Her breasts were like pomegranates or what you will, but like nothing so much as a young woman’s breasts.
- Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Read that his morning and thought of the play last night. Julie and I saw “A Thought in Three Parts”. We were accompanied on this trek with another mother, 2 rat girls, Bill and Aaron, and some torrential rainstorms. The Vortex’s parking lot is not made for rainstorms.

I enjoyed Part 1 quite a bit. It was well acted. The writing was pretty sharp, if demanding that the actors fill in a bit too much (I know I’m one to talk in this area, but-) and the message well done. I enjoyed the actors and the whole piece. I just wish there wasn’t a ceiling fan directly over my head freezing me.

Part 2 was actually a lot more enjoyable than I would have thought. It was hard to define as pornographic (not just because it was all fake), as pornography seems to imply that someone, somewhere might actually find it arousing. This was more like a dirty joke. Entertaining, but ultimately not even remotely stimulating. The constant bed hopping eventually resembled nothing so much as an episode of Three’s Company where what Mr. Roper always assumed was goingon upstairs, actually was going on upstairs. The Rubber Rep seem to be able to make their audiences comfortable with and amused by sex on stage, which is something that seems to be their unique gift. But while this comedic direction makes it easy for the audience to take the extreme sex; it also made the ending of the scene jarring. Judy returns home, and is physically assaulted by her husband. In all the reviews I’ve read this destroyed the entire scene, which I agree with. But I think that this was caused by directing the scene as farce, and not by a weakness in the script. The scene while drenched in sex, is also almost entirely about violence. Dick and Helen constantly scream that they hate each other. Dick physically assaults Helen multiple times. And the finale has Bob ejaculating over a fight between Dick, Helen, and Judy. I’m still trying to suss out what this means about our love of sex and violence. It definitely got me thinking, which is always a good thing.

Part 3 was beautiful. It was pouring outside, and David Yeakle’s Mr. Fabulous was sitting in this Faberge egg of a house that had somehow been cleverly inserted next to the audience. As the rain poured overhead, his words were mostly lost. It seemed to be the poetic soul of the lonely virgin. But the images are what remain in my mind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that beautiful on stage. The last thing that comes close for me was the set for Saint Enid and the Black Hand, and I think this set blew it away.

All in all, thanks Rubber Rep for another wonderful and frustrating night of theater. And while this was nice, I prefer your original pieces much more. So back to work!

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Comments

jooley ann (www.julieholden.com)

2007-05-27T01:42:36.000Z

Yah, wasn’t the rain SO cool? I’m glad you liked the show, too. I really enjoyed it. I avoided ALL reviews & other press before writing my review, but I’ve read reactions since and was pleased to see they’re similar to mine. How odd that RR can pull off stuff like this, eh? And yet how wonderful! I love those guys.

Josh

2007-05-30T14:29:58.000Z

always enjoy reading your reactions, tim. it’s true that the Tom/Judy scene came closest to offending, but i like going into a much more realistic place and maybe making people question what strange world they’ve been in and what horrible acts they’ve already been laughing at. and during rehearsals, it seemed like it might play just as funny. on one level, it’s as over the top as anything else. feels like some sort of overwrought Clifford Odets social drama.

Tim (http://www.loadedguntheory.com/blog/director/listblog/tim.html)

2007-05-30T15:29:10.000Z

I can see that. I think to make it work, though, Shawn would have needed to keep the staccato pacing going. So that you built into that scene as being just as hilarious as everything before it. Then the audience would have laughed right through the abuse. Leaving them to contemplate their laughter in the silence of the set change. That sort of pacing is so hard to get though. I could see that scene as being the sort of play that a playwright would tinker with for decades. Constantly trying to find that magic combination of words that would finally get the audience reacting properly.