www.clydefitchreport.com: What to make of Craig Lucas’ latest play I Was Most Alive with You? Much of the time the playwright is very serious about his subject matter. Sometimes he’s serious to the brink of pretentiousness. Sometimes he inches a bit beyond that brink.
Let me state immediately that I often have trouble with Lucas’ works. However, I am an unabashed fan of The Dying Gaul, Prelude to a Kiss and the 1989 AIDS film Longtime Companion, which was directed by his then-longtime collaborator, the late Norman René.
2 comments:
Having not seen the play, it’s hard for me to comment on how placing the ASL interpreters on a catwalk above the stage actually works in context. My gut reaction, though, is to think of segregation and the historical physical separation of minorities with balconies or galleries. In this case, the people on stage also sign, so perhaps my reaction is misplaced. On the other hand, it’s not hard to think of examples where there were minorities represented on stage or on the screen while segregated in the audience. Meanwhile, with the overarching biblical themes of the play, placing the interpreters physically above the action on stage imparts a sense of heavenly or angelic bodies. It’s tricky to parse out, and I’m not sure if there’s an easy resolution. The reviewer, who appears to be able to hear the vocal speech, found the interpreters visually distracting. Clearly, though, his opinion doesn’t represent the whole story, and likely doesn’t represent the experience of the target audience. I would be very interested to read reviews written by someone who signs exclusively, as well as someone who signs and hears.
This article does not really lay out an argument very well but, as far as I can tell, the author is saying that the use of sign language interpreters in this production was simultaneously not enough and too much. There is not too much description of the effect of the interpreters on the production but I see where the author is coming from. It is hard to focus on the action of a play if one is also trying to focus on what is happening directly above the action. I think a better way of incorporating ASL into the performance would have been to have the actors act as interpreters as well and use ASL. I think the effect would have been just as poignant, if not more, and it would not have distracted from the performance as much. Because one of the play’s central themes is the deaf experience, as demonstrated by the placement of the interpreters in such a prominent place, I think incorporating ASL into what the actors are doing would have the same effect of emphasizing the experience.
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