Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: The Pittsburgh New Works Festival presents a series of evening-length programs of three world-premiere one-acts each, produced by local troupes. Following are reviews of the concluding pair of programs, C and D
3 comments:
I find the disparities between the critics comments and the observations in the article's comment section to be quite interesting. It got me thinking about how a "typical" audience member views a production, versus how a critic with a "trained eye" sees it. I think over time, instead a informing a viewer and their opinion, critic's reviews have become something rather aloof and void of meaning. I know that when I think of critics, I always think of Ebert and Siskel. What they wrote and presented was informative and approachable. This ability to make a review accessible, and understand how the audience will see a given production is a rapidly vanishing art.
I think it's cool that Pittsburgh is becoming a hub for new works. All over the city, I am seeing more and more art galleries and hearing about more and more new theatre festivals. It's cool to be living here during a time in which the city is redeveloping itself. For the past few decades, Pittsburgh has moved away from being essentially a steel mill and into a place that is now America's most liveable city. We are in a time of change, and the art created exemplifies that. I also found these reviews interesting, but regardless of how they were written, I think there is value to evaluating new works at all.
From the way the reviewer talks about the material in the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, it seems there is a lot left to be desired. And improved. Yet, as Amanda also has commented, the commentators of this article seem to have very different ideas of how good/bad these plays are. I think new plays give critics a better chance at directly critiquing the material they see. It's much harder to criticize plays that are generally seen as 'well written' in the public eye. For well known plays, critics make nice of the play and mock the director, the actors, or the designers who have interpreted it. And though I might think this article is rather harsh, I understand that criticism like this will help the playwrights in the end. The comments below, which come from those who have also seen the play, will only feed the playwright's ego. And we all know that doesn't help anyone.
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