Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: Tony Kushner opens the second half of Angels in America with a character named The World's Oldest Bolshevik ridiculing modern socialists as "pygmy children of a gigantic race." It's hard not to think of that watching Thurgood, about the late Thurgood Marshall, at Pittsburgh Public Theater.
This one-man show makes the case that Marshall may be the last great Supreme Court Justice; even the few good contemporary ones are small-bore moderates reacting to, rather than leading, the times. And it's our fault; we pygmy children who, through apathy and myopia, have midwifed a political system in which mavericks like Marshall can never again flourish.
2 comments:
Natalie told me that she actually saw this show and did not like it. I learned about the justice in classes, but as it was pointed out it is very different to study a person, than to be live when they were at their peak. Natalie was saying that she did not find much of the humor to be funny because she was not alive at the time that is referenced. The audience members that were, were much more lively during the show. This brings up an interesting point of marketing. Is there a way to say "only older audiences may appreciate the humor"?
I've never seen The Book of Mormon,so I don't know much about the play but after reading this article I am under the impression that it has its similarities with Spring Awakening. Being on crew for that here at CMU, working the light booth I found fun in watching the audience's reactions, deep breaths, sighs, elderly people exciting, etc. I still don't understand how some storys portrayed in theatre offend people, or disturb them when theatre is only a true reflection of what REALLY goes on in the world, intentionally provoking change. But there is a saying that I recently came across "Art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed."
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