Manuscript

[magid]

I saw Manuscript (Paul Grellong) at the Loeb Ex. It's the story of a Harvard undergrad at home on break in NYC, inviting his best (now Yalie) friend and the friend's girlfriend over. For a while, it seems that there's tension for the usual reason, the girl having dated both of them. But that turns out to be the surface, obscuring the layer below, of literary ownership and plagiarism, of editing and polishing and renaming.

The script is great, wonderfully literary in an accessible way. One bit of discussion that stuck with me: the idea that today's most commercially successful form of modern dance is... professional wrestling.

The set included lots and lots of book-filled shelves, some action figures, and more usual furniture; much homier than usual rooms in theater, to me: I live in a book-infested place, after all.

The acting was mixed: the two guys were great, while the woman was much weaker (plus they dressed her funny, in that the dresses didn't play to her strengths), and completely unsympathetic as a result. I have the impression that the story was supposed to leave me feeling more mixed about the action, but she didn't make that reasonable.

Still, it was quite a good show. I'd love to see it again with a more balanced cast, though the surprise of unlayering the plot wouldn't be the same as the first time.

Comments

[queue.livejournal.com]

And apparently all of the books used on the set belong to the guy sitting in front of us.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm still a bit surprised by that. He looked like an undergrad, and while I may have owned that many books while in college, there's no way I crammed them all into my dorm room!