A play from the 90s about a man who spends $200,000 on a painting that's just basically all white and another man who takes umbrage at that and a third man who won't take a position but would dearly like it if they all could just be friends. Could be viewed as a political allegory. Many imprecations to "Read Seneca."
30 జూన్, 2025
Last night at the American Players Theater.
A play from the 90s about a man who spends $200,000 on a painting that's just basically all white and another man who takes umbrage at that and a third man who won't take a position but would dearly like it if they all could just be friends. Could be viewed as a political allegory. Many imprecations to "Read Seneca."
పోస్ట్లు
46 కామెంట్లు:
This is where a seated Graham Chapman would simply say, "I have no opinion on that."
That wall is just aching to have a banana taped to it. And that is how you turn $200k into $20 million.
First World Nonsense.
Did they note that the plot mimics Kurt Vonnegut's 1987 novel "Bluebeard"? The painting in the novel is made from Sateen-Dura Luxe in Windsor Blue, however.
“Many imprecations to "Read Seneca."
Beckett would seem more apropos.
...something is always being cast up on that beach, as new classes of girls mature, and you can always get a new one, if you are willing to overlook certain weaknesses in the departments of thought and feeling. But if it is thought and feeling you want, you can always read a book, or see a film, or have an interior monologue. But of course with the spread of literacy you now tend to get girls who have thought and feeling too, in some measure, and some of them will probably belong to the Royal Philological Society or something, or in any case have their own 'thing,' which must be respected, and catered to, and nattered about, just as if you gave a shit about all this blague. But of course we may be different, perhaps you do care about it. It's not unheard of... - Barthelme, Snow White
That French play of some years back? Was it called "White on White"? There's a more recent play with the same title about DEI consciousness raising.
Art.
“But of course with the spread of literacy you now tend to get girls who have thought and feeling too, in some measure, and some of them will probably belong to the Royal Philological Society or something, or in any case have their own 'thing,' which must be respected, and catered to, and nattered about, just as if you gave a shit about all this blague.”
Yeah, that was a problem back in my day. I always had to fight the urge to pass on the famous philosopher Ted Williams’ advice, “If you don’t think too good, don’t think too much.”
The Art is settled. Follow the Art.
"But of course we may be different, perhaps you do care about it."
Yeah, that's a possibility that does arise.
Very similar layout to the Purple Rose Theater in Chelsea MI, run by Jeff Daniels. Not a bad venue.
I enjoyed the David Mamet interview by Mike Rowe. At one point in the interview, Mamet notes that the set isn't important to the enjoyment of the play. His point is if the play is good, then the acting and the lines become the focal point and not the set. The set shouldn't be necessary to understanding the setting, if you write a good story.
OT:
AI takes down "judge" Jackson. all I can say is - wow. oh. wow.
I saw it, and to my surprise enjoyed it, back in the 90s. Not a fan of modern art and I liked the discussion. If I remember correctly, and this was many years and two strokes ago, it was pretty funny. Did you find it so?
We went to a play the other night. Rocky, the Musical. Didn't know it was going to be a musical as it wasn't mentioned when we bought the tickets.
First time I've ever walked out at intermission.
The concept wasn't bad. The execution was awful. Worst play I've seen ... and that includes free plays at the community college.
Peachy, thanks for sharing.
I was the Theater Technical Director at a University in the 80s. The message was "if you leave the theater remembering the set, it was 1) poor directing, 2) poor acting or 3) poor writing. Disastrous if all three.
The play is Art (1994) by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher. It's a French comedy, which means absurd goings on intersperse with not so many yucks and chortles. Frankly, the French should avoid comedy. They don't understand it. Giving Jerry Lewis the Legion D'honneur proves that. Le Roi du Crazy, indeed. Art involves three friendships torpedoed over a philosophical abstraction. That's not funny. It's likely but not funny. A funny ending would be a precocious toddler filling in the blank canvas with a crayon masterpiece while the adults are too distracted by their arguments to notice.
Mr. Hurlot's Holiday was good, if you don't like the Pink Panther.
"Read Seneca"
The obvious rejoinder, which one?
We don't have much from the Elder, though I can imagine a lost Controversy about a rich pleb who orders a bust of himself, pays for it in advance, and is delivered a plain block of marble with the assurance it's in dere. During the ensuing trial the shade of Myron of Eleutherae is called by the defense to testify that every sculpture pre-exists inside the un-chiseled stone.
However, the playwright was thinking of Seneca the Younger (at least that's my surmise) a let-it-go, don't-let-it-bother-you, Stoic. Stoicism was very fashionable only last year. All the big newspapers had Culture page articles recommending neo-stoicism as la philosophie du jour. I think those editorials we intended to distract conservatives from the latest madness emanating from the Washington-Harvard outrage complex -- You'll never reverse the illegal immigration stampede, gender fluidity, or the Decline of the West. So relax. Take it easy. You'll be dead soon, anyway. Those admonitions disappeared like morning dew the moment Joe da Boss fired that look of utter confusion at the first and only Presidential debate. Whodda thunk it?
" $200,000 on a painting that's just basically all white ..."
If you could get Malevich's White on White for that price, you would be a multi-millionaire many times over. But I don't think MOMA is in the mood to sell.
Mr. Hurlot's Holiday was good, if you don't like the Pink Panther.
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot has its moments, such as Hurlot filtering into a funeral procession while carrying an inner tube. Yes, filmed in panchromatic B&W an inner tube looks like a wreath. Mildly madcap, as is Mon Oncle. Jacques Tati was essentially Jerry Lewis on Quaaludes, but what has the Pink Panther to do with it?
"But of course with the spread of literacy you now tend to get girls who have thought and feeling too,"
It seems that we are well on our way to fixing that how spread of literacy problem. Often even people who can read won't.
If you'd like a single-color custom painting - name your color. I'll do for half price. 100,000. Because I'm cool.
"The message was 'if you leave the theater remembering the set, it was 1) poor directing, 2) poor acting or 3) poor writing.' Disastrous if all three."
If the set is an irrelevancy, then so is costuming, which would account for generally tawdy look of opera these days. It's a rare Ring Cycle presentation that doesn't have the mighty Wotan dressed like a fentanyl addict. What happened to Gesamtkunstwerk? Did Mamet ruin that by himself? I doubt Shakespeare would agree. O, for a muse of fire...
Was is the operative word, one hopes. The Sixties left a nasty scar on Art. Maybe we could get a tattoo over it.
Peachy writes, "...name your color"
Olo.
Typo alert: I think those editorials were intended to distract conservatives...
Does a color we can't see exist?
Zark said: It seemed to me that Coney-Barrett’s well-reasoned decision contrasted sharply with Justice Jackson's considerably more feeble dissent.
Coney-Barrett, in essence, said district courts can only write orders narrowed to each case, although birthright citizenship has been recognized since the passage of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. Not exactly well reasoned at all, since folks affected by this ruling can simply not be born in the state where birthright is being questioned. It seems to me that many of us are at risk in today's world, especially those with dark skin.
Violations of the Constitution need to be acted upon immediately by the Federal Courts, and that has always been the case until now. Barrett hinted that class action lawsuits could substitute for national bans by the courts, and separately, Justice Alito growled about what he called the class-action "loophole." According to Alito, "the universal injunction will return from the grave under the guise of 'nationwide class relief,' and today's decision will be of little more than academic interest" if class-action suits are allowed to proliferate against Trump's executive order. But class-action lawsuits consume time, which permits the continuation of unconstitutional actions.
Meanwhile, minority progressives, Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson, faulted the majority for worrying more about overreaching judges than about an overreaching president. The majority ignores entirely whether the President's Executive Order is constitutional, instead focusing only on the question of whether federal courts have the equitable authority to issue universal injunctions. This order violated four previous Supreme Court precedents.
Writing separately, Jackson went even further, ominously saying the ruling itself “threatens the rule of law” by emboldening the executive branch at the expense of all others.
“I do not doubt that, if judges must allow the Executive to act unlawfully in some circumstances, as the Court concludes today, executive lawlessness will flourish, and from there, it is not difficult to predict how this all ends,” Jackson warned.
I agree with Jackson because Trump has already proved his disgust for the rule of law.
3rp person exhibiting "cruel neutrality", in a way.
Peachy's link at 2:34 is def worth scrolling back up and clicking. Guaranteed smile for normal people.
Jackson fans, , not so much.
shes at best a nexus 2
FullMoon - I agree.
Quaestor - Saturated laser-teal it is.
“ Mamet notes that the set isn't important to the enjoyment of the play.”
Not true for Wagner, though.
More smiles for normals from Coffee&Covid
"Folks, what a week.
A 12-Day Middle East War ceasefire and WWIII aversion, putting the pundits in their places.
A historic NATO defense spending agreement and a Trump butt-kissing contest.
A historic Rwanda-Congo peace deal.
SCOTUS ends nationwide injunctions, greenlights third-country deportations, prunes online porn, authorizes states to defund Planned Parenthood, and pinches LGBT school propaganda.
A record-high stock market beclowning the experts and media tools.
History’s first self-driving car delivery.
More Democrat purity spirals.
Florida’s swampy new Alligator Alcatraz will be funded by Biden’s immigrant hotel budget.
Trump ended protected status for half a million housecat-gobbling Haitians who can now be deported.
And honestly, there was more, like new lower-court wins for the Trump Agenda. I can barely keep up. When I speculated on Monday that the pace was accelerating, I was right again. Things are about to get really good."
Debussy (also a weekly music critic) wrote that Wagner was a beautiful sunset that had been confused with a sunrise.
Mr. Hurlot's Holiday is very good, although I find all Tati's comedy amusing. Tati can be very subtle - in fact too subtle at times. "Playtime" failed because the audience wanted fast jokes and big laughs and Tati didn't give it to them. His follow-on film "Traffic" is more obvious. And did better.
"Art" strikes me as one of those plays that lives or dies based on the Cast. You need the right actors.
FullMoon - 6:48!!!!
Poor gadfly's one-track mind can't leave the gutter of Democrat whinging to produce even a single sentence about art or beauty.
Typo alert: "The play is Art (1994) by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher."
Christopher Hampton, dammit! I really miss the preview option.
Could be read as a Burger King slogan.
Coffee & Covid is very good stuff.
Never saw "imprecations" used in that way. I always thought it was a polite, literary way to refer to somebody's swearing.
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