I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard, Finborough Theatre
Mar 13, 2017 18:33:36 GMT
Steffi, Stasia, and 2 more like this
Post by Steve on Mar 13, 2017 18:33:36 GMT
Saw this yesterday, and loved it. A kind of "Daddy Dearest" for artistic types.
Probably more fun for theatre obsessives (like the readers of this board) than a general audience, this two-hander features Adrian Lukis as a fierce alcohol-swigging Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, David, coaching his daughter, Jill Winternitz's Ella, on how to get ahead in theatre.
Some spoilers follow. . .
David considers critics (and I suppose us on this board as well) as the scum of the earth, but he himself is hypocritically a harsher critic than any of us, rating even Arthur Miller as "a hack" (his justification for this had me in hysterics). He does, commendably, worship Sondheim, and loves singing along to songs from "West Side Story," such as "Tonight" and "Somewhere," with a particular fondness for the latter. David's daughter has appeared in "The Seagull," playing the part of Masha, and Act 1 features father and daughter chatting about theatre, music and art, as they await Ella's press night reviews.
To be fair, it is less of a chat and more of a lecture, as David barely lets his daughter get a word in. This means that Lukis has what is effectively a mountain of a monologue, and for me, it was never less than gripping, sometimes amusing, sometimes maniacal, but Lukis effectively embodies the ego and neurosis of a man who values artistic achievement over every other thing. Despite a lack of lines (or perhaps because of a lack of lines), Winternitz has a difficult part, which is to believably and naturalistically listen to, nod along to, laugh at, clap, praise and live the experience of a daughter who worships her father, simply listening, for protracted periods. She achieves this wonderfully, as she has a natural softness and an improvisatory immediacy in her moment to moment responses to Lukis' David's pronouncements and moods.
Act 2 is much shorter, much different, and fulfils the promise of the Act 1 setup. For my taste, it goes slightly too far in the right direction, as once I felt that direction, I no longer needed to get to the destination. Perhaps American writers, such as this play's Halley Feiffer (daughter of Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and playwright, Jules Feiffer - shades of autobiography perhaps?), have more of a taste for going all-the-way than British writers, and that is where my taste seized up a bit. But it's a small quibble for what is a powerful and well-acted denouement.
The play has much to say about art and artists, demons and drink, and parenting too, in which latter respect it echoes and expounds the themes of Philip Larkin's pithy poem, "This be the Verse" (aka "They f--- you up, your mum and dad.")
The Finborough is a small venue, and sometimes strains to fit the plays and musicals that play there, but a two-hander like this play lends itself perfectly to the space. A claustrophobic drama with expansive themes, and a powerhouse turn from Lukis.
4 stars
Probably more fun for theatre obsessives (like the readers of this board) than a general audience, this two-hander features Adrian Lukis as a fierce alcohol-swigging Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, David, coaching his daughter, Jill Winternitz's Ella, on how to get ahead in theatre.
Some spoilers follow. . .
David considers critics (and I suppose us on this board as well) as the scum of the earth, but he himself is hypocritically a harsher critic than any of us, rating even Arthur Miller as "a hack" (his justification for this had me in hysterics). He does, commendably, worship Sondheim, and loves singing along to songs from "West Side Story," such as "Tonight" and "Somewhere," with a particular fondness for the latter. David's daughter has appeared in "The Seagull," playing the part of Masha, and Act 1 features father and daughter chatting about theatre, music and art, as they await Ella's press night reviews.
To be fair, it is less of a chat and more of a lecture, as David barely lets his daughter get a word in. This means that Lukis has what is effectively a mountain of a monologue, and for me, it was never less than gripping, sometimes amusing, sometimes maniacal, but Lukis effectively embodies the ego and neurosis of a man who values artistic achievement over every other thing. Despite a lack of lines (or perhaps because of a lack of lines), Winternitz has a difficult part, which is to believably and naturalistically listen to, nod along to, laugh at, clap, praise and live the experience of a daughter who worships her father, simply listening, for protracted periods. She achieves this wonderfully, as she has a natural softness and an improvisatory immediacy in her moment to moment responses to Lukis' David's pronouncements and moods.
Act 2 is much shorter, much different, and fulfils the promise of the Act 1 setup. For my taste, it goes slightly too far in the right direction, as once I felt that direction, I no longer needed to get to the destination. Perhaps American writers, such as this play's Halley Feiffer (daughter of Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist and playwright, Jules Feiffer - shades of autobiography perhaps?), have more of a taste for going all-the-way than British writers, and that is where my taste seized up a bit. But it's a small quibble for what is a powerful and well-acted denouement.
The play has much to say about art and artists, demons and drink, and parenting too, in which latter respect it echoes and expounds the themes of Philip Larkin's pithy poem, "This be the Verse" (aka "They f--- you up, your mum and dad.")
The Finborough is a small venue, and sometimes strains to fit the plays and musicals that play there, but a two-hander like this play lends itself perfectly to the space. A claustrophobic drama with expansive themes, and a powerhouse turn from Lukis.
4 stars
