Just saw the last night of "The Unmentionables" at Yale Rep. The performances were perfect. The thoughtful, satiric and truly funny Bruce Norris play speeds along like those great Frank Capra and Preston Sturges films. The head snapping, overlapping dialog filled with perfectly timed laughs never misses a beat. If you like dark comedy and plays like the "The Front Page" you'd get this one too. Anna D. Shapiro's flawless direction gave each actor the room to fly high. No false notes and nothing overwritten or overdone. The energy so fluid that when intermission came I thought it was too soon and couldn't wait for the play to begin again.
Leaving, in the elevator with some other old farts and I couldn't contain my enthusiasm and had to ask. Did you enjoy the play? "Not so much, not really, not my type of show, I couldn't follow the talking, the were all talking at the same time." I felt like taking off my shoe and whacking them in the head. I wanted to yell, "GET A HEARING AID!" Again, the audience proves itself unworthy of the art.
30 years ago I met one of Johnny Carson's writers and was a little shocked when he told me audiences rarely understand what is going on because they have nothing in common with the performer or the writer. He said, "Did you look at the people you were standing in line with to see tonight's show? I said yes and he said: "Do you really think you have anything in common with them? Their idea of great entertainment is wrestling and jiggle shows. As an artist you just have to create for yourself and for those few people who will actually get it because as soon as you try to reach the mouth-breathing hordes you lose."
I thought he was expressing Hollywood elitism and contempt for us common folk who helped pay his salary - but now I think he was probably right. Have you ever seen Jerry Springer or Maury Povich where the camera as idiot magnet trumps all. It's truely unconscious satire performed by people coaxed to be moronic for the thrill of being exposed to an audience of people who are acting even stupider than they actually are just to be part of a show. And their dialog overlaps too. I give up.
