My World is My Stage

Sorry to flood you all at once with my Humana thoughts but I wanted to get them out this week. I’ll talk about the last piece tomorrow and a wrap-up Friday.

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s BOB is a very smart and well-written work. I also enjoyed the direction by Sean Daniels. The story is a commentary on American society. Follows an abandoned child (who was left in a bathroom of a White Castle) as he strives for self-actualization. The comedy comments on the values we hold highest in our society and questions their standing. Most people walked away from the festival concluding that this was their favorite piece. While I enjoyed it, I think that it fell flat towards the end and took the cheap way out on some topics instead of always striving for the smarter, more thoughtful route.

I don’t really have much to say about Anne Washburn’s A Devil at Noon outside of that it isn’t my cup of tea. I say that without really knowing exactly what type of tea it is. It seemed like it wanted to be a play about the neurosis of writers but it turned into this funky, convoluted, caricature of itself. I’m being harsh, I know, but I just didn’t get this one. What’s funny is that this play felt like one of those plays that makes you feel bad for not getting it, like you’re not smart enough. But, whatever. Also, there was this REALLY racist moment with ninjas at the start of the play. :-/

The play that stays in my head the most is Adam Rapp’s The Edge of Our Bodies. This play, that’s mostly a one-woman show, explores the lost of innocence in an unavoidably uncomfortable way. Rapp’s character reads from her journal, detailing her excursion to New York City. She flees her boarding school in order to tell her older boyfriend that she may be pregnant. What unfolds is a very gritty exploration of how we come into ourselves and the experiences that lead us there. The play’s linear narrative structure is broken up at times with allusions and vignettes of a play I’m not familiar with. Unfortunately for me, that threw me off a little, and I’m sure for those who knew the other piece, it helped to drive home the overall message of the play. While the play isn’t my aesthetic, I can see why this is one of the best new plays out there.

Jordan Harrison’s Maple and Vine was a really well done play. It screams Regional Theatre and quite possibly, Broadway. While some may take that as a dig, I actually applaud Mr. Harrison for being able to write a play that not only challenges the way people think about the world but one that also fits nicely into what most artistic directors would like to put on their stages. While the play does bring up issues on how we view interracial relationships (in this case a Japanese/Caucasian one) and homosexuality, by placing the play in a Utopian, 1950’s American society, it looses a little of it’s potential “sting.” It seems to make a statement that all is well in 2011 in regards to racism and sexual orientation discrimination. Maple and Vine was one of my favorite pieces of the festival overall though. I felt like the storytelling was really some of the best.