My daughters and I went to a local production of Edward Albee's play, Three Tall Women lat night given by the Eventide Theatre Company in Dennis, Mass. Frankly, I did not expect much having seen some painfully bad productions locally [not by this company]. And I had seen the off-Broadway original production with Marian Seldes in the main role of the old querulous old lady and could anyone in Cape Cod equal her? Well, yes and no. Seldes was more subtle but Elizabeth Liuzzi, a veteran actor, was very good in the role -- to my great delight. Finding the role of an older woman played with wit and intelligence by an older actress is very rare in community theatre. What a treat!
No, this was not an off-Broadway quality production but it was entirely worth seeing and done with both intelligent acting [by all three women] and generally good direction. I was very sad that the audience was small; finding an audience is a problem for all serious theatre, including off-Broadway and that's sad. I am afraid serious drama has fallen on very hard times -- a great loss to the audience
I came away with the same reaction as I did those several years ago: feeling Albee used too many cliches about a '50s marriage, and has too dour an attitude about life in general and married life specifically. Yes, couples marry and stay married for superficial reasons and there is a fair amount of adultery but we know that. What is best about the play is not what he is trying to say about women or about life in the mid-1900s, but his consumate stage craft. The dialogue is always fascinating and the structure of the play is interestingly constructed.
2 comments:
June -- this must have been a wonderful evening with your daughters. You certainly have great entertainment events near where you live.
yes, Barbara, we are more culture-rich than I had expected. I am a very severe critic of life theatre and avoid most of it. This was surprisingly good compared to most of what I've seen.
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