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TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2019
THEATER: THE PAIN OF "THE PAIN OF MY
BELLIGERENCE"
THE PAIN OF MY BELLIGERENCE * out of ****
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZON
What a baffling, inexplicable play. A man and a woman are on a date
in a Japanese restaurant and it's a struggle to decide who you like less.
The man (Hamish Linklater, doing his damndest with an awful role) isa walking billboard for "toxic masculinity." He's boorish, egotistical,pushy, physically aggressive, married, insulting and tiresomely
boastful about it. You might say he's not one-tenth as charming as he
thinks, but that would imply he actually thinks rather than merely actson instinct. But the woman (Halley Feiffer)!! She's dithering, sad,painfully unconfident, incapable of speaking up for herself longer than
a second or two and just...pathetic. You want to empathize with her of
course, but that's trumped (yes, trumped) by your desire to shake herand say, "Get a hold of yourself!"
Naturally, you start to ask yourself questions. Are these two grotesque
caricatures of these types? Should we be laughing at them? Will those
grow more and more absurd? Will the blunt obviousness of the scenebe amped up or toned down into something real? What the heck arewe supposed to think about all this? Those are the sort of questionsyou ask yourself when absolutely nothing is going right in a show. Thetwo characters aren't funny or real or satirical enough to hold our
attention in the least and the date goes on and on.
Slowly, the play reveals itself. The overlong first scene is their date.
The dull second scene takes place four years later, with the woman still
having an affair with this married man. The final scene is a
confrontation of sorts between the mistress and the wife. Worse, witha groan you realize the three scenes all take place on Presidentialelection nights: 2012, 2016 and 2020. (No word on who the DemMICHAEL GILTZ AT WORK
Michael Giltz is a freelance writer
based in NYC and can be reached atmgiltz@pipeline.com
FAVORITE LINKS
Americablog
Five O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's Blog
The Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPN
Radio
Cine-Blog -- George Robinson's Blog
Documents On Art & Cinema - Daryl
Chin's Blog
Brucie G's Wondrous Blog Of
Adventure and Mystery -- Bruce
Greenspan's Blog
BLOG ARCHIVE
▼ 2019 (31)
► June (1)
► May (9)
nominee will be.) With the play failing to create a single interesting
character, its attempt to hijack politics for a stab at significance lessens
what was already a very poor affair.
When nothing is going right, it's hard for anyone to do good work. Thethree settings (Japanese restaurant, bedroom and living room) all blurtogether visually. The actors do what they can, with Linklater trying to
inject some energy into a paper-thin conceit and Feiffer the actress
surely wanting to have a talk with Feiffer the writer.
Without spoiling the entire plot, it's hard to describe just how
perplexing the entire work proves from start to finish. When no one is
believable, nothing makes sense. In the second scene, the two
characters veer back and forth randomly from playful to bitter totender, never at the same moment. But nothing tops our astonishmentthat they have been dating on the sly for four years. Four years?
Nothing in the first scene would make you believe they would remain
together for four hours, much less four years. And since the womanhas been tragically stumped by a debilitating chronic illness, the ideathat this man in particular would waste any time on her goes againsteverything we ever know about him,
Even that pales in comparison to the bewildering final scene.
Bewilderment and perplexity, I hasten to add, are not the same asinterest. You never wonder what the characters are thinking; youspend the entire evening wondering what the hell the playwright was
thinking.
THEATER OF 2019
Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2▼ April (10)
THEATER: "INK" STAINED
WRETCHES GET THEIR
DUE
THEATER: "TOOTSIE" IS A
DRAG
THEATER: "ALL MY SONS"
LACKS A FAMILY
THEATER: 'HADESTOWN"
FINDS HEAVEN ON
BROADWAY
THEATER: "BURN THIS"
BARELY SMOLDERS
THEATER: THE PAIN OF "THE
PAIN OF MYBELLIGERENCE"...
THEATER: QUESTIONING
"SOCRATES"
THEATER: "OKLAHOMA!" IS
OK THE SECOND TIMEAROUND!...
THEATER: LESS IS MORE AT
"MRS. MURRAY'SMENAGERIE"...
THEATER: "THE CRADLE
WILL ROCK" PUTS YOU TOSLEEP
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (5)
► 2018 (33)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (17)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book
lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the
way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new
releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal
recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz
Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on
entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as
guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called
Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 4:15 PM
NO COMMENTS:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home► 2005 (5)
Create Blog Sign In
TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2019
THEATER: THE PAIN OF "THE PAIN OF MY
BELLIGERENCE"
THE PAIN OF MY BELLIGERENCE * out of ****
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZON
What a baffling, inexplicable play. A man and a woman are on a date
in a Japanese restaurant and it's a struggle to decide who you like less.
The man (Hamish Linklater, doing his damndest with an awful role) isa walking billboard for "toxic masculinity." He's boorish, egotistical,pushy, physically aggressive, married, insulting and tiresomely
boastful about it. You might say he's not one-tenth as charming as he
thinks, but that would imply he actually thinks rather than merely actson instinct. But the woman (Halley Feiffer)!! She's dithering, sad,painfully unconfident, incapable of speaking up for herself longer than
a second or two and just...pathetic. You want to empathize with her of
course, but that's trumped (yes, trumped) by your desire to shake herand say, "Get a hold of yourself!"
Naturally, you start to ask yourself questions. Are these two grotesque
caricatures of these types? Should we be laughing at them? Will those
grow more and more absurd? Will the blunt obviousness of the scenebe amped up or toned down into something real? What the heck arewe supposed to think about all this? Those are the sort of questionsyou ask yourself when absolutely nothing is going right in a show. Thetwo characters aren't funny or real or satirical enough to hold our
attention in the least and the date goes on and on.
Slowly, the play reveals itself. The overlong first scene is their date.
The dull second scene takes place four years later, with the woman still
having an affair with this married man. The final scene is a
confrontation of sorts between the mistress and the wife. Worse, witha groan you realize the three scenes all take place on Presidentialelection nights: 2012, 2016 and 2020. (No word on who the DemMICHAEL GILTZ AT WORK
Michael Giltz is a freelance writer
based in NYC and can be reached atmgiltz@pipeline.com
FAVORITE LINKS
Americablog
Five O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's Blog
The Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPN
Radio
Cine-Blog -- George Robinson's Blog
Documents On Art & Cinema - Daryl
Chin's Blog
Brucie G's Wondrous Blog Of
Adventure and Mystery -- Bruce
Greenspan's Blog
BLOG ARCHIVE
▼ 2019 (31)
► June (1)
► May (9)
nominee will be.) With the play failing to create a single interesting
character, its attempt to hijack politics for a stab at significance lessens
what was already a very poor affair.
When nothing is going right, it's hard for anyone to do good work. Thethree settings (Japanese restaurant, bedroom and living room) all blurtogether visually. The actors do what they can, with Linklater trying to
inject some energy into a paper-thin conceit and Feiffer the actress
surely wanting to have a talk with Feiffer the writer.
Without spoiling the entire plot, it's hard to describe just how
perplexing the entire work proves from start to finish. When no one is
believable, nothing makes sense. In the second scene, the two
characters veer back and forth randomly from playful to bitter totender, never at the same moment. But nothing tops our astonishmentthat they have been dating on the sly for four years. Four years?
Nothing in the first scene would make you believe they would remain
together for four hours, much less four years. And since the womanhas been tragically stumped by a debilitating chronic illness, the ideathat this man in particular would waste any time on her goes againsteverything we ever know about him,
Even that pales in comparison to the bewildering final scene.
Bewilderment and perplexity, I hasten to add, are not the same asinterest. You never wonder what the characters are thinking; youspend the entire evening wondering what the hell the playwright was
thinking.
THEATER OF 2019
Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2▼ April (10)
THEATER: "INK" STAINED
WRETCHES GET THEIR
DUE
THEATER: "TOOTSIE" IS A
DRAG
THEATER: "ALL MY SONS"
LACKS A FAMILY
THEATER: 'HADESTOWN"
FINDS HEAVEN ON
BROADWAY
THEATER: "BURN THIS"
BARELY SMOLDERS
THEATER: THE PAIN OF "THE
PAIN OF MYBELLIGERENCE"...
THEATER: QUESTIONING
"SOCRATES"
THEATER: "OKLAHOMA!" IS
OK THE SECOND TIMEAROUND!...
THEATER: LESS IS MORE AT
"MRS. MURRAY'SMENAGERIE"...
THEATER: "THE CRADLE
WILL ROCK" PUTS YOU TOSLEEP
► March (5)
► February (1)
► January (5)
► 2018 (33)
► 2017 (6)
► 2016 (2)
► 2015 (17)
► 2014 (2)
► 2013 (5)
► 2012 (17)
► 2011 (15)
► 2010 (10)
► 2009 (43)
► 2008 (86)
► 2007 (781)
► 2006 (2412)
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book
lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the
way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new
releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal
recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz
Sandbox , a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on
entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as
guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called
Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.
POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 4:15 PM
NO COMMENTS:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home► 2005 (5)