“Hi, my name’s Kathleen.” I held my breath as Jesse Eisenberg (!) shook my outstretched hand.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Jesse.”
…
Asdfghjkl;!!! Ch’yeah your name is Jesse, Jesse Eisenberg! Has anyone else been slipping him in casual conversations?!
So yeah, onto the actual play: I liked it, a lot. Though I thought Edgar had traits that were sort of a similar to characters Jesse’s played before, he still did a great job. Justin Bartha surprised me, though. In National Treasure and The Hangover, Bartha’s characters were sort of the underdogs, the ones left in the corner while the real action got done. But with his portrayal of Vinny, Bartha was controlling and annoying and self-indulgent. I was impressed. I sadly did not get to chance to tell Bartha this because after our picture together I quickly ran back to Jesse. Oh well, Justin said he was going somewhere anyway.
The set was pretty good. I really appreciated the color of the horribly painted walls and the beanbag chair in the middle of the living room. Or as they should call it, the multipurpose room, as it also served as the dining room and Edgar’s sleep and writing area.
I thought the relationships between the characters were so interesting (hey did Asuncíon and Vinny have sex or what?!). The most intriguing was obviously the one between Jesse and Edgar. As amusing as Edgar was, I pitied him a lot; he was needy for Vinny’s attention in a way that was super unhealthy. Vinny knew this and used any opportunity to take advantage of Edgar, whether emotionally or (almost) sexually.
I was disappointed a little at the ending too. I was hoping for a positive development of Edgar’s character. I honestly felt that catching a sickness in a third world country would have been “character building” and while Vinny appeared to accept him and need him at the end, I still felt that the two would soon fall back into their usual patterns. But I was hoping for too much I suppose, it was a comedy.
Now onto the altogether effectiveness of the play… I have to admit, when the lights went off and we left the theater I thought: “wow that play was great! … But hmm.” The playwright (Jesse Eisenberg!) was attempting to slip me something that I was just not agreeing with. Maybe I missed it somewhere between Asuncíon’s debut as a top-notch dancer and the near fellatio.
So I turned to google.
What I learned was what I got a gist of after I saw the production. Basically, there are different ways of knowing, or different kinds of knowledge. There is the kind of knowledge gained through experience, and there’s the “knowledge” gained through assumption. And the play is supposed to explore two people as what they “know” about the world is challenged by their new houseguest Asuncíon. Now, I see where Jesse (!) was going, Asuncíon definitely went against what they thought they knew about Filipina immigrants (i.e. they realized she wasn’t a sex slave) but I’m not sure if the single situation changed how they judge others, each other, and themselves. The characters basically ended up right back where they started, as Vinny still self-indulgent, and Edgar just as proud. But again, it was a comedy. And the comedy was effective, and so was the set and acting.
So yeah, thanks Jessie(!).
“Edgar, you are so racist and ignorant! Just because she came from the Philippines and she is pretty does not mean she is a prostitute!” This was my first reaction after watching “Asuncion”. Perhaps I am being overly sensitive on the subject of biases, I simply think that any form of discrimination is an act of ignorance. When Stuart said to Edgar “You have been to Cambodia for two days by accident,” I felt Edgar was so silly. How can you not laugh at a boy who kept bragging about how much he knew about Cambodia while he couldn’t distinguish it from the Philippines? Despite my aversion towards Edgar, “Asuncion” was a successful play in conveying the theme of racism and stereotypes. It brought up a hidden aspect of racism that people might experience daily but always deny its existence. “Asuncion” was indeed a brave innovation in portraying the existence of this discrimination.
Besides the overall theme and content of the play, the actors’ performance and scenic design also contributed to the success of the play. As in acting, every actor has made his or her role very clear and distinctive. The actor of Stuart was very natural and realistic throughout the play. This has helped his character to bring up all the morals objectively at the end. The actress of Asuncion was adorable and charming. Her Americanized appearance and behavior helped to convince the audience how stereotypical Edgar was, because she was an American just like Edgar. The actors of Vinny and Edgar were a little dramatic. Nevertheless, their acting was effective, especially the actor of Edgar. He has achieved the goal of making his character into a narrow-minded and stereotype young adult.
The scenic design also revolved the theme of racism. The most obvious designs were the African American posters on the wall and the world map hanging in front of the window. They gave me the feeling that Edgar was trying to cover their racist thoughts. First, when Edgar couldn’t find his cell phone, he thought that the teenagers who injured him stole it because they were African Americans. Second, Edgar and Vinny kept boasting about how much they knew about African Americans. However, simply because they thought they knew a lot about African Americans did not mean they were not racist. They still had many stereotypes towards other races and ethnicities. The posters and world map were ironic in that Edgar was never willing to give up his stereotype and accept other people’s culture. The posters and map were meaningless to Edgar.
Personally, I do not consider “Asuncion” as a comedy. Although it had made its audience laugh from time to time, it didn’t have a happy ending. In my opinion, the ending was quite tragic but enlightening. It was sad to learn how wrong Edgar was, but the morals from his stereotypical thoughts and behavior were conveyed very clearly. Even though there were some scenes that were really unnecessary in “Asuncion”, it was relatively effective in carrying out the theme of racism and stereotypes. Sometimes I think that if we truly understand the morals behind “Asuncion”, maybe we wouldn’t laugh at all during the play.
I think that a good place to start this post is when a good third of the class and I were standing in the rain waiting for the Q64 to finally show up. Somebody (I think Aisha) asked what the play was even about, and nobody had a clue, so Alyssa looked it up and produced that enthralling description she mentioned in her post. Seriously, Jesse—Asuncion needs better PR people, because while the description was mundane at best, the play was anything but. The last time a play made me laugh so hard was when I saw Spamalot three years ago, and I would say Asuncion ranks right up there as one of my favorite plays I’ve ever seen.
I know we’ve all said it, but Jesse Eisenberg is seriously awesome. I’ve never seen Zombieland, so I only know him as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Whereas Zuckerberg was kind of a pompous scumbag, Edgar was pretty much the opposite—an overly excited loser who is pretty delusional when it comes to his coolness. I can’t believe that somehow, in between shooting The Social Network and then attending a bunch of awards shows, he managed to write his own play and then star in it. Meeting Jesse, however briefly, showed me that he’s definitely more like Edgar than Zuckerberg—he thanked me for liking the play, took a picture with Kayde and me, and after a couple more pictures rode off on his bike down Diagon Alley! How adorable!
What I really liked about Asuncion was that I thought it was so well-rounded. I spent pretty much the whole intermission checking out the set, which had a bunch of awesome little details that really made it feel like two stoner bachelors lived there—crates for tables, sink overflowing with dishes, huge record collection, Christmas lights wrapped around a pole in May, etc. It was a lot more intricate than, say, the Bald Soprano set, and the theater was small enough that everyone could see and appreciate the work put into it (if all of that was on a Broadway set, good luck trying to see the box of Pop-tarts from the nosebleeds).
So in addition to the side-splitting comedy and the intricate set, we also had a story going on. While things definitely got a little crazy at times (which I think was probably intentional), I felt that it was easy to get the “message” of the play—things aren’t always what they seem to be. I definitely think that it’s easy to get caught up in assumptions that can pretty quickly spiral out of control—I think Marcus Gee would agree with Edgar that after a while, you can convince yourself of things without actually knowing much of anything. So while I think that Jesse (notice I’ve deluded myself into thinking we’re on a first name basis?) definitely wanted us to consider the consequences of the sweeping assumptions we make in our daily lives, I think he also probably wanted to show us that pride plays a huge role in it as well. Edgar was too proud to admit that his assumptions about Asuncion were getting more and more farfetched by the day, because he was getting so caught up in his “research” and how it was going to benefit himself. So with that point, I think the play was a success because it showed how pride and assumptions can totally delude a person and quickly cause a situation to get out of hand. But I can’t stress it enough that this is in no way like my new friendship with Jesse—we have a deep bond that only two people who have met once can share, and I wouldn’t be surprised if our meeting becomes the basis for his next great play. No delusions there, folks—just cold, hard facts.
Hola, mis amigos buenos! Today I want to utilize this auspicious opportunity to remark on the play Asuncion. Wow, what a great play! I thought as soon as the played had ended. The impeccable acting and the tremendous amount of comedy revealed in the play definitely grasped my attention for 2 whole hours. This is by far the best performance I have seen thus far. To tell you the truth, I actually felt upset when I thought the play was over, but it was actually the intermission (how naive of me to think so…)! Knowing that there was more of the play left, my morale was boosted. I strongly feel that the witty comments, music, and the characters’ wonderful acting as a whole contributed to the success of this play. I just couldn’t help but laugh every time I heard “Where’s my….OJ,” especially when Eisenberg was trying to look cool saying it. Furthermore, the scene where Eisenberg’s TA says continue cleaning the bathroom was hilarious! I almost lost my breath laughing.
Asides from the comedy incorporated into the play, I truly loved the style in which the set was designed. For instance, the arrangement of the furniture and the pillar with lights of various colors added to the creativity of the play, in my opinion. Everything seemed well organized. Also, the characters’ acting was beautifully done; it was genuinely amazing to see how each and every character got so involved in their role. Moreover, the quick pace of the play and the prodigious amount of energy involved made the play seem so much more vivacious and enabled to engage the audience thoroughly (I could tell from the several people laughing hysterically). Who knew Eisenberg stored so much energy within him, as seen from his endless movements from one place to another in the play. Another thing I would like to add is the facial expressions of the characters. All the characters displayed effective emotions and the facial expressions they made accurately matched the situations they were in. All I can say is the play was performed exceptionally well.
While the play was effective in producing much laughter, it didn’t do so well in conveying its messages, in my opinion. I understood that the message the play was trying to get across was “to not judge a book by its cover.” In other words, people make instant assumptions of an individual’s character without any concrete evidence. For example, Eisenberg’s character thought that Asuncion was a “sex slave” because it was a common practice in the Philippines. I found this to be absurd, because you can’t just judge a person from where they came from. An example that best exemplifies this concept is the 9/11 terrorist attack. Sadly and incorrectly, some people think that just because someone came from a Muslim country means they’re a terrorist. However, this is not the case. It’s a misconception several people form and they judge an entire race of people (Muslims) based upon the 9/11 tragedy. Absolutely horrible…In the play, Asuncion, comedy was more effective than the message that was conveyed because the gravity of the play was severely diminished by its hysterical remarks. Overall, if the play yielded more instances of being serious about the situation at hand, I think that this message would have been more thoroughly received by the audience.
Compared to other plays I have seen so far, Asuncion produced more good than bad, and I really enjoyed it a lot. It was definitely scintillating to meet Hollywood stars for the first time and they were friendly people, as well. I don’t think there’s anything bad I could say about the play at all, in fact. Everything appealed to me: the music, the acting, the atmosphere, the costumes, etc. After viewing this play, I can’t imagine what the next one is going to be like! All I can say is that watching all these performances have led to a new-found liking of theater for me 😀
NYTimes Arts
