Thursday, March 29, 2007
ESSENTIALLY, I THINK I LIKED THIS BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE IN NEW YORK WITH A PRINTED OUTLET FOR THEIR THOUGHTS
ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE may not be for everyone, but its one of the very best plays I've seen in a long time. Adam Rapp proved how well he understands the power of our underlying feelings of guilt and fear in his work before, and here he lays it bare by removing the naturalism so prevalent in most other plays and showing outright, who we are, how we became who we are, and why we don't always know how to handle what we've become and what society has turned us into.
I was so excited about ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE when I saw it, that I actually found myself talking to strangers about it at intermission, which I never do. And asking everyone I know who's seen it if they felt the same way too.
The play unfolds almost like a dream. Some segments are clearly in the mind's eye (roller skates? yes please), but even these are just as far from reality as others...a first date, self-defense class, a dinner party. When I look back at portions of my life, this is how I see them. The fantasies I had co-mingle with the realities. In ES-D, Rapp presents them the same way. As if to say, look at the absurdity of what we do...how we miss the blatant truth, we convinced ourselves to believe someone else's truth. The play might be saying, the truth is so far down, you may never discover it, but the only thing covering it is hope.
Heather Goldenhersh and my baby-daddy Paul Sparks are giving the kind of finely-crafted performances that only long-time involvement with a project and/or masterful direction could develop.
If all this seems like mumbo-jumbo, then its a testament to how much this play made me think about...well, everything. How satisfied I was by it.
Which brings me to my next point: I am absolutely done with Charles Isherwood. I find it ridiculous that he would even mention that Rapp "spends a lot of time posing in funky bars in Williamsburg, Brooklyn". What the hell is that? Just like when JZ wrote off all the plays of Elizabeth Meriwether as "merely stunts dreamed up in a half-serious bull session at a party in Williamsburg". Sure there are lots of things about Williamsburg to make fun of, but I don't see why the locale should be a hindrance to anyone's artistic merit. Especially when Manhattan has priced-out probably most playwrights under the age of Guare or Albee. I seriously take this type of attack as discrimination on young artists (whether they live there or not).
So, I still say go see ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE. I can't promise you'll like it like I did...in fact maybe you won't, but it's worth an evening of your time I guarentee.
And if you're going to let yourself be swayed by reviews, try this one. ¶ 1:28 AM
ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE may not be for everyone, but its one of the very best plays I've seen in a long time. Adam Rapp proved how well he understands the power of our underlying feelings of guilt and fear in his work before, and here he lays it bare by removing the naturalism so prevalent in most other plays and showing outright, who we are, how we became who we are, and why we don't always know how to handle what we've become and what society has turned us into.I was so excited about ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE when I saw it, that I actually found myself talking to strangers about it at intermission, which I never do. And asking everyone I know who's seen it if they felt the same way too.
The play unfolds almost like a dream. Some segments are clearly in the mind's eye (roller skates? yes please), but even these are just as far from reality as others...a first date, self-defense class, a dinner party. When I look back at portions of my life, this is how I see them. The fantasies I had co-mingle with the realities. In ES-D, Rapp presents them the same way. As if to say, look at the absurdity of what we do...how we miss the blatant truth, we convinced ourselves to believe someone else's truth. The play might be saying, the truth is so far down, you may never discover it, but the only thing covering it is hope.Heather Goldenhersh and my baby-daddy Paul Sparks are giving the kind of finely-crafted performances that only long-time involvement with a project and/or masterful direction could develop.
If all this seems like mumbo-jumbo, then its a testament to how much this play made me think about...well, everything. How satisfied I was by it.
Which brings me to my next point: I am absolutely done with Charles Isherwood. I find it ridiculous that he would even mention that Rapp "spends a lot of time posing in funky bars in Williamsburg, Brooklyn". What the hell is that? Just like when JZ wrote off all the plays of Elizabeth Meriwether as "merely stunts dreamed up in a half-serious bull session at a party in Williamsburg". Sure there are lots of things about Williamsburg to make fun of, but I don't see why the locale should be a hindrance to anyone's artistic merit. Especially when Manhattan has priced-out probably most playwrights under the age of Guare or Albee. I seriously take this type of attack as discrimination on young artists (whether they live there or not).
So, I still say go see ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE. I can't promise you'll like it like I did...in fact maybe you won't, but it's worth an evening of your time I guarentee.
And if you're going to let yourself be swayed by reviews, try this one. ¶ 1:28 AM
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this isherwood review is an embarrassment--it is trashy and so below his sensibilities as a critic. he has lost some major street cred for writing this as far as i'm concerned. rapp's play is outrageous, inventive, alive, so v v funny, and not perfect. but shit, charles,
"the synthetic mannerism of “essential self-defense” is no less alienated from the truth of human experience than the formulaic entertainments merchandised nightly on television. I left the theater feeling more than bored: I felt assaulted by empty artifice."
stay at home then and watch grey's anatomy. or fucking dancing with the stars. and take a break from writing. your judgement is severely clouded.
ps--heather goldenhersh is unbelievable in this. watershed, people.
"the synthetic mannerism of “essential self-defense” is no less alienated from the truth of human experience than the formulaic entertainments merchandised nightly on television. I left the theater feeling more than bored: I felt assaulted by empty artifice."
stay at home then and watch grey's anatomy. or fucking dancing with the stars. and take a break from writing. your judgement is severely clouded.
ps--heather goldenhersh is unbelievable in this. watershed, people.
Not that the arbiter of theatrical taste tracks such things, but just in case they do bother to monitor traffic, I didn't click your link to Isherwood's review. I went to the Times' theater page, read the first line under the ESD photo and didn't bother to read the review. "Written by a computer"? That's the kind of observation that might have meant something in the heady days just after we left the vacuum tube behind or circa War Games and the Cold War. You know - when we didn't own computers, weren't quite sure what they did, how they did it or what they were capable of. But now? It only serves to reveal the level of Isherwood's Pliocene ignorance.
Hey, Chuck - computers do what we make them! Go watch a Gurney play or better yet, go fade into the West with the elves and let someone else review playwrights that are trying to say something different and relevant.
Hey, Chuck - computers do what we make them! Go watch a Gurney play or better yet, go fade into the West with the elves and let someone else review playwrights that are trying to say something different and relevant.
I liked it too, but wasn't surprised that the TIMES would trash it. Not to sound paranoid, but with all the good buzz on the bloggs about ESD, I kind of feared a critics backlash...
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