#Play Oslo
- Playwright: J.T. Rodgers
- Title: Oslo
- Genre: political play
- Reading time: 2,5 hours
- Opening night: June 16 2016 – Newhouse Theatre, NYC
- Trivia: Tony Award for Best Play 2017
- Epilogue: “…out of the crooked timber of humanity
- …no straight thing was ever made.” (I. Kant)
- Wikipedia link: J.T. Rodgers
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly reading plan
- Timeline: April 1992 – September 1993
- Structure: 3 acts
Plot:
- Oslo tells the story behind the peace process that led
- to Israeli PM Rabin and PLO chairman Arafat
- shaking hands in Washington, with President Bill Clinton.
- Characters are Norwegian (9) , Israeli (5) and Palestinians (2).
- This moment was brokered by Terje Rød-Larsen
- …the central character of the play.
- He was a Norwegian diplomat who arranged secret meetings
- …between Israeli and Palestinian representatives.
Conclusion:
- I thought this would be a great play to read
- on the heels of Trumps Peace Plan for
- the Middle East dd. 28 January 2020.
- This is a blueprint for a two-state solution
- …it was dead on arrival.
- At least the play OSLO….shows that negations are
- …needed before a peace can be brokered.
- Trump’s plan is a Netenyahu’s wish-list.
- Strong point: serious political ideas within the form of a thriller
- Strong point: familiar narrative from a surprising angle. (Norwegian)
- Weak point: not a play you can just dive into!
- I had to map out each act (scenes, characters)
- so I could at least follow the plot.
- Act 1 –> scenes change swiftly 18 x !
- Pacing: is also very smooth.
- Trivia: J.T. Rodgers read Noel Coward’s comedic plays
- …to get a sense of pacing for a political play!
- Storyline: entertaining though slightly predictable as
- we go towards the ending
- …the iconic shaking of hands Rabin, Arafat, Clinton.
- Strong point: its more about the journey of it all
- …the secrecy, the deal-making.
Last Thoughts:
- This was a difficult play to read.
- But the play has been inundated with awards
- …so J.T. Rodgers must be doing something right!
- I included a quick scan of the play to
- …help you if you ever read it.
Characters: Act 1:
- 4 minor (Marianne, Holst (married), Toril and Finn domestic staff at castle)
- 7 major (Mona, Larsen (married) (PL) Qurie and Afour – (ISR) Hirschfeld, Pundak and Beilin
- Mona “breaks the 4th wall” 16 x – speaks directly to audience
Setting: Act 1
- Larsen flat (home of couple Mona and Terje Larsen (5 scenes)
- Borregaard Castle (entrance hall reception, drawing and negation rooms) (5 scenes)
- Hotel Suite London (3 scenes)
- University lecture hall (1 scene)
- UN Club Gaza Strip (1 scene)
Characters: Act 2
- 4 minor ( Holst,Toril, Finn, Am diplomat, Trond and Thor (intel police)
- 8 major (Mona, Larsen, (PL) Qurie and Afour – (ISR) Hirschfeld, Pundak, Savir, Beilin
- Mona “breaks the 4th wall” 6 x
Setting: Act 2
- Borregaard Castle (castle grounds, reception, drawing, cocktail, negation rooms) (8 scenes)
- Oslo (Foreign Ministry, Fornebu Airport (2 scenes)
- Larsen flat (1 scene)
- Frogner Park near HotelBristol London (1 scene)
Characters: Act 3
- 9 minor (Marianne, Holst (married), Finn, Thor, Trond
- Swedish hostess, German man, German woman, Am. diplomat
- 10 major (Mona, Larsen (central characters)
- (PL) Qurie and Asfour
- (ISR) Hirschfeld, Pundak, Beilin Savir, Singer – Peres
- Mona “breaks the 4th wall” 13 x
Setting: Act 3
- Larsen flat (1 scene)
- Jerusalem (foreign ministry) (1 scene)
- Oslo (foreign ministry (1 scene)
- Stockholm (Swedish Guest House) (1 scene)
- Borregaard Castle (reception, drawing, negation rooms) (6 scenes)
- White House Rose Garden (1 scene)
- Center stage empty (last scene) only 2 main characters Mona and Larsen
Playwright J T. Rodgers
#ReadIreland 2020 Irish Theatre
Set Design by Francis O’Connor for play “The Big House” (Abbey Theatre)
- Author: H. Lojek
- Title: The Spaces of Irish Drama (135 pg)
- Published: 2011
- Genre: non-fiction
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly plan
- #ReadingIrelandMonth20
- #Begorrathon20
Introduction:
- There is so much to learn from Helen Lojek’s essays.
- I have selected a few ideas to share with you.
- I learned to think more about the title of a play.
- You would be surprised what the author had hidden in it!
- I learned to look carefully at the setting.
- Who knew you could compare a bar (pub) with purgatory!
The Gates of Gold by Frank McGuinnes
- Setting: the domestic interior
- Stage: divided in “living room” and bedroom (“dying room) – EMPHASIS ON THEMES
- Title: explore meaning ‘The Gate’ is the theatre the partners founded in Dublin.
- On a metaphysical level the title frames Gabriel’s looming death.
- Stage directions: Silence: there is a definite significance of silence and lack of action
- Silence and lack of motion can be just as powerful as dialogue and action
- Irony: characters… Conrad is teaching Gabriel how to die
- …and Gabriel is teaching his partner how to live!!
- Dialogue: overlapping it is a
- …challenge to read or follow but provides a reflective commentary.
- Major threat: inescapable biological reality of death
- Ireland: the Irish future has arrived with
- …neither priest nor colleen nor greenfield in sight.
The Weir by C. McPherson
- Setting: local bar
- Bar = sacred place or even purgatorial where people
- can tell the truth b/c no one will return here.
- People ease their loneliness by sharing their interior lives.
- Stage: aging photos on the wall, barflys are male, the fire is peat and
- …the preferred drink is Guinness.
- Titel: is a metaphor The Wier for damned up emotion/feelings
- that will spill out in their stories…
- “on one side it is quite calm on the other side water is being squeezed through.”
- Lots under the surface is coming out.
- Stage directions: Silence: TV and radio are present but not turned on.
- Patrons would rather tell stories.
- Irony: Valerie….the ‘intruder’ is leaving the city for rural Irish landscape
- ….while other characters are rushing to the city!
- Dialogue: no indication that is bar has a window so exterior space
- …is only what the characters describe.
- Major threat: never-seen-but-often-discussed toerists (modernity)
- Ireland: rural area…a place for lonely bachelors and nonworking bathrooms
- …where Valerie comes to heal.
#AWW2019 Mary Anne Butler (playwright)
- Author: Mary Anne Butler
- Title: Broken
- Published: 2016
- Genre: play
- Rating: A+++++
- Trivia: 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (drama)
- Trivia: 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (literature)
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly plan
- #AWW2019
- @AusWomenWriter
- #AusReadingMonth @Brona’s Books
Conclusion:
- Some plays should not be analyzed…they just have to sink in.
- Mary Anne Butler
- …has written a phenomenal script.
- It is intimate, realistic and breathtaking drama.
- Three characters weave their story
- ….criss-crossing their lives with each other.
- I read the play 4 times:
- 1 x reading the role of Ham (man driving on desert road)
- 1 x the role of Ash (female in car accident)
- 1 x Mia (Ham’s wife…home alone after a great loss).
- Now I was ready to read the play
- with the voices echoing in my mind.
- This is THE best play I’ve read in a very….long time!
- Strong point:
- Stellar example of dramatic construction (dramaturgy)
- and …inventive dialogue!
- #MustRead….really a must!
#Play The Weir
Playwright: Conor McPherson (1971)
Title: The Weir (1997)
Theme: loneliness. Setting: pub in isolated town western Ireland
Trivia: Won Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play 1997.
Trivia: Was voted one of the 100 most significant plays in 20th C
Genre: pastoral play. It gives the reader a slice of rural Irish life.
Analysis:
1. Explain the title. The Weir In what way is it suitable to the story?
a. OLD – The weir is a barrier whose function originally was a fence made of sticks or wattles built across streams or rivers that trap fish. It acts as a sieve.
b. NEW – The weir refers to a local dam built in 1951 to regulate water and generate power. c. The title is suitable as a symbol between the contrasts in the play: old vs modern; world of folklore vs contemporary life; between agricultural tradition vs 20th C modern development.
2. What is the predominant element in the story – plot, theme, character, setting?
Jack: garage owner, 50’s
Brendan: the owner of the pub 30’s (only listens, no story to tell)
Jim: garage assistant, 40’s
Finbar Mack: a local businessman late 40’s
Valerie: a Dublin woman 30.
3. Who is the single main character about whom the story centers?
Jack: is the main character. He undergoes the greatest change.
b. He is the talkative leader of the barflys, ‘old-school’ Irish,
c. devoted to the national beverage of Guinness.
d. Finbar: (foil for Jack) ‘get rich quick’ Irish real estate man, flashy, content to drink
e. the ‘last beer anyone would choose’ bottled Harp.
f. Valerie: incomer; city folk, drinks white wine; Brendan is flustered….Wine?
g. He finally finds a bottle he received as a gift.
h. When pouring her glass he fills it up as he would a pint.
4. How does the story get started?
The play opens on a stormy night in Brendan’s pub.
b. A rural Irish pub is located in an isolated town in County Leitrim.
c. Brendan, the owner of the pub, opens the bar, fills the till and checks the beer taps.
d. Jack and Jim (his regulars) are gathering for their daily pint.
5. Briefly describe the rising action of the story.
The action in the play is very subtle. The arrival of a stranger from Dublin city, a beautiful woman (Valerie). She has just rented an old house in the area.
The barflys want to impress her or perhaps scare her off (?) …with eerie stories about souls past, spirits present, ghosts and …half-haunted encounters. It is an authentic night drinking with locals who have the gift of blarney.
6. What is the high point, or climax, of the story?
a. 4: Valerie’s true story…(read the play and discover this for yourself!)
7. Discuss the falling action or close of the story.
After Valerie’s story the mood changes.
Jack’s talk with Brendan and Valerie is the last…..it is a confession.
McPherson bookends the play.
Brendan closes the bar.
Conclusion:
- This was my first one-act play.
- It should be tightly compressed, short,
- …with playing time max forty-five minutes.
- A single setting (pub) should be a ‘pressure-cooker play’.
- The energy should build up, ready to blow off the pan’s cover.
- This play is ninety minutes long on stage.
- The play felt like it was quietly simmering on the back-burner.
a. Weak point….but not really!
- No real conflict. But I’ve learned that play writing is NOT all about conflict.
- The power of the play derives from the
- power of argument in the dialogue.
- The story about transition….people realize that their
- beloved village, rural life is becoming the thing of the past.
b. Weak point…but not really!
- I was looking for the ‘lilt of Irish humor, the
- …capacity to make rapid and irresistible remarks.
- In this play I only chuckled twice:
- at the beginning (defect beer tap) and
- at the end (who are the Germans, really?)
- Perhaps McPherson choses to embed the humor in gestures
- …..intonation of the voice that is impossible to relate to while reading a play.
c. Weak point….really!
- The play contains 3 ghost stories barflys tell each other
- …that were not scary.
Last thoughts:
- This play does not come to life on paper.
- It….MUST have actors to relate the emotions in the dialogue.
- I read the play twice before making a conclusion.
- I want to see if I missed something
- The only way to really enjoy the play is to see a stage performance.
- Playwright’s task is to create stories that generate emotional responses.
- The rhythm of the language is as important as the words themselves.
- Conor McPherson uses the smallness of a tiny Irish village
- …in the service of bigness.
- He illustrates the difference between fading rural life
- …and the encroaching urban lifestyle.
#Play Waiting For Godot
- Playwright: Samuel Beckett
- Title: Waiting for Godot
- Preformed: 1943 5 January Théâtre de Babylone
- Wikipedia link: Samuel Beckett (1906 – 1989)
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly reading plan
- #20BooksOfSummer
- Play: nr 7 on list Best 50 Plays
- ….in past 100 years!
Conclusion:
- Reading time: 1 hour 40 min
- Waiting for Godot is theater of absurd.
- Beckett thought the audience
- …MUST feel what it is like to be in an ABSURD world.
- Beckett used bizarre characters speak in what sometimes
- …appears to be illogical, banal, chit chat.
- One cannot read Godot for the story because there is no story
- Waiting for Godot does not tell a story
- It explores a situation….2 tramps..waiting for Godot.
- What are the abusrd characteristics?
- No plot, no recognizable characters, no beginnings no ends,
- …reflections of dreams and nightmares, incoherent babblings.
Last Thoughts:
- The only way to gain any insight is to
- read a summary before starting this play.
- I used this LINK at Free Online Dictionary website.
- This is an excellent summary.
- Waiting for Godot
- …left critics bewildered and is now a classic.
- Nr. 7 on List 50 Best Play in Past 100 yrs.
- I was absolutely dreading this play...
- Need #Heineken
#Play Noises Off by Michael Frayn
- Playwright: M. Frayn
- Title: Noises off
- Preformed: 1982 Savoy Theatre London until 1987
- Wikipedia link: Michael Frayn (1933)
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly reading plan
- #20BooksOfSummer
- Play: nr 29 on list Best 50 Plays
- ….in past 100 years!
Introduction:
- The play has received two major Broadway productions and
- …numerous regional ones in the United States,
- United Kingdom, and other countries in Europe and Asia.
- In response to its popularity, Frayn has continued to
- rewrite the play in the thirty years since he first wrote it.
Conclusion:
- For once a blurb has lived up to expectations
- …this is surely the funniest farce ever written!
- This play-in-a-play left me laughing out loud!
- Noises Off (1982) by Michael Frayn.
- It is said to be one of the
- ...greatest comedies ever preformed on stage!
- Reading the introduction…and discover the first laugh!
- Prague: play performed without Act 3 for 10 years…
- NO one noticed until Frayn arrived for a show!
- The play is available on Kindle.
- Reading time: 2 hr 55 min
- Perfect poolside
- …reading this summer.
- #LOL
#Non-fiction August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle
- Editor: S. Shannon
- Title: August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle (13 essays)
- Published: 2016
- Wikipedia link: August Wilson (1945 – 2005)
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly reading plan
- #20BooksOfSummer
Introduction:
- August Wilson understood the power of the theater.
- He used it to its full potential by
- …inserting honesty and realism into every play.
- Some consider August Wilson “America’s Shakespeare”.
- August Wilson was an American playwright
- …who did the unheard of- penning ten plays.
- …one for each decade of the 20th C.
- Wilson received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama:
- Fences (1987), The Piano Lesson (1990)
- These 10 plays gives a glimpse into
- …American history through the
- …lens of the Black experience.
- August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle is a
- …series of critical essays about the plays.
- I have reviewed the first 5 essays
- …you can discover the rest of the book yourself!
Conclusion:
- Essays 1-6 were interesting
- Essays 7-13 …seemed to repeat many thoughts
- about two plays: Gem of the Ocean and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
- Weak point: the essays do NOT explain all 10 plays
- One of the most famous play is Fences NOT reviewed!
- It is considered the African-American version
- ot The Death of a Salesman
- A few essays were very instructive about…
- Seven Guitars, The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- ….but still feel that the book
- does not live up to my expectations.
- #Disappointed
Plays:
- Jitney (1982) (no reviewed in an essay)
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984)
- Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1984)
- Fences (1987) (no reviewed in an essay)
- The Piano Lesson (1990)
- Two Trains Running (1991) (no reviewed in an essay…at length)
- Seven Guitars (1995)
- King Hedley II (1999)
- Gem of the Ocean (2003)
- Radio Golf (2005) (no reviewed in an essay)
Essays:
1. The emancipated century – J.H. Scott ( 2 plays discussed) – easy to read
- Play: Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
- Set in 1911… the play is about African Americans cut adrift by
- The Great Migration to the North and by slavery from their African past.
- The characters meet in a boarding house
- They represent a cross-section of African Americans.
- The boarders are in the midst of a
- …massive search for their “song,” or identity.
- Play: The Piano Lesson
- Set in 1936…this is a …
- Family conflict between Bernice and her
- …brother Boy Willie about the family piano.
- For Boy Willie the piano is a way to get some quick cash to buy land.
- For Bernice, the piano is a source of strength.
- It reminds her of the courage and endurance shown by her ancestors.
- Boy Willie looks to the future
- …while Bernice looks to the past.
2. Situated identity in The Janitor (J. Zeff): short essay about a play that is NOT in the cycle.
- The Janitor is a 1985 4 minute play.
- A janitor is someone society ignores.
- He is left to sweep the floor.
- The janitor gets an idea.
- …sees a microphone in an empty hall
- …and just starts talking.
- Message: identity is a work in progress which is in your control,
- “…but what you are now ain’t what you gonna become.”
3. Two Trains Running (S. Saddler, P. Bryant-Jackson) – This essay did not appeal to me. SKIM!
- This was a comparison of two books by
- American scholars Living Black History, M. Marable and
- The Archive and the Repertoire, D. Taylor.
- Where is the play?
- I noticed they referred to the play
- Two Trains Running but do NOT review this play at length
- …so I decided to skim this essay and
- …investigate the Pulitzer Prize 1992 play on Wikipedia.
- I learned more on Wiki…than in his essay!
4. World War II History (E. Bonds) – excellent essay, I learned a lot about the difficult period just after WW II. Black men struggle to move on after the war. They feel they are not benefiting from the post WW II economic boom. They feel like…they are still fighting.
- Play: Seven Guitars
- Set in 1948…
- …The play begins and ends after the funeral of one of the main characters.
- Events leading to the funeral are revealed in flashbacks.
- The essay explains the 7 characters (7 guitars) and their
- individual out-of-tune chords (life experiences).
- What I did not realize was how important the boxer
- Joe Lewis was for the African American community.
- Wilson uses Lewis’s fame and downfall as an essential part of the play.
- It is so sad to read that African American GI’s were fighting
- …on two fronts:
- the enemy overseas….and racism at home.
5. Stereotype and Archetype in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (M. Downing) – best explanation difference stereotype vs archetype I’ve ever read. Excellent essay, lucidly-written, logically-structured, and convincingly argued.
- Play: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- Set in 1920s…the historic exploitation of
- black recording artists by white producers.
- The essay explains how August Wilson started with
- stereotypes assigned by whites to blacks in the play.
- Then he remakes them into archetypes.
- I would have missed this
- …completely by just reading the play!
- Wilson places the stereotype (ST) at the beginning of the play
- …adds monologues…adds POV of African American characters
- …draws the original ST (evokes criticism, suspicion, scorn)
- …into an archetype (evokes empathy, understanding, compassion)
- Example: Ma Rainey is introduced as
- ST: chaotic, unreasonable, difficult, a risk with the law
- Wilson breaks this ST into components and rebuilds Ma as
- AT: mother, queen, goddess
#AWW2019 Nakkiah Lui (playwright)
- Author: Nakkiah Lui (1991) Gamillaroi and Torres Strait Islander woman
- Title: Black is the New White
- Published: 2019 (book)
- Opening night: 10 May 2017 Sydney Theatre Company
- Genre: play (romantic comedy)
- Trivia: Indigenous issues
- Trivia: 2018 winner NSW Lit Award for Playwriting
- Trivia: 2018 shortlist Victorian Premier’s Award Drama
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly plan
- #AWW2019
- @AusWomenWriters
- @AllenandUnwin
Quickscan:
- Young couple Charlotte Gibson and
- Francis Smith are newly engaged.
- But their fathers are political rivals.
- The Gibson and Smith families gather for Christmas lunch.
- Unexpected guests, sudden self-realizations
- …and family secrets disrupt their meal.
- Themes: land rights, politics, relationships, identity, class.
- Question: What is it to be Aboriginal and middle class?
Structure:
- 7 scenes
- 8 characters:
- Engaged couple (20s) Charlotte and Francis
- Their respective parents (50-60s) Joan, Ray, Maire and Dennison
- Daughter (nr 2) and son-in-law (30s) Rose and Sonny
Dialogue:
- To speed up the pace Nakkiah uses overlapping dialogue.
- The idea was to write dialogue
- …the way people really speak
- …so that characters cut off the
- beginnings and ends of each other’s sentences.
- Full revelation of emotions is transformed into comedy.
- At times it feels like community (scene 3-4-5-6)
- ….and at times like chaos! (scene 7)
References:
- To give the play a very culturally modern feel we read about a
- virtual reality mask, twitter, Michell Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton,
- Kim and Kayne Kardishan, Beyoncé and JayZ, Martin Luther King,
- Waleed Aly, Alicia Keyes,
- Netflix series House of Cards and the movie Cluesless.
Narrator:
- Lui uses a technique of the narrator to
- give the audience/reader the backstory.
- The narrator comments on action, adds insight
- …on characters, stage elements
- …developing a precise and complete character persona.
Conclusion:
- I will not reveal any spoilers
- …..the play should be read with a clean slate.
- You will enjoy the unfinished battles
- …in the character’s public and private lives!
- We follow the maze from character to character….
- …with the climatic scene 7
- …which includes 15 ‘bombshells’ of information!
- In Black is the New White (title revealed in scene 4)
- …you meet 8 characters who
- challenge stereotypes of
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- With Nakkiah Lui’s comic descriptions of
- their personal interaction and commentary
- …you have an unforgettable romantic comedy
- …and many life lessons.
- #MustRead #MustLaugh
#AWW2019 Winner NSW Lit Award for Drama
- Author: Kendall Feaver
- Title: The Almighty Sometimes
- Published: 2018
- Genre: play
- List of Challenges 2019
- Monthly plan
- #AWW2019
- @AusWomenWriters
- @Brow_Books
- @kendallfeaver
- #NSWPLA
Awards:
- Triivia: 2019 Prize for Drama: NSW Literary Awards
- Trivia: 2019 Prize for Drama: Victorian Premier’s Award
- Trivia: 2018 Judges’ Award Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting
- Trivia: 2018 Best New Play at the UK Theatre Awards
Quickscan:
- The play centers on a young woman (Anna).
- She has been medicated for a range of mood and
- behavioral disorders since she was a child.
- Now she wants to find out what
- ...her life would be like without pills.
- The play takes an unflinching look at
- mental illness and medication among young people.
What is the structure of the play?
- Act 1 (7 scenes) – reading time: 1 hr 30 min
- Act 2 (6 scenes) – reading time: 50 min
Cover:
- There are two book covers
- ….that convey different messages.
- Daughter: breaking free…carefree and in control of her life
- …after she chooses to stop her mental illness medication.
- Mother: having spent years keeping her daughter safe
- …is powerless to stop her.
Daughter: Anna
Mother: Renée
What is the trigger in Act 1 ….something big at stake?
- Anna suffers from mental
- ….heath issues (bipolar) since she was a child.
- In Act 1 she is 18 yr and decides
- …she wants to stop with her medication.
- This is a very scary decision she makes.
- It affects everyone else around her.
- Her mother really struggles NOT to intervene.
What is the tension in the play?
- Anna has one desire…to stop medicating
- …and be in control of her life.
- The journey pursuing this desire forms the plot.
- The tension for the audience is
- the DOUBT that is aroused about Anna…
- “..will she or won’t she break free of the pills?”
- Strong point:
- Ms Feaver generates a subtext (stories of 8 yr girl)
- ….that she can play off of in the play
- The history of what has happened
- …moments that refer to the character’s past.
- are very important part of the play.
- Strong point:
- The play is deliberately intimidating
- …about a girl in a sudden state of crisis
- …to raise awareness
- …about youth’s mental health issues.
- Ms Kendall has done extensive research
- and spoken to many psychiatrists.
- It took Kendall Feaver 5 years to finish the script.
- Strong Point:
- Title: The Almighty Sometimes
- …has intrigued me from the beginning!
- It refers to an option on questionnaires:
- Never – Always – Sometimes.
- Sometimes....Anna is troubled
- …but sometimes she is
- …good, kind and capable.
- It is a hard choice a mother
- …must make when answering
- …questions about her daughter.
Conclusion:
- 2-Act structure is a simple.
- It looks at the character’s journey
- …in he clinical world living day to day
- with a mental health condition.
- There is a routine of life between
- mother and daughter that passes for existence.
- Frenetic activity is expressed in the
- …dialogue with boyfriend Oliver
- …and psychiatrist Vivienne.
- Later this gives way to many
- moments of silence between daughter and mother.
- Anna is pushed to the extreme
- …as her internal and external worlds explode.
- Act 1 may feel a bit too long…but keep reading.
- Act 2 is where the fireworks display starts!
Last thoughts:
- Mother-daughter relationships are complex.
- Some mothers and daughters are best friends.
- Some avoid conflict.
- Others talk through everything…
- …not so between Anna and Renée!
- Strong point:
- The best part of the play…
- …as Kendall Feaver shows us a
- snapshot of real life with a protective mother
- …and a daughter who feels she’s been lied
- …to, misunderstood and mis-diagnosed!
- The Almighty Sometimes is best seen on stage
- where sparks will fly between mother and daughter.
- Reading the play is the only alternative I have
- ….but am probably missing the best part:
- …the actors performance!