What is the hypotenuse of hygiene?
Oct. 29th, 2007 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThis weekend I went to the Loeb Ex to see The Mineola Twins (Paula Vogel). It's the story of two identical twins (in looks only; temperamentally, they're opposites), from the Eisenhower administration through the Bush administration.
Of course, this plays with the questions of who is 'good' and who is 'bad,' as the future homemaker of America becomes a conservative talk show host, while the try-everything wild one becomes a radical protestor, then a lesbian Planned Parenthood manager. The one has to see herself as a 'good girl,' while the other craves connection, even as she does what she wants. They manage to stay polar opposites, always.
Each has a kid who leans towards his aunt's world view, and the web tangles further, criss-crossing lines of obligation and buried love.
The regular-time scenes are interspersed with dream sequences, all of them with overtones to nuclear holocaust (they're teenagers during the Eisenhower administration, after all), most of them nightmares. The first one included the question in the subject line.
The three actors all played multiple roles, one being both twins (Myra/Myrna; do not ever do this to your own kids), one playing two of their lovers (one male, one female), the third playing both of the sons. And they did a good job of it, for the most part (the boys were the hardest to distinguish, despite the actor changing costumes onstage between scenes. In fact, between most scenes, someone danced around to the period rock music changing clothes.).
There was at least one off note in the play, the idea that the 'good' twin had needed electroshock therapy, and this somehow instilled some kind of line to her sister's mind. The problem was that the timing didn't work compared to other bits of the play, and it just didn't go anywhere. So it wasn't enough of an explanation, and was just a unused side path otherwise.
That was my biggest issue, though. The rest of the dialogue was great, tight and funny.
Of course, this plays with the questions of who is 'good' and who is 'bad,' as the future homemaker of America becomes a conservative talk show host, while the try-everything wild one becomes a radical protestor, then a lesbian Planned Parenthood manager. The one has to see herself as a 'good girl,' while the other craves connection, even as she does what she wants. They manage to stay polar opposites, always.
Each has a kid who leans towards his aunt's world view, and the web tangles further, criss-crossing lines of obligation and buried love.
The regular-time scenes are interspersed with dream sequences, all of them with overtones to nuclear holocaust (they're teenagers during the Eisenhower administration, after all), most of them nightmares. The first one included the question in the subject line.
The three actors all played multiple roles, one being both twins (Myra/Myrna; do not ever do this to your own kids), one playing two of their lovers (one male, one female), the third playing both of the sons. And they did a good job of it, for the most part (the boys were the hardest to distinguish, despite the actor changing costumes onstage between scenes. In fact, between most scenes, someone danced around to the period rock music changing clothes.).
There was at least one off note in the play, the idea that the 'good' twin had needed electroshock therapy, and this somehow instilled some kind of line to her sister's mind. The problem was that the timing didn't work compared to other bits of the play, and it just didn't go anywhere. So it wasn't enough of an explanation, and was just a unused side path otherwise.
That was my biggest issue, though. The rest of the dialogue was great, tight and funny.
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-29 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-29 05:28 pm (UTC)