Monday, January 06, 2003

 
THEATER REVIEW: THE MERCY SEAT * (1 star out of 4).
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This new play, starring Sigourney Weaver and Liev Schreiber takes place in downtown Manhattan on September 12, 2001. Unfortunately, it's a very mediocre play, with very un-clever and unrealistic dialogue, that would never have been produced, if it weren't for this little gimmick being shoe-horned in about the World Trade Center attack. Basically, here's what's wrong with this play: 1) the two characters are so absurdly and unsympathetically self-absorbed and cruel to each other that they are thoroughly unlikable, and their relationship together seems absurd. 2) On 9/12/01, not one person in the country, much less downtown New York (where I lived at the time), was talking about anything at all except the 9/11 attacks. If someone had another comment about something else, it would slip by in passing, in between long conversations about the events of the day before. However, in this play, the situation is reversed, and they barely mention the World Trade Center, even though they can see it smolder from their window. I guess it's a testament to how far we've come, that we're so willing to put up with this trivialization and exploitation of the events of 9/11.

This is The Official Record. 1:29 AM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/01/theater-review-mercy-seat-1-star-out.html


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