Theater Review - One Fine Day & the state of academic freedom
Friday night was dinner (good Chinese, particularly yummy szechwan pork) and theater at Stage Left to see the new David Rush play directed by Drew Martin (who's a friend). Rush is a Emmy & Jeff award-winning playwright; Martin won a Jeff (the Chicago theater equivalent of the Tony's) for directing David Rush’s play Leander Stillwell.
I have to admit I enjoyed it, its a witty play that moves well dramatically, is well-acted & is fundamentally a fun watch (& the good company helped, I went with a large party of old friends). The play deals with the very thought provoking subject of academic freedom - its about what happens when a sociology professor lecturing on the theme of propaganda decides to dress up as Hitler while distributing Nazi materials in a class to demonstrate his point.
In retrospect this morning though I've got lots of nits to pick with it, mainly because I've realized its full of walking cliches, a possibly pat answer and a bunch of extraneous oddities - mainly the appearance of the Jabberwock at the beginning and Lewis Carroll at the end. These are in dream sequences, which seems to be a bit of a theme for this week in light of Top Secret on House!
Anyway, the real critics' reviews can all be found at One Fine Day Reviews.
They are a bit of a mixed bag and pretty accurately reflect my own thoughts. The play's worth seeing though - despite its deficiencies it will (& did for us last night) provoke lots of discussion on the state of U.S. academics and right wing groupthink.
I have to admit I enjoyed it, its a witty play that moves well dramatically, is well-acted & is fundamentally a fun watch (& the good company helped, I went with a large party of old friends). The play deals with the very thought provoking subject of academic freedom - its about what happens when a sociology professor lecturing on the theme of propaganda decides to dress up as Hitler while distributing Nazi materials in a class to demonstrate his point.
In retrospect this morning though I've got lots of nits to pick with it, mainly because I've realized its full of walking cliches, a possibly pat answer and a bunch of extraneous oddities - mainly the appearance of the Jabberwock at the beginning and Lewis Carroll at the end. These are in dream sequences, which seems to be a bit of a theme for this week in light of Top Secret on House!
Anyway, the real critics' reviews can all be found at One Fine Day Reviews.
They are a bit of a mixed bag and pretty accurately reflect my own thoughts. The play's worth seeing though - despite its deficiencies it will (& did for us last night) provoke lots of discussion on the state of U.S. academics and right wing groupthink.