Rating: 3 stars
Sarah Ruhl was a classmate of mine at Brown, and I think I even took a creative writing class with her; clearly, she’s better at it than I am. I liked, but didn’t love this play, though, and I can’t quite understand its critical acclaim. The first act was tight, funny, and affecting; the second act was kind of a mess.
Some of my discontent probably had to do with the performance. The actors were, as is usually the case at Trinity, generally excellent (only Cynthia Strickland as Lane fell into the usual Trinity trap where LOUD substitutes for intense), but the direction didn’t work for me; it was performed in the downstairs theater, but seemed to be staged for a proscenium space rather than the 3/4 arrangement (there were a few key moments that we just couldn’t see). Also, the final act’s interminable “washing the body” scene was probably supposed to be quietly affecting — alas, it was just boring.
Still, Ms. Ruhl clearly has talent. If you’re looking for a thoughtful work on the nature of humor and of women’s relationships to one another, and if you’re looking for some good laughs, I’d check it out.
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This may be the only less-than-positive review of this play on the whole internet (based on my cursory Googling), and I can’t quite understand why. Like you, I liked some of this play but didn’t care for the rest, and I actively disliked some aspects of it. Either we’re missing something, or everyone else is.
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