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anjumstar's review against another edition
3.0
This play was disappointing. Mostly because I had gotten my hopes up for it. From the back cover and even the author's note in the front of the book, I was excited. I liked Mr. LaBute's personality and the concept and the very brief summaries of the stories I'd be reading. And then I read them and they were...sub par.
My biggest issue was the lack variety in the stories and even the characters. From the back cover, I thought that I would be reading very different stories with very different and colorful dynamics between characters. But all of the scenes were between two people. Mostly a man and a woman. And half of them were just long monologues where the other character did nothing. I think either only one of the stories should have been in the monologue style or they all should have been. The balance of this many monologues was just strange and unwelcome.
Then we have the similarities of the characters. Aside from the many that have an unbelievable case of diarrhea of the mouth, we have many other parallels. First is a preoccupation with words. Now, I am a person with a preoccupation with words; most writers probably are. And that's probably why these pieces of dialogue came to Mr. LaBute. But it isn't an all together common trait and it was boring to read about it in character after character. And, after a certain point, it was just absurd. There was a character in, I think, every scene except for one or two that had a preoccupation with some word or another. Obnoxious.
Aside from that little detail, there were more obvious factors. Like the majority of the verbal characters being somewhat to quite noticeably crazy. Like I said, I thought that this book would have interesting dynamics. And yes, people can get kind of crazy a lot of the time, especially when stuck in a car and forced to have a conversation that they don't want to have. But still, a lot of these characters took it too far and not in an interesting way. Female in bench seat--crazy. Young woman in funny--just focusing on the crazy part of her; her illness. Husband in all apologies--crazy in a possibly domestically abusive kind of way. Man in road trip, most disturbingly of all--kidnapping a teenager; crazy. You get my point. One or two of these wouldn't be so bad, but the extreme just seemed like a crutch lacking nuance, rather than a character that is unstable but still has depth to them. These characters lacked depth and were cartoonish. And not in a particularly entertaining way. Of course, seeing them acted would help that, but the text alone wasn't doing any favors.
Now let's just move on the specifically critiquing the scenes, versus mentioning how they do not work well together. I'll just go in order. Funny. The girl was interesting in some ways. Definitely not the stereotype of someone getting out of rehab, which I appreciated. Veering from stereotypes is always appreciated. But I just don't understand why the mom was silent. I mean, I guess that's supposed to be a tribute to the bad parenting that landed this girl with a drug problem in the first place, but still. I don't know if this scene would be funnier on its feet than it was on the page, but this one would definitely need to be funny to be successful. Because otherwise, the whole declaration that the girl is just going to go downhill again and the mom isn't doing a damn thing about it would just be super depressing. Not the best way to start out.
Bench Seat. Like I already said, I didn't like crazy girl. First of all, her paranoia in the whole scene was insufferable. Of course, it made sense for the person that she was revealed to be in the ending, but it made this scene such a slow burn, but not even in the way where there was tension and I was waiting to see what happened. I didn't care what happened, or why she was so paranoid, I just wanted her to shut up. Thankfully, I did like the boy, I guess because he was normal. And a little bit of a know it all pretentious douche like I can be sometimes (like...right now. Sorry.) But mostly he seemed like a nice normal guy. But, on the other hand, the way that he was reacting to crazy girl didn't make for good drama or good progress. It only lent itself to her being annoying all over again ten seconds later. Which, again, I didn't appreciate. So, not a fan of this one, but I do like that Paul Rudd played him, because I can totally see that now!
All Apologies. Monologue number two. This guy is definitely a real person. Unstable, alcoholic, husband, loves his wife, but certainly mistreats her. Sad, but true. And I like that honesty. This is one that--like I should have said with the first scene--I would appreciate more if this were a scene cycle of monologues versus a scene cycle of car scenes. Because I feel like this scene should have been a fight instead of a silent treatment. Because this way I had no idea who the wife was, which took away from the story. I think that we did get the story here that Mr. LaBute wanted us to get, but I just don't think that his aim was the best story. The husband talked in circles and wasn't redeemable and didn't catch my attention for the whole time. I definitely would have zoned out in this scene unless the acting had been really good. And with this repetitive material, it would have to be really, really good.
Merge. Another slow burn. But at least this one had some mystery to it, so I really was waiting to see what happened. But the way that the girl just fell asleep at the end...man, that's someone that I would put an eject seat in my car for. She was a very frustrating character. And the guy kind of was too, because he's kind of pathetic. Wow, I guess one of the themes for why I didn't like this play (as a whole) is just because none of the characters are likeable. And I know that the goal of writing isn't creating likable characters, but with so many opportunities for variety in this story, why did Mr. LaBute have to make all of his character insufferable?
Yeah, we're gonna take a pause here to critique the similarity of the characters again. Yes, most of them are thoroughly unlikeable. It would have been nice for one of these to be, I don't know, a short family drama or something with one or two likeable characters. Just to mix it up. But also, most of these characters are just kind of stupid people. Which always gets me kind of riled up, and not in a good way. Stupid or silent is just about all of them. Come on! There were so many opportunities here for different types of people and instead we just got middle America deadbeats. Thanks.
Long Division. This idea seemed fun to me from the back of the cover. This could have been a cute, fun little story about two bros scheming to get back a beloved game system. But instead it was monologue number three. And in this one, there was absolutely no reason for the other character to be silent. Oh, wait, I'm wrong. He had one line. And man, was it dramatic. And the fact that it was dramatic, was pathetic. Which kind of cancels it out. This one was so bland and disappointing that I read it three days ago and I don't even remember anything from it. Glancing through it again, I'm reminded that I really did like one part of this scene. The part where the boy is talking about how people at the movies were upset that half a second of their movie got ruined and they wanted a refund. That I identify hardcore with. People are just so entitled about these material things and I just want to tell them to let it go and that they'll be okay. Really, this boy telling them that they'd never make it through life is great. Loved that. Would love to be able to tell people off like that. But I don't have the guts. (and most of the people I encounter like this are at work, so I would get in trouble if I did. Dreams, though!)
Road Trip. This one was the most interesting and varied of the bunch, I would say. It is disturbing how normal and not creepy the scene was. The fact that it wasn't creepy made it creepier. Which is a cool mechanic that I've never thought of before. I mean, once again, it was a crazy character. And we don't get the opportunity to understand the girl at all. I mean, she was resisting before the scene but now she's just along for the ride? And she must be at least 15 if she was taking a driver's ed class. So you're just left wondering what is up with these gaps in knowledge that she clearly has and why she's doing this. I guess that you're supposed to be left in that kind of place with a short story like this, but I just wish that I understood better exactly what went down. But I guess this story did its job well. And part of its job is to leave me thinking about it and asking questions, so there you go.
Autobahn. Monologue number four. Again, don't understand why this one was a monologue. And I just feel that such a better topic could have been chosen for the last one than...lack of success with a foster kid. Yikes. I didn't like this one. Because of the monologue thing as well as the fact that the story wasn't interesting. It was upsetting, yes. And unusual. But it was told in such a way that I was just like, uh, that's a bummer. I guess because the woman was so on the surface and had this uncomfortable levity to her. This story could have had weight. But it was just awkward. Bad ending. Don't really know why any of the choices in this one were made.
All this being said, this play wasn't really as bad as I'm making it out to be. It's just frustrating to see an idea with such potential executed so poorly. But hey, maybe someday there'll be a great version of this idea to come to the rescue. And there were moments of light in this one. But they were overshadowed by the piece as a whole falling flat. And so I won't remember the good parts. Such a shame.
My biggest issue was the lack variety in the stories and even the characters. From the back cover, I thought that I would be reading very different stories with very different and colorful dynamics between characters. But all of the scenes were between two people. Mostly a man and a woman. And half of them were just long monologues where the other character did nothing. I think either only one of the stories should have been in the monologue style or they all should have been. The balance of this many monologues was just strange and unwelcome.
Then we have the similarities of the characters. Aside from the many that have an unbelievable case of diarrhea of the mouth, we have many other parallels. First is a preoccupation with words. Now, I am a person with a preoccupation with words; most writers probably are. And that's probably why these pieces of dialogue came to Mr. LaBute. But it isn't an all together common trait and it was boring to read about it in character after character. And, after a certain point, it was just absurd. There was a character in, I think, every scene except for one or two that had a preoccupation with some word or another. Obnoxious.
Aside from that little detail, there were more obvious factors. Like the majority of the verbal characters being somewhat to quite noticeably crazy. Like I said, I thought that this book would have interesting dynamics. And yes, people can get kind of crazy a lot of the time, especially when stuck in a car and forced to have a conversation that they don't want to have. But still, a lot of these characters took it too far and not in an interesting way. Female in bench seat--crazy. Young woman in funny--just focusing on the crazy part of her; her illness. Husband in all apologies--crazy in a possibly domestically abusive kind of way. Man in road trip, most disturbingly of all--kidnapping a teenager; crazy. You get my point. One or two of these wouldn't be so bad, but the extreme just seemed like a crutch lacking nuance, rather than a character that is unstable but still has depth to them. These characters lacked depth and were cartoonish. And not in a particularly entertaining way. Of course, seeing them acted would help that, but the text alone wasn't doing any favors.
Now let's just move on the specifically critiquing the scenes, versus mentioning how they do not work well together. I'll just go in order. Funny. The girl was interesting in some ways. Definitely not the stereotype of someone getting out of rehab, which I appreciated. Veering from stereotypes is always appreciated. But I just don't understand why the mom was silent. I mean, I guess that's supposed to be a tribute to the bad parenting that landed this girl with a drug problem in the first place, but still. I don't know if this scene would be funnier on its feet than it was on the page, but this one would definitely need to be funny to be successful. Because otherwise, the whole declaration that the girl is just going to go downhill again and the mom isn't doing a damn thing about it would just be super depressing. Not the best way to start out.
Bench Seat. Like I already said, I didn't like crazy girl. First of all, her paranoia in the whole scene was insufferable. Of course, it made sense for the person that she was revealed to be in the ending, but it made this scene such a slow burn, but not even in the way where there was tension and I was waiting to see what happened. I didn't care what happened, or why she was so paranoid, I just wanted her to shut up. Thankfully, I did like the boy, I guess because he was normal. And a little bit of a know it all pretentious douche like I can be sometimes (like...right now. Sorry.) But mostly he seemed like a nice normal guy. But, on the other hand, the way that he was reacting to crazy girl didn't make for good drama or good progress. It only lent itself to her being annoying all over again ten seconds later. Which, again, I didn't appreciate. So, not a fan of this one, but I do like that Paul Rudd played him, because I can totally see that now!
All Apologies. Monologue number two. This guy is definitely a real person. Unstable, alcoholic, husband, loves his wife, but certainly mistreats her. Sad, but true. And I like that honesty. This is one that--like I should have said with the first scene--I would appreciate more if this were a scene cycle of monologues versus a scene cycle of car scenes. Because I feel like this scene should have been a fight instead of a silent treatment. Because this way I had no idea who the wife was, which took away from the story. I think that we did get the story here that Mr. LaBute wanted us to get, but I just don't think that his aim was the best story. The husband talked in circles and wasn't redeemable and didn't catch my attention for the whole time. I definitely would have zoned out in this scene unless the acting had been really good. And with this repetitive material, it would have to be really, really good.
Merge. Another slow burn. But at least this one had some mystery to it, so I really was waiting to see what happened. But the way that the girl just fell asleep at the end...man, that's someone that I would put an eject seat in my car for. She was a very frustrating character. And the guy kind of was too, because he's kind of pathetic. Wow, I guess one of the themes for why I didn't like this play (as a whole) is just because none of the characters are likeable. And I know that the goal of writing isn't creating likable characters, but with so many opportunities for variety in this story, why did Mr. LaBute have to make all of his character insufferable?
Yeah, we're gonna take a pause here to critique the similarity of the characters again. Yes, most of them are thoroughly unlikeable. It would have been nice for one of these to be, I don't know, a short family drama or something with one or two likeable characters. Just to mix it up. But also, most of these characters are just kind of stupid people. Which always gets me kind of riled up, and not in a good way. Stupid or silent is just about all of them. Come on! There were so many opportunities here for different types of people and instead we just got middle America deadbeats. Thanks.
Long Division. This idea seemed fun to me from the back of the cover. This could have been a cute, fun little story about two bros scheming to get back a beloved game system. But instead it was monologue number three. And in this one, there was absolutely no reason for the other character to be silent. Oh, wait, I'm wrong. He had one line. And man, was it dramatic. And the fact that it was dramatic, was pathetic. Which kind of cancels it out. This one was so bland and disappointing that I read it three days ago and I don't even remember anything from it. Glancing through it again, I'm reminded that I really did like one part of this scene. The part where the boy is talking about how people at the movies were upset that half a second of their movie got ruined and they wanted a refund. That I identify hardcore with. People are just so entitled about these material things and I just want to tell them to let it go and that they'll be okay. Really, this boy telling them that they'd never make it through life is great. Loved that. Would love to be able to tell people off like that. But I don't have the guts. (and most of the people I encounter like this are at work, so I would get in trouble if I did. Dreams, though!)
Road Trip. This one was the most interesting and varied of the bunch, I would say. It is disturbing how normal and not creepy the scene was. The fact that it wasn't creepy made it creepier. Which is a cool mechanic that I've never thought of before. I mean, once again, it was a crazy character. And we don't get the opportunity to understand the girl at all. I mean, she was resisting before the scene but now she's just along for the ride? And she must be at least 15 if she was taking a driver's ed class. So you're just left wondering what is up with these gaps in knowledge that she clearly has and why she's doing this. I guess that you're supposed to be left in that kind of place with a short story like this, but I just wish that I understood better exactly what went down. But I guess this story did its job well. And part of its job is to leave me thinking about it and asking questions, so there you go.
Autobahn. Monologue number four. Again, don't understand why this one was a monologue. And I just feel that such a better topic could have been chosen for the last one than...lack of success with a foster kid. Yikes. I didn't like this one. Because of the monologue thing as well as the fact that the story wasn't interesting. It was upsetting, yes. And unusual. But it was told in such a way that I was just like, uh, that's a bummer. I guess because the woman was so on the surface and had this uncomfortable levity to her. This story could have had weight. But it was just awkward. Bad ending. Don't really know why any of the choices in this one were made.
All this being said, this play wasn't really as bad as I'm making it out to be. It's just frustrating to see an idea with such potential executed so poorly. But hey, maybe someday there'll be a great version of this idea to come to the rescue. And there were moments of light in this one. But they were overshadowed by the piece as a whole falling flat. And so I won't remember the good parts. Such a shame.
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