I will begin with what I didn't like about the play because I find it easier to criticize than praise, and also because I absolutely loved this play and so I'd rather end on a good note than a bad one. First, some of my favorite scenes were the modern day ones, but I didn't understand them. I'm not even sure where they were set. And they were so packed with numbers and banking lingo and housing and mortgage lingo that I had only a vague idea of what was happening. Second, it is so difficult to make a play that is a mesh of current day foreclosure and The Grapes of Wrath. So, not all the transitions were smooth. They have to go from techno music to country music, which is very hard. Third, in general, there was just too much. There was constant music, constant talking, lights flashing constantly and it's overwhelming. I remember there was one really, really powerful scene and I desperately wanted there to be about five seconds of dead silence after it where nothing was moving and no sound was playing. The scene was so powerful and I wanted a second for that to sink in. But then they just kept going without any pause.
Now, I can't list everything I liked about the play, because there were so many things, but I'll give a few. I will start with the two most powerful scenes. The times when both The Grapes of Wrath and current day scenes were going on at the same time were always fantastic, but the best was when the man in current day was having his house foreclosed. As he talked on the phone with someone, people were in his house, throwing all his stuff out on the curb. At the same time, the characters from Grapes were moving out. The second scene had no dialogue from the characters (which is always beautiful), but we were listening to an announcement on the TV about the stock market crash (again, the problem of not fully understanding the situation) and the two main characters from current day were watching and just despairing. They never said anything, but they showed it through their motions. One of them ended up at the very edge of the stage, crouched down with his hands on his head. It was gorgeous. Other things: they did really well with the multimedia. It's really hard to do that because it often looks fake (and it definitely wasn't perfect), but they pulled it off. The set was also amazing. Having the lower and upper level of the house, which was in pieces and had screens so you can see characters while they’re in the house. This creates such a strong effect because you can have characters in so many different places.
I don't want to make this too long, but the play was really emotionally attached to the foreclosure movement, and even if you don't agree with that, it was so well put together that it was amazing to watch anyway.
Now, I can't list everything I liked about the play, because there were so many things, but I'll give a few. I will start with the two most powerful scenes. The times when both The Grapes of Wrath and current day scenes were going on at the same time were always fantastic, but the best was when the man in current day was having his house foreclosed. As he talked on the phone with someone, people were in his house, throwing all his stuff out on the curb. At the same time, the characters from Grapes were moving out. The second scene had no dialogue from the characters (which is always beautiful), but we were listening to an announcement on the TV about the stock market crash (again, the problem of not fully understanding the situation) and the two main characters from current day were watching and just despairing. They never said anything, but they showed it through their motions. One of them ended up at the very edge of the stage, crouched down with his hands on his head. It was gorgeous. Other things: they did really well with the multimedia. It's really hard to do that because it often looks fake (and it definitely wasn't perfect), but they pulled it off. The set was also amazing. Having the lower and upper level of the house, which was in pieces and had screens so you can see characters while they’re in the house. This creates such a strong effect because you can have characters in so many different places.
I don't want to make this too long, but the play was really emotionally attached to the foreclosure movement, and even if you don't agree with that, it was so well put together that it was amazing to watch anyway.
I would disagree with Sarah that the present day scenes were written in a way that you could understand what happened to cause the recession without learning economic jargon. I felt that their choice to project the struggles in the Grapes of Wrath onto our current struggles really portrayed the cyclical patterns of history due to the imperfections of man. The play was amazing not only through the story but the use of multimedia throughout the play.
ReplyDeleteSarah I agree with you about this play. Often there was just too much going on for the audience to fully grasp what was happening, but they did a good job of getting their point across. I also enjoyed the Question and Answer session at the end, it allowed for those who stayed to listen to see the passion that was put into this production. Although the one thing that disappointed me the most was that i couldn't get the program they had set up for smart phones to work.
ReplyDeleteThe House Divided presentation was challenging and stimulating. It was the drama to David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" or Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves". This is to say that it was not for the casual spectator or light entertainment fan. It required attention, thought and concentration; if one put in the effort, the resulting performance was extraordinary. The use of juxtaposition, irony and parallelism did justice to "The Grapes of Wrath" and fully grasped the thickness of the financial issues caused by speculation. The performance was worth the time and the after-show party was the most entertaining of all.
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