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Basso
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| Joined: | Fri Feb 29th, 2008 |
| Location: | Canada |
| Posts: | 76 |
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Posted: Sat Mar 15th, 2008 02:18 pm |
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One week ago, in Boston, I was treated to the play "The Scene," by Teresa Rebeck. It is the story of a middle-aged, down on his luck actor, Charlie, who is obsessed with acting, but hates the business. At the beginning of the play, Charlie and his friend, Lewis, are at a party of some director/producer, whom naturally Charlie despises, and they find themselves on the balcony with the bomb-shell, Clea. Clea is from Ohio, and just so pleased to be in NYC, "I just got here, what, like, six months ago?” At first it seems as though she is simply an air-head with a nice pair of legs when she continues, "I mean, mind-blowing, right, it's just so surreal, the lights and the water, it's like unbelievable." Charlie has seen this woman a thousand times, or so he thinks, and so he pokes fun at her in a sardonic way. However, Clea is a tour-de-force in her own right, and later on in the play astonishes Charlie with her savant like insights. Charlie says, "How can you know so much and so little at the same time?" This is after Charlie and Clea become involved with each other, creating a rather interesting triangle between the two and Charlie's wife, Stella.
The dialogue is crisp, insightful and funny. I was surprised the play was finished, because I felt like I had only been in sitting in the theatre for an hour instead of two. The ensemble work of the four actors was generous, and the chemistry wonderful. If I hadn't been leaving Boston the next day, I would have gone again. Rebeck knows how to delineate characters, and I guess is very familiar with the scene that she was writing about. Charlie has one of the best rants I have ever heard, where he goes on about the vacuousness of the business and how he has lost the last shred of his dignity by kissing some producers ass. It was wonderful and wonderfully delivered too.
It is a familiar story, I think, but with believable and engaging dialogue. Perhaps two or three times I thought a line cliche, but mostly I was engrossed in the story as it unfolded. I don't know if it is still on, but if it is, and you live near Boston, I highly recommend you get yourself a ticket.
Basso
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