Post Gazette: "The kids are definitely not all right. They are huddled together or locked in their rooms day and night, absorbed in an online game. Parents lead separate lives under the same roof and within a community of mirror-image suburban houses.
A son seems troubled? Buy him a Hummer. A daughter needs attention? Work longer hours."
7 comments:
The content of this show is very present in today's society. We are seeing kids constantly distancing themselves, and parents not knowing what to do, separate themselves even further. I'm glad that this issue is finally being addressed, and I would be very curious to see how it is adapted for the stage. It sounds like a very moving piece, and although you do not connect to only a single character throughout the whole piece, the audience is probably going to react to the buildup of the situations.
This sounds really exciting to me. It seems really original and just completely innovative. Its really interesting to connect the distancing of families to the virtual world of technology that is now so prevalent. Its also so interesting that a show about family relationships could be so incredibly disturbing - perhaps because it hits all to close to home for what we fear to experience in our own homes, or what we are already experiencing. This really seems like a very exciting an innovative experience.
The idea of using just stereotypes for the characters in a play is not a new idea, but it seems like it's done in a very entertaining way. The idea of having multiple of basically the same character through out a play is a pretty interesting idea. It's also a bit of a fun video game reference since lots of games are full of replicas of characters that say the same things, live the same lives, and generally do not want to interact with anything they don't need to.
This is very interesting to me. What an amazingly creative way to address a very current, though at often times no addressed, problem. I think that this could be a really impacting piece. Family relationships are becoming obsolete more and more in today's society, with all of the substitutions we have for them. Hopefully this will remind people of their importance.
This is the perfect time to do a play like this, in a society where we are growing ever distant and estranged from one another, especially our families. My favourite part about this piece is the director's decision to keep eye contact between actors minimal, to make the transition between sets eerily smooth, and the actor's transformations just the same. Easily malleable spaces hit home the most for me becausue of how identifiable they are; if the set could be anywhere, this action could be happening anywhere. And in the context of the piece, that thought is horrifying.
This is a show that really reflects our lives today. Kids seem rapped up in their video games. The way that they communicate with their friends is through the computer, a video game that is connected to the internet, or texting. I think that this causes kids to have a hard time interacting with others. This seems like a completely original idea. I love the fact that the audience can play video games in the lobby before going into the show. It is a great tone setter for technology used in the show. I can think of many of my friends back in high school that would tell me about little brothers and sisters and how the family would never eat together or do things together. It was always very shocking to hear about but it is happening everywhere and needs to be exposed.
I think there's a certain quality to plays that deal with these subjects. They are subjects that tug at heartstrings, y'know? When things deal with family and kids and unhappiness...I feel like theatre can be ridiculously innovative, because there are so many ways to express anger and resentment. If anyone has seen Bang, Bang, You're Dead!, you can tell the method of acting really works, as well as the writing and the blocking and pretty much everything. It's the same method used in this production of 'Neighborhood:' having few actors play various roles and making it extremely intense and deep. Especially when the subject matter is so heavy, you can be there won't be a dry eye in the house, and I really love that stuff because it's so powerful, and reminds me why I love theatre.
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