To be honest, I’m actually surprised that I did not blog about this play sooner. I absolutely loved it. Not to mention, I was 20 or so feet away from Jessie Eisenberg and Justin Bartha the whole time. Even before the play started, I got a positive vibe from it, and I remember telling Ashley that I would love to have an apartment layout similar to the one on the set.
Was the play effective? As for the humor, I thought it was great. I found the crude remarks to be embarrassingly hilarious, and Edgar’s pretentiousness to be highly entertaining. I have always been drawn to characters that are unintentionally awkward, and Eisenberg has the ability to effectively portray that through the character of Edgar (possibly because he also has a sense of adorable awkwardness about him). Throughout the play, I sympathized for Edgar for being so unaware of his misplaced prejudice and for being excluded from the fun that Vinny and Asuncion seemed to be having. However, at the same time there were a few times where I wanted to chime in and declare how ignorant his perception of Asuncion is and perhaps even point out Cambodia and the Philippines on his map so he can see that they have A WHOLE SEA separating them.
Eisenberg clearly satirized the effects of stereotypes and ignorance on relationships, however, I’m not sure whether the satire stopped at humor or whether it truly encouraged the audience to question their own prejudices. Having many Filipino friends, I was surprised that I hadn’t heard the stereotype of them being “mail order brides,” but this play did allow me to see how ridiculous the stereotype is. I also found it ironic how Vinny and Edgar are oblivious to their racism. They believe majoring in African Studies and spending two days in Cambodia makes them less judgmental than the average person. Never mind the fact that Edgar was in Cambodia by accident. Never mind the fact that Vinny is actually TERRIBLE at composing African music. The characters, especially Edgar, are so wrapped up in their own selfish worlds, that they don’t seem to realize that these details are very much isolated from their actual lives.
All in all, I enjoyed this play very much, and even made a few friends jealous because I met Jessie Eisenberg (which I’m still very psyched about by the way).
