Response to Horowitz Plays

Israel Horowitz’s plays entertained a crowd of Macaulay students on a long Wednesday night. The three plays shown were The Indian Wants the Bronx, What Strong Fences Make, and Beirut Rocks. I felt that the plays complemented each other and brought up many problems that we, as students, should learn and think about. There is no doubt that my favorite part of the night was the question and answer session. I was delighted to hear the answers to many of the intellectual questions that were asked.

In contrast to many people in my Arts in NYC class, I felt that the actual script of The Indian Wants the Bronx was far better than the actual performance. It might be just because of my inexperience with plays, but I felt that the positions of the actors were off. Although it should not have bothered me as much as it did, I could not help but to think of the awkward movements Joey and Murph across the invisible sidewalk. I was also a bit bothered by the turban on the Indian; throughout the entire play, he had to constantly tug at it to get it in position. I must also admit that my eyes shut briefly in the middle of the play. Because we all had the opportunity to read the script prior to the performance, I felt that I already knew what was going to happen. I must also say that the majority of the play was focused on the dialogue as not many movements were made. Aside from those issues, I felt that Horowitz and the actors did a good job at portraying the obvious issue of racism and prejudice between different peoples. In addition, Horowitz also informs the audience that both Joey and Murph come from bad families and have conducted violent acts in the past. I feel that Horowitz brought up an important point about families and the “care” that is put into these types of people.

The second play, What Strong Fences Make, intrigued me much more than the first. I was sitting in one of the middle rows on the left side of the auditorium and I was able to hear almost all the lines in the play, so that was not an issue for me. The props on the stage were very minimal but I don’t think that detracted from the performance. The only thing that was kind of weird was the sound effects of the gun and the explosion of the bomb. I felt that both actors did a superb job at presenting their characters. The person on the right looked just the part of a very distressed man. It was especially noticeable when his hand was rapidly shaking as he tried to express his feelings and the situation. The man on the left was able to show the conflict he had with the man across from him. His inner turmoil with the fact that his childhood classmate was about to do something incredibly wrong came through his voice and body language. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that I had no idea what the play was referring to in the real world. In a way, this is also a good thing because it has made me think about how little I know about what is going on in the world.

The majority of students agree that the third play, Beirut Rocks, was the best and inspired the most comments. If students somehow fell asleep in the audience, all of them must’ve woken up to watch this play. The setting and the props on stage helped frame the play and focus the audience on what was going on in the room. This play elicited both bouts of laughter and gasps of horror. I agree with various students in my class that said that the play seemed to blow up out of nowhere. Once the two females were thrown into the room, things seemed to go downhill. What was friendly conversation quickly morphed into heated arguments. Horowitz clearly structured the play so that the audience could see the contrasts between Benji and Nasa. It was almost obvious that conflict would occur between the two, just because of their backgrounds and differences. As a response to Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children, I feel that this play certainly does a good job. Although I have not watched the Seven Jewish Children, I have read from comments that it seems to point fingers. Horowitz evens out the blame in his play by making both Benji and Nasa dislikeable characters. The tension in this play was almost unbearable and it affected many members of the audience. In fact, many of the questions were related to this play.

Overall, I was very pleased with Theater Day (even though it ended late and we all had class the next morning). I am glad that we will all have more opportunities to view plays during this semester. Hopefully, I will have many more comments about future viewings.