Party Crashers: Big Ideas v Middle Class
After a rousing bout with Vicky Blood last week Aaron and Dennis return to the business of dressing down some people who history chose to forgot. Did you know the inventor of Jell-O ran for president, and that he is the oldest person to do so? Or that the corrupting influence of politics turned a labor reformer into a white supremicist? It's all inside this episode of Presidential Death Match!
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140 (Marsha Norman) & Terminating, etc. (Tony Kushner)
It’s been awhile since my Tuesday was rough enough to necessitate revisiting the short play collection Love’s Fire, so in review: seven playwrights wrote seven short plays each based off a different Shakespearean sonnet for a night of theater in the late 90’s.
Marsha Norman’s 140 bears structural similarities to David Ives’ Seven Menus, a scene which I like considerably more. Over a series of (mostly) monologues we see a number of people who talk to their cheating partner while their partner is off with their lover until it comes full circle like La Ronde. Many of the lovers come away with the idea of wanting to preserve the image of their life: it’s ok to indulge yourself, just don’t let our friends know, don’t make it a thing in public, don’t talk to me about it. The pain of knowing and accepting being less than the pain of confronting and severing.
It lacks substance as it continues. The first two scenes are strong and interesting, but it fails to develop the idea and the ever-shortening monologues mean that we have less time and less connection as the piece progresses (and is over in what I imagine is ten minutes.) It’s hard to be excited about doing it without imagining a heavy indulgence in the silent visuals of the play.
Tony Kushner’s Terminating, which has an unbearably long title which weaves its way through German then back out again reminds me strongly of the Torchsong Trilogy I read earlier this year, Nicky Silver, and it also reminds me a bit of Terrance McNally’s work of the early 90’s (I’m thinking specifically of Lips Together, Teeth Apart). It may be a little… myopic to draw comparisons between otherwise very different writers who all happen to be gay men, but I sense this kind of alienation that runs through all of these works. An insistence on paid for relationships (with analysts, frequently) because the protagonists are too out-there for their friends to bear it anymore; a disconnection from everyone; an inability to take happiness when it appears to be right in front of one’s face: that’s what the popular theater of the 90’s seems to be, and I’m not terribly interested in it.
This piece is three conversations: Between Esther and her former patient Hendryk, and side conversations, one in the future, and one in the past, between them and their respective lovers. Esther is fed up with Hendryk, who is fed up with himself, and Esther is frustrated that she has no one to tell her problems to. Kushner is a skilled writer, so he buffets me along admirably in this slightly-longer work, but ultimately I found myself not caring to follow the philosophy and subsequently not connecting with the characters or their troubles.
So far this collection is not what I’d like it to be: it has passion, but lacks joy, and so it bubbles over into a kind of obsession or anger. I’m hoping the remaining three pieces shake up this dynamic.
Are You Now or Have You Ever Been (Eric Bentley)
While March's reading was decidedly not for sharing, we’re back in (early-ish) April to reading a play a day, starting with Eric Bentley’s Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been.
This is an example of what I’m fast learning is a broad and storied form of theater, documentary theater. Until a few years ago I only knew a few examples of this genre, but by chance I’m reading more and more of it over time. It distinguishes itself from historical fiction by relying on the words on record to tell the story (and some examples, such as The Vagina Monologues, may not be of historical interest, though that isn’t the case here.)
As a student of history I’m always interested in this melding of my interests, though I often find the plays lacking as entertainment/educational pieces. Bentley’s exploration of HUAC during the Red Scare is one of the few that I think rises above it’s subject matter, almost certainly because I have a more pronounced interest in this period of American history.
The trick with documentary theatre is where do you create, embellish, change- not just in the writing, but also in the acting, the staging, the design- and where do you hew to reality which is (often) much less interesting to watch for vast amounts of time. I’m hesitant to call anything dangerous, much less ideas, but this form of theater does walk a fine line since it wants to be close to reality, but still involves interpretation.
Vicky Blood: Ideals v Popularity
We end up only talking about Victoria Woodhull today! It's a good time.
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Yet More Losers: Establishment v Disruption
Aaron and Dennis jump so quickly into it you'd swear they were already recording!
In-between sloppy jokes and in-depth analysis of early American party politics they talk about the rest of the failed Presidential aspirants from 1824-1852, and in case you were wondering, yes we do talk about Governor John Floyd of the Nullifer party.
So many years people have been crying "when are you going to talk about Governor John Floyd of the Nullifer party?!" "If you don't talk about Governor John Floyd of the Nullifer party I'm cancelling my subscription!" "Give me Governor John Floyd of the Nullifer party or give me death!" Well, we've listened and today, you get to hear our thoughts on the man. I hope the wait was worth it.
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