I was very disappointed by the performance of Quartet at BAM last night. To begin, I sat in the last row to the far right of the theater. The direction was not catered towards the back of the audience. Not only could I not see any of the actor’s facial expressions, but I was also extremely distracted. Since the dialogue was in French, there was a screen for English subtitles. The screen was hung on the ceiling and the text was written in a translucent white. I could not fully read the text and it also sped by at an impossible rate to keep up with. Text is certainly not necessary to understanding or feeling emotionally moved by a performance, but I had nothing to work with. In the beginning, I was interested in reading the text. This effort obstructed my vision of the stage and I could not see any of the movement. Then when I decided to give up reading, I watched the movement on stage but could only see it from an aerial view. I could not see faces, nor who spoke and it was frustrating to say the least. Now it be can argued that this was the point. The audience is not supposed to see or understand the text because text is not wholly important. To be honest, I agree with this. When there is sound directing and acting, text is not necessary. You can understand emotion and meaning through the actors’ beats, movement, pauses, facial expressions, locations on stage and lighting choices. The specificity of the set in relation to the actors is also important.  To some extent, I could see some of this. Each character was costumed in specific colors to represent his or her physiognomy.  The separation of Valmont and Marquise de Merteuil by a large screen increased their antagonization of one another. The switching of characters, the repetition of lines, the music and the visual representations of the dialogue were all purposeful. Still, this was not enough. The director must have completely forgotten about the mezzanine.  As a result I could not fully enjoy the things I picked up on because I couldn’t analyze them any further.  What I did take away from this experience is an interesting idea about the relationships between men and women. Men and women do not innately understand one another unless it is during sex. Now I must read the play so I can justify my allegations.