#1
Posted: 6/20/06 at 9:01pm
I recently re-read this play, which made a powerful impression on me in my 20s, and was startled at how borderline pretentious, overwrought, and basically just overwritten it was, though admittedly, in a highly theatrical, always compelling way. It's interesting that it's almost never performed anymore. Perhaps someone could re-explore it, throwing out the John Dexter original staging (pretty brilliant) with the brown velevet horse wear, and finding an altogether new way in. It was always a very homo-erotic journey, though of course that element was denounced at the time. The play's view of religious fervor might make it more contemporary.
I saw it relatively late in its bway run, with Anthony Perkins, who was particularly quirky (no shock) and mesmerizing, since he was a sort of a boy-man, i.e. Alan Strang himself, and the parallels between shrink and troubled youth seemed eerie for altogether different reasons than with a Hopkins or Burton.
If anyone knows of a successful professional revival in the past 5-10 years, please post. For a respected play by an admired playwright, it's disappeared from the repetoire, no?
I saw it relatively late in its bway run, with Anthony Perkins, who was particularly quirky (no shock) and mesmerizing, since he was a sort of a boy-man, i.e. Alan Strang himself, and the parallels between shrink and troubled youth seemed eerie for altogether different reasons than with a Hopkins or Burton.
If anyone knows of a successful professional revival in the past 5-10 years, please post. For a respected play by an admired playwright, it's disappeared from the repetoire, no?
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 6/20/06 at 09:01 PM
