Honestly, this play had me shackled down, on my knees, with my mouth wide open – wait… I shouldn’t go there. But really, right from the get go, I was enslaved by the complex set design and was forced by the social norms to sell myse– oh, I’m sorry I shouldn’t go there either. Ok, let me try again, I thought that this play was so real and interesting that it made me want to smoke a … ughh, this is getting annoying. These are some of the events and themes that were prevalent in Jesse Eisenberg’s Asunción.
In all seriousness, I thought that this play was fantastic from a comedic perspective as it was full of humor with Edgar’s ignorant comments to Vinny’s “Oh my God, please don’t do it” moment when he was about to… you know. The constant ignorance of Edgar as he kept saying that he has been to Cambodia and that he knows all about prostitution in the Philippines just made it all the more funnier to watch. Although the play was supposed to send a strong political message, I believe, as most of my classmates do, that the sheer hilariousness of it detracted and somewhat overwhelmed the political message that was trying to be sent.
Since we were so close to the stage, I could see that the set was soo complex and it did make the play more effective. There were numerous amount of books that were very disorganized on the left side of the stage and gave me the vibe that these people were well educated yet, did not have a sense of direction which proved to be correct as I met the characters and the play slowly went on. As the play goes on, everything, including the characters and the set, become full of chaos. These people, especially Edgar, are irrational as he immediately labels Asunción a prostitute just because she comes from the Philippines.
Not only do I believe that the scenic design was effective in adding to the comedy, just the acting itself did really resonate within me. We all know that Jesse Eisenberg is a tremendous actor but acting live in front of an audience is way different then acting without an audience. I believe that each character including the more minor character, Asunción’s husband, (sorry, can’t remember name) fit into their roles well. Edgar’s character as snobbish and dogmatic, while at the same time, a sycophantic and obsequious individual added to the play because it made his arguments more comical.
All in all, Asunción, for me, did prove to be effective because of the set, the acting, and just the hilarious comments that were made. Without a doubt, I thought that this play stood out the most, from the other play’s we have seen other then the reason that Jesse Eisenberg was in it was because of all the comedy as it made it easier to follow.
