind is always Virginia Woolf...*sigh* but anyway...)

The play was Will Eno's adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt. It was my first time seeing any version of Peer Gynt, but I read the original play beforehand for the sake of comparing and contrasting. It was also my 3rd Eno play - I've been told that his newer work isn't as good as his older work, but speaking as someone who just discovered him, I've quickly fallen in love with his writing style. I find his brand of dry, introspective wit absolutely delightful. And IMO, this style paired well with Peer Gynt. Eno kept the central themes and plot structure of the original, but added his own flare, and streamlined it significantly (much to its benefit, I think). The biggest structural difference, aside from being shortened drastically, was the ending, which was very different from the original play.

And the ensemble of 6 actors was uniformly strong. Really not a weak link in the bunch. All of them exceptionally well-cast and well-directed, giving performances that were grounded, focused, and also hilarious.

(BTW, for the record, in case anyone was wondering: the title of the show is pronounced with a hard "G" like "guh-NIT" - as opposed to a silent "G" like in "gnome" or "gnat."

Reviews on Show-Score seem to be generally positive, with some dissenters, and some people on the fence. I imagine this show wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea (in fact, even the person I went with wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as I was), but I absolutely loved it. Did anyone else see it? If so, I would be curious to hear your thoughts - positive or negative.

I'm very glad that I was able to see it during its very brief run, but I'm sad that more people couldn't see it. And thinking about that makes me reflect on the many shows that I DIDN'T manage to catch before the shutdowns, not to mention all the shows that didn't even get to see the light of day at all. One of them might have been my new favorite play. I'll never know!

Falsettolands said: "I was in an earlier version an workshopof the show out of town...curious about the ending in the revised version. Does the show end with just Peter rambling off and saying goodnight?"



Not exactly no. I don't remember it exactly, but from what I recall - it ended with a speech from Peter, but it was more like a speech about his story was over, and he addresses the audience and tells them how self-assured they look, and ask which one of them was "next" (presumably, "which one of you will have your story told next?"

But in my original post I wasn't really referring to final speech, so much as the resolution to the plot. The main thing that stuck out to me was that all of the afterlife stuff, where Peer has to prove he was a good person, is not in Eno's version.

So cool that you were in it! Would be curious to hear which track you played (if you're comfortably sharing) and what your experience was like.

LightsOut90 said: "I saw the reading they did last year with Michael C Hall and Ari Graynor and loved it, curious what the set design looked like?"



Here is a photo of the full set, from the set designer's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ru3FqJ3Fo/



And she also posted some close-up photos of the detail-work on the little valley they created. It looked great!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9f-455J33c/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9VlDnIJ7RQ/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9IQI1Jp0Dg/