A new play by George F Walker at Factory Theater. Loss of family - one daughter lost to schizophrenia, son who just leaves, father has lost his job, and mother feels she is losing everything.
Great cast - Peter Donaldson (bald) and Susan Coyne are the parents; Jenny Young played the daughter and Jerry Franken played Kurt Vonnegut - who acts as confessor andadvisor to the parents. When you can't afford a shrink an imaginary friend who happens to be a dead author will have to do instead.
A hard to show to watch as a parent - the destruction that Schizophrenia can cause is devastating.
I found the structure - a lot of little scenes and the use of black outs between scenes meant that the story did not build as well as I think it could have. The tension kept being interrupted.
But overall, an interesting discussion of a difficult subject.
I think I enjoyed this more than Cathy.
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing how funny it was, when the story was such a downer - although I guess it has a happy ending (sorta).
The big problem with the blackout was that, when the play ended, you didn't know if there would be more until the cast came out to take their bow. I know there is a need for time for scene changes, but I think future productions will find a better way to handle this.
The cast was great, again. One thing: the mother was Martha Burns.
Sorry Martha! I really had you in mind when I was writing, but somehow the name didn't come out1
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