immersive but incomplete

-


I’ve never reviewed a play and, as a former theatre student, don’t want to criticize theatre, but I have to object when TV-style sensationalism steals the stage.

Centaur Theatre is hosting a production of Butcher which promises to be about loyalty, revenge and justice when the play is in fact the mere portrayal of a violent act of revenge.

No plot.  No character development.  No ideas.

Vacuous.

As my 15-year old daughter politely said when it was over, “It was incomplete”.  My 13 year-old son, a little more generous with his review, said it was “immersive”.  That may have been because we were in the front row on the edge of a set with actual rain pouring from the ceiling.  That was cool.  Well done.

The stagecraft was great, the atmosphere immersive but the play, alas, was incomplete.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

sorry

-
Image
And I will restore to them the years that the locust has eaten  (Joel 2:25)  I write this as a Christian disappointed that the scriptures supporting my faith do not explicitly encourage the most important act of restoration I can think of. And that is saying sorry. Many of my brothers and sisters, when asked about scriptural support for apologizing, will cite passages about forgiveness, restitution, redempton or atonement but none of these mention saying sorry to the people we have harmed. The scriptures (both old and new) invite humility, contrition and repentance in various gestures of sacrifice and reconciliation. But these are   directed toward God rather than toward human beings. Perhaps that is why religious people will bypass an apology and go straight to requesting forgiveness. They seek absolution for themselves but not necessarily the restoration of those against whom they've sinned. Jesus was clear about placing the love for another right up there with the firs...
Read more

seek and ye shall find

-
Image
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness;  and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33) Lately I've had a few hopelesss conversations with frustrated friends who are struggling to find their way out of addiction. One of them recently threw his hands up to the heavens and begged for mercy over his alcoholism, shrugging with tears in his eyes, "I am waiting on Him." While it looked like an act of surrender, and I felt sorry for him, I recognized this kind of waiting as too passive to be called seeking. I have seen him walking to the corner store for beer with more enthusiasm. I know how he feels. When I quit smoking 15 years ago, I had no idea I was quitting an addiction. I thought I loved cigarettes; and that made it very hard not to pick one up. The first days were almost impossible and, if it weren't for my 6 year-old daughter urging me to soldier on, I might have thrown in the towel on day 2. I kept going for her sake, not wanting to...
Read more

the stages of letting go

-
Image
  ~ forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it (Mark Twain) When it comes to loss or terminal illness, we say that acceptance happens gradually, in  stages  known as "grief". The stages we go through, however, are not just steps we simply go down. They are an uphill battle to let go of something cherished, a process far more arduous than what is implied in the somewhat placid emotion "grief" which, true to its etymologcal orgin ( gravitas ), is thick with a sorrow evoking images of weeping and wailing clothed in the heavy black garments of wet renunciation. Loss, on the other hand, triggers anything but a passive response from the loser. It sparks an agitated wrestling against reality, a complex process that is totally counter-intuitive to human agency culminating in the bittersweet acquiescence to an undesired fate. That is letting go. The first stage is  denial : No. This is not happening and I will have nothing of it! The s...
Read more