Well, I moved last week, so it took me a while to read a play. I did manage to in the midst of all that craziness. It's called Really Really by Paul Downs Colazio. It was given to me by a friend to read. She had just worked on a scene from it at her summer theatre program.
It's a very Mamet/Labute kind of play. It has a kind of moral ambiguity that passes for depth these days. The play is chock full of unlikable characters and the one character you want to believe is telling the truth manages to become entirely suspect. I think the thing that bothered me most about the play is the, I want to use the word suggestion but that is not strong enough, implication perhaps, that date rape is sought out and used to manipulate society to achieve one's ends.
It's all about the Generation Me, which I guess is the name for the current generation of young people disillusioned with the status quo. most of the characters are students at an unnamed college or university which caters to the children of wealthy families but is nice enough to allow a pleb or two in their midst. There was a party and sex was had by Leah and Davis. Leah is dating Jimmy, the son of a powerful member of the school's board. Davis is an all around nice guy. The central conflict revolves around whether or not the sex that Leah had was consensual or was it rape.
There are a handful of characters all designed to give a certain point of view. All are basically straw men for the position they espouse and have no real depth as characters. Like Mamet and Labute, Colazio is very good at writing shallow, morally reprobate men. The banter of college "bros" talking about their conquests and sharing homophobic moments for shock and hilarity while failing to connect in any meaningful way is on full display here.
And like Mamet and Labute, the women in the play are very poorly drawn. They feel false and seem to talk like the male nightmare of women willing to do anything to get ahead. including faking date rape. Maybe even twice.
The play ends with a poorly described theatrical "montage" which flashes forward to show the snapshot version of future events, so we have some idea of the outcomes of some of these character's lives. I found the device kinda cheap. My biggest gripe is that there are no middle ground in these characters. There are the rich hedonists content to have a wealthy aristocratic life either living off the trust fund or working for dad after college. Just content rich assholes. The other class depiction is of Leah and her sister Haley, a truly awful character worthy of the Mamet's worst nightmare. They were raised in a broken home with a drunk father who beat and possibly raped them leaving disfiguring scars and a mother who also drank and wouldn't feed them lunch because they were too poor or she too cruel. These people are hard to believe.
The play annoyed me by failing to allow any empathy or concern for any character, like Labute, and by setting up characters to completely support the authors premise without an artifice, like Mamet. Also by trivializing date rape and rape by making it just another playing piece in the game of "get me what I want" that all women of the lower class mercilessly engage in.
Next one sooner I promise.
It's a very Mamet/Labute kind of play. It has a kind of moral ambiguity that passes for depth these days. The play is chock full of unlikable characters and the one character you want to believe is telling the truth manages to become entirely suspect. I think the thing that bothered me most about the play is the, I want to use the word suggestion but that is not strong enough, implication perhaps, that date rape is sought out and used to manipulate society to achieve one's ends.
It's all about the Generation Me, which I guess is the name for the current generation of young people disillusioned with the status quo. most of the characters are students at an unnamed college or university which caters to the children of wealthy families but is nice enough to allow a pleb or two in their midst. There was a party and sex was had by Leah and Davis. Leah is dating Jimmy, the son of a powerful member of the school's board. Davis is an all around nice guy. The central conflict revolves around whether or not the sex that Leah had was consensual or was it rape.
There are a handful of characters all designed to give a certain point of view. All are basically straw men for the position they espouse and have no real depth as characters. Like Mamet and Labute, Colazio is very good at writing shallow, morally reprobate men. The banter of college "bros" talking about their conquests and sharing homophobic moments for shock and hilarity while failing to connect in any meaningful way is on full display here.
And like Mamet and Labute, the women in the play are very poorly drawn. They feel false and seem to talk like the male nightmare of women willing to do anything to get ahead. including faking date rape. Maybe even twice.
The play ends with a poorly described theatrical "montage" which flashes forward to show the snapshot version of future events, so we have some idea of the outcomes of some of these character's lives. I found the device kinda cheap. My biggest gripe is that there are no middle ground in these characters. There are the rich hedonists content to have a wealthy aristocratic life either living off the trust fund or working for dad after college. Just content rich assholes. The other class depiction is of Leah and her sister Haley, a truly awful character worthy of the Mamet's worst nightmare. They were raised in a broken home with a drunk father who beat and possibly raped them leaving disfiguring scars and a mother who also drank and wouldn't feed them lunch because they were too poor or she too cruel. These people are hard to believe.
The play annoyed me by failing to allow any empathy or concern for any character, like Labute, and by setting up characters to completely support the authors premise without an artifice, like Mamet. Also by trivializing date rape and rape by making it just another playing piece in the game of "get me what I want" that all women of the lower class mercilessly engage in.
Next one sooner I promise.
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