• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • Donate

The Arts Fuse

Boston's Online Arts Magazine: Dance, Film, Literature, Music, Theater, and more

  • Podcasts
  • Coming Attractions
  • Reviews
  • Short Fuses
  • Interviews
  • Commentary
  • The Arts
    • Performing Arts
      • Dance
      • Music
      • Theater
    • Other
      • Books
      • Film
      • Food
      • Television
      • Visual Arts
You are here: Home / Featured / Theater Commentary: Last of the Red Hot Anachronisms

Theater Commentary: Last of the Red Hot Anachronisms

July 11, 2009 2 Comments

By Bill Marx

"Last of the Red Hot Lovers" -- What planet is this play?
Last of the Red Hot Lovers -- What planet is this play on?

If the age turns away from the theater, in which it is no longer interested, that is because the theater has ceased to represent it. It no longer hopes to be provided by the theater with myths on which it can sustain itself. –- Antonin Artaud

Artaud doesn’t mean by “myths” that the stage represents the world by lies or archetypes. Theater compels the attention of the age when it reflects what it means to be alive at a particular time in a way that also connects with the past, that links history with the living, breathing moment. The considerable challenge facing theater now – given the economic crunch, the utter exhaustion of navel-gazing “auteurism,” the explosion of competition and technology – is to supply us with new “myths” that meditate on reality, fresh ways of looking at the conflicts in today’s world that provide a sense of context as well.

This runs against the current bromides mouthed by gurus who insist that the problem of whipping up interest in theater is simply a matter of applying more creativity (theater is about “events” rather than productions), dumbing down for a younger demographic, and/or seizing on whiz bang marketing schemes, which turns out to mean hawking old wine in social networking bottles. What the theater needs is to take chances on plays that bring current realities onto the stage. Once a vibrant connection with the “new” world is made a “new” imagination will follow suit – it is not, as many believe, the other way around.

Right now, too much theater floats free of the real world, a delusional escapist balloon. It doesn’t matter how well acted these anachronisms are or how well they sell to an aging demographic – they do not engage with the world, postponing the day that theater will have to plant at least one foot on post-2000 ground.

The recent demise of the North Shore Music Theatre is a useful case in point: aside from tourists flocking to New York or graying audiences for expensive pre- or- post-Broadway touring productions the hunger for the traditional, middlebrow musical is waning. The kids aren’t interested in the product; for them, video games are a lot more fun.

Repackaging the past isn’t going to work in the long run. Given the power of social networking, such as the huge communities built by Facebook and Twitter, political theater will have to reinvent itself – as newspapers die so will the didactic “living newspaper” approach.

This thought came to mind when reading Louise Kennedy’s boilerplate “Boston Globe” review of “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” at the Gloucester Stage Company. I have seen the comedy and had no interest in sitting through it again, even though I am closer to the age of the lovelorn protagonist than when I saw it decades ago. Yes, it is the lazy summer season, but the script is representative of the zombie-like dependence on the hopelessly dated. What relationship does (did) Neil Simon have with the world we live in?

Kennedy makes the usual safe objections — Simon doesn’t balance out the portraits of men and women in the play, focusing on middle-aged male angst. But even if he did write more complex female characters, does anyone think that the one-liner ridden “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” would have even a tangential connection with life-as-we-know it? Even mildly misogynistic escapism has moved on.

Share
Tweet
Pin
Share

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: Antonin Artaud, Boston-theater, Louise-kennedy, Neil Simon, Persona Non Grata, The Boston Globe

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. jules becker says

    July 13, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    hi Bill-Please do not be surprised that I agree with you about the Simon play. I have called it ‘contrived’ and not a play to love -in my brief review for the Jewish Advocate.

    Bravo on the slam.

    Jules

    Reply
  2. ArtsFuse says

    July 13, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    Hi Jules,

    Not surprised at all. I would say that what bothers me about that play, and so much else that theaters choose to do, is that it is not simply “contrived” but reflects a world that is not in touch with contemporary life-as-we-know-it. Would anyone under the age of 50 or so make heads or tails of Neil Simon? It wouldn’t be worth the effort.

    The most fruitful periods in theater — Greek, Elizabethan, Edwardian — were periods when new plays were plentiful. Kicking and screaming, American theaters will have to take the plunge — revivals should be the exception rather than the rule. Generally, the high style of auteurism only disguised the fear of the new.

    Bill

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search

Popular Posts

  • Film Commentary: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” — The Most Serene Movie in Years This movie reminds us that -- if there is any meaning t... posted on May 7, 2022
  • Concert Review: Joe Jackson at the Shubert Theatre — A Restlessly Creative Artist at the Peak of his Powers Trampling on the expectations of his fans, of course, i... posted on May 22, 2022
  • Classical Album Review: Violinist Lea Birringer plays Sinding and Mendelssohn Violinist Lea Birringer's performance of the Christian... posted on May 14, 2022
  • Book Review: Thomas Mann in America In the US, Thomas Mann tacitly proposed himself as an a... posted on May 5, 2022
  • Jazz Album Review: Guitarist John Scofield — A Solo Album, Finally Now that he’s 70, it’s only right that guitarist John... posted on May 3, 2022

Social

Follow us:

Follow the Conversation

  • Mia Lieberman May 23, 2022 at 12:38 pm on Opera Review: “Champion: An Opera in Jazz” — Fought to a DrawI saw it yesterday - even with the semistaging, it was a powerful production and one of the best productions...
  • Jon Goldberg May 23, 2022 at 8:22 am on Opera Review: “Champion: An Opera in Jazz” — Fought to a DrawThis is an impressive dramaturgical essay on the opera, but an actual review of the performance would have been appreciated....
  • David Kurtz May 22, 2022 at 5:52 pm on Concert Review: Joe Jackson at the Shubert Theatre — A Restlessly Creative Artist at the Peak of his PowersJoe has remained a mainstay in my library of musical collection . His musicianship and particularly his voice fit like...
  • Ray Cooper May 22, 2022 at 5:21 pm on Book Review: “Free” — A Communist ChildhoodBreaking out of the family faith is not easy. It certainly helps to know that the blind faith was not...
  • Strange Attractor May 22, 2022 at 12:21 am on Film Commentary: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” — The Most Serene Movie in YearsThen don't give it more press...

Footer

  • About Us
  • Advertising/Underwriting
  • Syndication
  • Media Resources
  • Editors and Contributors

We Are

Boston’s online arts magazine since 2007. Powered by 70+ experts and writers.

Follow Us

Monthly Archives

Categories

"Use the point of your pen, not the feather." -- Jonathan Swift

Copyright © 2022 · The Arts Fuse - All Rights Reserved · Website by Stephanie Franz