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PERHAPS IT'S ME Review by: Beth M, Dec 9, 2008 |
By Beth Mandelbaum
A Prayer for My Enemy was written by one of my favorite playwrights, Craig Lucas, who wrote, among other things, the absolutely wonderful plays Reckless and Prelude to a Kiss, and also the very excellent book for the Light in the Piazza. He also wrote a deeply touching screenplay, Longtime Companion, about the Aids crisis. And one would imagine that putting a play by Mr. Lucas in the extremely able hands of ... read more director Barlett Sher, probably best known as the director of the fantastic production of South Pacific now gracing Lincoln Center, would lead to a brilliant collaboration.
But I would have to say that this play, while it does have an interesting plot, some fine characterizations, and team of absolutely wonderful actors, seemed to me to miss the mark. The play seemed like a compilation of disparate elements and rather than flowing smoothly, it seemed made up of isolated and rather disconnected vignettes.
But beyond these factors, a Prayer for My Enemy is a play that seems to have extraordinary potential because of the ideas and feelings that it intended to convey, but which didn’t seem to come across for me. Right before seeing this play, I very carefully read the articles in the educational newsletter sent by Playwrights Horizons for A Prayer for My Enemy (these are sent to subscribers for every show that they produce). There were some pithy articles by Lucas, Sher, Tim Sanford, the Artistic Director of Playwrights Horizons and others. These articles offered an extraordinary amount of fascinating insights and interpretations of the play, and highlighted especially significant dialogue and imagery from the play.
While the articles were extremely useful in helping me to focus on what was most relevant to the play, I honestly felt that the educational materials were actually better than the play itself. This is the first time that I have had this kind of experience.
The articles bring together a strong sense of what is truly prayerful and raise provocative and thought provoking questions regarding who (and what) is the “enemy.” One is the “enemy without” (to quote Margaret Thatcher) in its reference to a country with which one is at war (in this play, one character has returned from Iraq and another is a Vietnam Vet). However, the enemy can also be the dark demons that we all fight within ourselves, the “enemy within,” which is a key theme in a Prayer for My Enemy.
However, there were extremely vivid characterizations and some beautiful monologues and dialogue, not to mention the superb acting. The play is certainly within the genre of the dysfunctional family play, though this has been better done recently in a plays such as Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate, and very notably last season in Lett’s August: Osage County, Pinter’s The Homecoming and Albee’s Peter and Jerry. The plot of Prayer is filled with relationships that are highly emotionally charged and even touching, and almost always held my interest. And I have to say that by the play’s end, I was moved to tears.
Perhaps Mr. Lucas has just put too much into the play’s intermission less 90 minutes, in which everything seemed to happen more quickly for me to totally absorb and process, let alone reflect upon. I felt as though there was no time to come up for air.
For me, the most fascinating scenes were those involving the extraordinary Victoria Clark, who gave a truly bravura performance. She conveyed an extremely wide range of emotions and also provided wonderful humorous touches. I greatly appreciated seeing a very versatile Jonathan Groff in a role so very different from the one he played in Spring Awakening. Other notable performances were those Of Zachary Booth, Skipp Suddeth and Michelle Pawk.
I am posting this before the reviews come out tonight and tomorrow morning. I will be very interested in reading them.
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My recommendation:
Don't go
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I saw this show with:
Alone
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