10 things on The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? At Remy Bumppo
1. As I was looking for the numbers on the seat, I guess it looked like I might take this older dude’s seat. So he turns to me from the aisle and says: “I don’t think so.” Not “Excuse me.” or “Let’s take a look at our tickets.” Urge to kill rising, rising. Hey, my seat is right behind that of a Head Critic. Urge to kill falling.
2. Michael Pacas and Katherine Keberlein are the understudies. Hey BackStage Theatre hey.
3. The set, of a totally homey and modern well-appointed living room, is a place I want to live in someday. It’s really beautiful. And, you know when you see a few liberal magazines of the educated organized in a way both bragging and decorative that someone is about to get their comeuppance for making all that money and not knowing better about whatever it is they are supposed to know better about.
4. Nice Aaron Sorkin-ey dialogue with a correct use of who/whom runner. The audience is warming to the play. Nick Sandys and Annabel Armour have a good chemistry. All their jokes seem to be landing. All the actors are very good.
5. First mention of the goat. But…is this like a metaphor for something or…huh. Wait…you don’t mean that he and…how would that even work?
6. Oh man, the play just got weird. Annabel Armour is KILLING IT. She is so SO great.
7. One of the books on the shelf: Primary Colors. Another: Memoirs Of A Geisha.
8. The play just got weird again. You could hear a pin drop right now.
9. Hey Annabel Armour’s back and…oh…my…god…holy crap.
10. Well, that was sort of like putting the audience in tepid water so we didn’t realize the heat was increasing gradually enough that we were all getting boiled alive. Like how they do to frogs. You won this time Albee but we’ll be back. I jotted down the conversation of the couple next to me:
Lady: “That was stunning.”
Man: “Annabel was absolutely…absolutely… it’s …it’s…”
Lady: “I agree.”
Go see this play!
-Anita Deely
A-
who tags the posts you may ask? anderson lawfer.
ReplyDeleteYou say: "You won this time Albee but we’ll be back." Funny, I usually want to run screaming when Albee wins...and he usually does. Saw it at Goodman a few years ago. Suffice to say, he won. I won't be back.
ReplyDeleteGREAT review!
There are at least three (3) glaring omission from your review.
ReplyDelete1) Will Allan spent the entire show doing an impression of Adam Sandler in Little Nicky -- hair, hunch, voice, everything. It is apparently possible to apply "Sandleresque" to good acting.
2) Nick Sandys played Martin as if he were playing Remington Steele. The Goat is James Bohnen's swansong with Remy Bumppo, so most critics (including you, apparently) are looking past and being gracious about Sandys being out of his depth. "A" for effort, but not really on target.
3)I was that Head Critic sitting in front of you. I hope you enjoyed eating my farts for two hours. I had Thai for lunch that day, then stopped at a falafel stand that afternoon, and it all ran right through me.