James’s Reviews > The collected plays > Status Update

My Mother, My Father, and Me—
Well that was an excellent tutorial in cultural appropriation. The jewish family drama without any of the real hallmarks of the jewish family drama. The stereotypical white boy who has all of the answers for every non-white person in america, but spends his entire life "finding himself" (literally).

Toys in the Attic—Well that was more depressing than possibly any other. None of the characters were worth a damn, and the tragedy was oh, so tragic.

Impressively, I didn't notice it in The Autumn Garden, but the servants went from being "negro" in Another Part Of The Forest, to being "colored" in The Autumn Garden. My, what a difference five years makes.

Candide—A cute little morality play. Although I've sung most of this, it never occurred to me that I hand't seen it or been in it.
Also, although the majority of it was flippant and light-hearted, there were some surprisingly pathetic (as in full of pathos) moments, and not only from Pangold, Candide has his moments too.

The Lark—
Are we surprised to have a play about Joan the Maid at the height of McCarthyism? No. No we are not.

The Autumn Garden—
Sophie was, for me, the most interesting character. She's completely in control of pretty much everything that happens to her, and yet aloof the entire time.

Dang, they were all scheming and vindictive, but Ben was almost sociopathic. It's like he just wanted to find a way to take out his frustration against his father. And enjoyed it when he did. And his motives, as almost everyone else in the family's, were purely selfish.

"History is made by the masses of people. One man, or ten men, don't start the earthquakes and don't stop them either. Only hero worshippers and ignorant historians think they do."

Wow, Kurt's an anti-hero like no other. I mean, when your hero explicitly says that doing the wrong thing is always wrong, even if it's for the right reasons, he's given you the moral lesson that we really need and really need to learn.

Oooh, she really lays in. All the Little Foxes, and boy are they cunning, each trying to out-fox the other. Also, the idea of Tallulah Bankhead as Regine is just amazing, I know Bette Davis played the role in the movie, but it's just so Tallulah Bankhead.