What if EDGEWISE?

So we saw the hip hot Edgewise by Eliza Clark at WalkerSpace last night in a co-production by The Play Company and Page 73. Set in a dystopic New Jersey, we follow three teenagers who work the early shift at a fast food restaurant. What follows is a clear picture of the psychological costs of war. After the dust settles, and the burger-and-pot jokes have melted into the air, we watch as the last rags of innocence stripped are from our shivering bones.

Page 73, as always, is up to the challenge. Working with their 2010 Playwriting Fellow, they've put together a whip-smart cast, and in this timely collaboration with the unflinchingly accurate director Trip Cullman, the production sings... and screams and howls. What gets under your skin about this play is how swiftly and artfully the audience is brought in to the world. Did I miss something? Of course the enemy is the one we've suspected all along, and of course Dougal's is still open. What else does one do, but carry on, grow up, and... go back to work?

Mothers in the City

So my mother is visiting us this weekend, and this will be her very first time in New York City, ever. Hooray. We were talking about what she’d like to do, and she said, “Oh you know, see the sites, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, etc.” and of course we said would you like to see a show? And she goes, “Hmm, not really.”

“Hmm. Not really.”

The universal question of artists is "What will my mother think?"

A little demographics: my mother is in her late 60’s, born in Canada, trained as a nurse and became a missionary in Southeast Asia, fervently religious, never owned a new car, raised 3 boys while writing books (about missionaries) and sweating it out in the American South for the past 35 years. Why doesn’t she want to see a show?

Of course she’s seen my shows, but that’s not the same thing. For her there is too much to overcome.