Went to see "The Apple" last night, which launched the new Prairie Theatre Exchange season. It was quite good. I thought the three performers were first rate. My main problem was with Vern Thiessen's script. While some people could judge the illness metaphor as a tad "heavy handed," I objected to some of the clichéd and conventional scenes. I mean, on the whole I liked the play quite a bit, but if we could implement a moratorium on the whole "girl meets guy while sitting on a bench" scene for, say, forty or fifty years, I'd be quite content. Have you ever been sitting on a bench and started up a conversation with an attractive stranger that resulted in love or sex? If you are male then the answer is an emphatic: No! Of course you haven't. Don't be stupid. No one has. Girls? Maybe. I don't know.
I realize that in order for the plot to progress you must sometimes depict the meeting of two characters, but why Thiessen falls back to this clichéd, run of the mill way is beyond me. Whenever I see this type of scene acted out, it reeks of high school drama class. Maybe it has something to do with the fantasies of male playwrights. Guys do clutch onto the idea that somewhere out there in the world are beautiful, forward women who will come right up to sad, lonely (often middle aged) men and introduce themselves and possibly proposition them. But this is more the realm of letters to Playboy, not legit theatre. Again, while the actors are first rate, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the beautiful young woman would fall for, let alone sleep with, the pathetic, henpecked husband. When she meets him he's depressed having lost his job and fought with his overbearing wife. My wife's assurance that "caring for a sick spouse is very attractive" didn't really satisfy this point. Even if that is the reason she eventually falls in love with him (despite not being made explicit in the play), it still does not explain why she'd start up a conversation with the guy in a park, flirt with him in the park and then guide his hand to her breasts - where? you guessed it - IN THE PARK! There might as well have been fairies and goblins.
9 comments:
well, I guess it makes sense if she's got some major issues. some people are just way messed up. I think that I had some 'friends' in high school that did or would do similar stuff.
but yes, it's fairly unrealistic for most normal types to do that kind of thing.
and as for the older, not so attractive guy thing... I think a lot of younger women have father figure issues and that's really one of the ways that can play out.
but you probably knew all this. rambling over.
sooo...you have season tickets? you're taking me sometime?
I knew none of this.
really? with all that weird literature you've had to read?
strange.
I knew it in that I can understand a younger female crushing on an older man (I hear such things happen), but picking up some random loser in a park? Nope.
was bill kerr's wife in that one?
That's right. And she's fantastic - wonderfully vulgar and sad.
They have posters for this all over school. Clarify your opinion for me: see it or not?
I'd recommend it with the warning that it is a little racy (and with lots of swearing).
Mike--if it can happen to girls, then obviously it can happen to guys. Unless it only happens to lesbian girls.
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