Nov 04 2012
Play on a Play
Credit: http://www.bam.org/media/312114/2012_NWF_Mainstage_HouseDivided_613x463.jpg
I’m sorry for the late posts Professor Davis, power here in Brooklyn has been crazy from the hurricane, hopefully this isn’t too late.
The only sense I wasn’t using during this strange and thought-inducing play was smell (I was constantly holding and rolling the playbill and I was chewing gum). The way the play flowed from the Grapes of Wrath scenes to the Wall Street bigs fighting to the decaying house in Ohio was seamless and perfect. Everything connected and made sense in every way. I especially enjoyed the way the actors used the old film projector style to magnify their faces and emotions on the house screen, it reminded me of the old Grapes of Wrath movie that used to do the same thing when an actor was talking. The use of this house in Ohio was an amazing metaphor for what people who were affected by the mortgage crisis were going through. The pain of losing ones home, of having to leave sometimes your most valuable possessions, and the banks treating you like a number rather than a person. This was the reality for many families during this crisis, and the connection to what many people went through during the Great Depression was spot on.
The actors were great in their portrayals of Wall Street bigs and the family in the Grapes of Wrath. The music of the past and the noises of a busy stock exchange provided a great contrast between the past and the present. The really amazing thing was that when one part of the play was focusing on the Wall Street scenes, you never noticed the actors moving in the background getting ready for the next Grapes of Wrath scene. The transitions were seamless and unnoticeable. This was my first multimedia play and I enjoyed it greatly. If I ever see another it has a lot to live up to because this play truly captured my attention and interest.
Didn’t realize that I used majority of my senses during this play until you mentioned it. Haha! I agree with you that probably the most amazing thing about the play was the focus on the Wall Street scenes. For me, I don’t know exactly what it’s like at Wall Street and to see the scene and to watch the background behind the housing bubble during the play just really opened my eyes.
I think we should go watch another multimedia play together, hopefully it can top this one because I wouldn’t want to sit through a boring play. Not going to lie though, this play is going to hard to top.
Weren’t the Wall Street executives great? They talked with the perfect “Wall Street inflection” in their voices. They spoke so cocky before things went wrong, and then so surprised and defeated after the bubble burst. I especially liked the Alan Greenspan scene. That actor was brilliant.
The amount of contrast throughout the entire show was insane, right? I was too busy trying to switch between watching the video screens and the guys setting up the projector to even notice the actors switching between characters, but I guess that goes to show just how captivating the show was! Do you think multimedia plays are going to become more commonplace since this show was so obviously successful?