Lisa Renee Jordan
The Weak and the Strong
Erik Ehn’s title "The Weak and the Strong" taken from St. Paul may refer to the bad choices that some people make that others avoid, but it seems to only reinforce the clichés of most western films. The storytelling and production are mostly so obscure that the play becomes tedious as it is so difficult to follow. With a 70-minute first act, the play seems extremely long and overwritten. It is to be hoped that the play finds an audience that can follow its circuitous path to its conclusion and in its poetic speech and metaphors. [more]
Beloved
Translated into English from the Swedish by Charlotte Barslund, Ms. Langseth’s trite sexual obsession scenario is reminiscent of the novels of Patricia Highsmith and the French thriller films of Claude Chabrol. Langseth lays on sociological concerns to give the work more cultural heft. There are bromides about the class system and rebelling against the patriarchy. [more]
What We’re Up Against
The play is both satiric and trenchant. The conversations of the men are laced with profanity much like David Mamet’s real estate men in Glengarry Glen Ross. Eliza is called everything in the book (arrogant, aggressive, disrespectful, impatient, a loose cannon) as well as names you can’t print in a family newspaper. Eventually it rubs off on Eliza and Janice and they are cursing as crudely as the men: if you can’t beat them at their own game, then join them. The men’s fear of the women getting ahead would be pathetic if it weren’t so typical and true. Rebeck dramatizes office politics as each member of the staff worries about his or her own skin, either with lies, evasions or manipulation, and the circle keeps widening, until Eliza beats them at their own game. [more]