Laughing Wild
Jun. 24th, 2005 03:11 pmLast Sunday I got to see Laughing Wild (Christopher Durang) at the Calderwood Pavilion. (Aside: huzzah for new theater spaces in metro Boston!)
It's an interesting play. Two characters, a man (played by the playwright) and a woman (played by Debra Monk), who intersect in front of the tuna fish display. And I do mean intersect. She hits him on the head in her frustrated quest to buy the tuna he's blocking. The first half of the show is two monologues, seeing the scene (and the rest of life) from each point of view. They're both a bit nuts, but likably so (well, in the theater sense. I don't know that I'd want to hang out with either one in real life...), and funny. The second half, though is where it gets weird, with both of them onstage, their dreams interconnected even though the two of them never interact directly. Bizarre things happen, including the Infant of Prague (the costume designer had fun with that), a solstice celebration in Central Park, and the killing of Sally Jessy Rafael (offstage).
It felt a bit like Into the Woods, the first half building a more coherent whole, the second half tearing it down into chaos. I don't know whether I liked it or not, though I thought the actors were excellent, and I laughed a fair bit.
My thanks to Bitty for the ticket.
It's an interesting play. Two characters, a man (played by the playwright) and a woman (played by Debra Monk), who intersect in front of the tuna fish display. And I do mean intersect. She hits him on the head in her frustrated quest to buy the tuna he's blocking. The first half of the show is two monologues, seeing the scene (and the rest of life) from each point of view. They're both a bit nuts, but likably so (well, in the theater sense. I don't know that I'd want to hang out with either one in real life...), and funny. The second half, though is where it gets weird, with both of them onstage, their dreams interconnected even though the two of them never interact directly. Bizarre things happen, including the Infant of Prague (the costume designer had fun with that), a solstice celebration in Central Park, and the killing of Sally Jessy Rafael (offstage).
It felt a bit like Into the Woods, the first half building a more coherent whole, the second half tearing it down into chaos. I don't know whether I liked it or not, though I thought the actors were excellent, and I laughed a fair bit.
My thanks to Bitty for the ticket.