Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
The Physicists, Friedrich Durrenmatt
This is a farcical who-dun-it cum meditation on madness. It questions the moral responsibility of science, asking us to address who imposes moral restriction on knowledge, especially when science is in the service of governmental policies. In the end, the play and its premise devolves into an either/or argument. The paradox of the physicist's position in society at the end reminds us of the inherent insanity of those who break paradigms.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Blue/Orange, Joe Penhall
Featuring great, persuasive acting, the play explores the problem of interpretation and transmission of ideas, especially when those ideas are expressed by individuals not "trained" in the presupposition and jargon of the field from which those ideas are associated.
At the same time the play is about a slick-talking, manipulative bureaucrat, it also manipulates postmodern concepts to keep the audience's floor unstable. Here, language is not for seeking an understanding of the work and its ambiguity, but about gaining and maintaining control. The goal is power not truth. Thus, characters make truthful statements, even truthful arguments, that are not at the service of truth. By asking such questions as "How should we understand mental illness?" "How can mental health professionals talk to patients?" "How do we distinguish between patient and professional?"--the play becomes a fascinating examination of important postmodern concerns: the intersection of ethnocentricity with racism, and cultural/mental/intellectual norms.
At the same time the play is about a slick-talking, manipulative bureaucrat, it also manipulates postmodern concepts to keep the audience's floor unstable. Here, language is not for seeking an understanding of the work and its ambiguity, but about gaining and maintaining control. The goal is power not truth. Thus, characters make truthful statements, even truthful arguments, that are not at the service of truth. By asking such questions as "How should we understand mental illness?" "How can mental health professionals talk to patients?" "How do we distinguish between patient and professional?"--the play becomes a fascinating examination of important postmodern concerns: the intersection of ethnocentricity with racism, and cultural/mental/intellectual norms.
The Autumn Garden, Lillian Hellman
This oddly titled work is daring for questioning contemporaneous mores regarding homosexuality and female purity. The virtual rape becomes as devasting in its social consequences as a physical rape.
Recommend.
Recommend.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Thursday, August 2, 2007
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