Saturday, September 10, 2005

Dirty Story

Third Rail Repertory Theatre
September 9, 2005; closes October 8, 2005

First act writes check the second act cashes, so if opening scene drags or overall pace is less-than-swerving, just let it ride—this self-aware modernist melodrama of domestic strife fronting global politics holds lots of surprises and the payoff is worth it. Third Rail knows how to play with intelligence.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally disagree. Though the cast was capable, this script made performances become dwarfed by a very preachy, abstruse script. Could have been more and yet wasn't. . . .left feeling attacked and bored, not thru the fault of the actors, just by the script.

David Millstone said...

Good polemics are hard to come by, and I thought this was a well-executed, intelligent bit of polemics. I wasn't bored at all. I love, love, love intelligent words that not only tumble out this fluently, but actually mesh together coherently and with humor.

Also, Valerie Stevens is dishy, no matter what she does. Anything she's in gets extra points from me (sorry, Tim.)

Anonymous said...

I haven't liked anything very much,lately. I've become such a snob. I wouldn't even invite me to my own show because I know I'd hate it.

This show was smart, well played, surprising, engaging and side splittinly funny. I also found myself ashamed for finding humor in the subject matter, but brutal honesty will do that. It is the best thing I've ever seen Ted do. That's 20 years of watching Ted, mind you. Valerie was Valerie and that's a beautiful thing. Damon took a bit to warm up to, but once I did, I enjoyed him quite a bit. Not the best work I've seen Michael do, but he's still a master! By the time he's mediating Val and Ted, he hits stride!

LOVE THE PLAY! I had no idea what I was going to see. It was all a surprise and totally fresh to me.
The allegory was brilliant! Brutally funny.