#90 - F'ed up Families Edition

Play recap from the last 3 weeks:

1) High by Matthew Lombardo. A play-in-progress starring Kathleen Turner, touring the country as it makes it way to Broadway. Turner is a no-nonsense nun, who works as an addiction counselor. And, of course, harbors some dark secrets of her own. She attempts to council a drug-addicted teen, who, of course, harbors some dark secrets of his own. The only other person in the play is the priest who runs the place. Who, of course, harbors some dark secrets of his own.

Ultimately this play disappointed me. While Turner was good, I felt I had seen this all before. Maybe this says more about me but this supposedly hard-hitting material felt very after-school special. I wasn't even mildly shocked by the two big reveals in the play. And the onstage nudity (not Turner) was a yawn. The nudity in Equus was done a lot better and was much more integrated into (and integral to) the story. Here it was tacked on. And Evan Jonigkeit, playing the homeless hustler addict, came off about as bad-ass as a Sweathog. Maybe that was an intentional choice, playing tough but scared, but it didn't feel right. At the St. Louis Rep.

2) The Chosen by Chaim Potok and Aaron Posner - Play about two Jewish kids in 1940s Brooklyn, with very different fathers. Bias alert - My cousin David Chandler played Danny the Hasidic Jew whose father can only speak openly to him through intermediaries. I thought he and the other cast members were great. The play itself is good but not great. I can agree with other reviewers who noted that having a narrator on stage is a clunky exposition device. An exception is, of course, made for Our Town.

Here is hoping David has a long career in the theater. At The Mustard Seed Theatre.

3) Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill. The granddaddy of all addiction plays. Long play - 3 hours with 2 intermissions. But it doesn't drag, it just relentlessly circles the drain, as each character slides deeper and deeper into their own personal hells. Sounds like a fun night out, right? Well, perhaps not exactly fun, but it was riveting to watch, in that car wreck sort of way.

I really noticed the repetitiveness of O'Neill's lines. Characters keep using the same phrases again and again. I think it helped to show the never-changing nature of addiction. You felt like these characters had lived this same day again and again. Stephen King was right, "Hell is repetition".

Ugh, I need a shower. At Muddy Waters Theatre.