Too Close for Comfort

YEEEEES. So. Good.

After Long Day's Journey, I wandered up a few more blocks to grab foodz and drinks at a bar near the Walter Kerr theater, killing a couple hours before The Crucible, and, because it's me, I found an Irish sports bar. They had a pretty good hh, so I ate some food, had a beer, and watched some sports before taking off across the street. Where I saw a friend of mine taking tickets for the show! Yay! I love seeing people I know in this (huge) small town!

The seats were great (although there was NO leg room) and the show was fantastic. Ivo (the hot new Belgian director, just off A View From the Bridge & Lazarus), set the show in modern times in a school room and it really worked to make what can feel like an out-of-date play feel new and fresh. The sad thing is that Miller's McCarthyism allegory feels almost too relevant to the fear-mongering and finger pointing rampant in today's 24-hour news media culture. I mean, take a look at the entire Republican party... Plus, Ben Whishaw is the best John Proctor I've ever seen. Just...incredible. And his chemistry with Sophie Okonedo (who plays Elizabeth) was absolutely beautiful. His speech at the end of the show about his name being the only thing he has left--gah! So good!

We watch the set gradually fall apart as the trials continue and more and more people are arrested and sentenced to death... Their world collapsing around them until it looks almost Apocalyptic. Otherworldly. Just super well thought out.

The most interesting thing about spending 7 hours watching classic American theater, is the difference between O'Neill's flawed characters Miller's. While O'Neill wrote the Tyrone family to be tragically flawed, you still empathized with and rooted for them. Miller, on the other hand, wrote the residents of Salem (and those that come to preside over their trials) to be completely horrible people. There is almost no one that you root for in that show. Everyone either orchestrates or gets caught up in the spectacle (with precious few exceptions), and this, at times, is very hard to watch. The mob mentality is horrifying. There are huge differences in these two iconic American pieces of dramatic theater. And yet, they're both beautiful and tragic and terrifying. And just plain good writing.