chicagotribune.com: "Whoa."
That's what the guy who sat behind me said as I settled into a matinee performance of "The Motherf***er With the Hat" at the Steppenwolf Theatre recently: "Whoa, will you look at that? That is something. That is large. I wonder what that'll do? Or does it do anything? How do you think they got it in here? That's got to be real." He kept on like that for a while, until I turned and shot him the stink eye. But I knew what he meant.
I thought it too. And the play hadn't even begun.
1 comment:
Watching Motherf**ker over winter break this year, I would never have been able to explicitly identify the "family structure as family structure" theme in the set, but still felt that emotionally, like they were trapped in a revolving door that would not let them out. The fact that the staircase to nowhere and the billboard exist outside that world only heightens the feeling - there are points to escape, if only they could walk out the door.
Al Franklin's statements about the scenic design being "shiny, memorable and emotional" without being another character in the play strikes me as interesting for seeing some really dynamic sets at that theatre in particular. The set cannot outshine the actors, I totally agree with that, and such productions are very often balked at. However, missing from his description is "communicative" - I have certainly seen expressive sets that enrich the storytelling in intellectual, as well as emotional ways.
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