cinaed

I’ll let Folger give a summary of the play:

“Mae is an altruistic woman with just a little baggage—a $600 million inheritance. When her philandering boyfriend, Henry, seduces her aunt, both women become the object of scandal. Henry has a plan to win the heiress back. In the lush and opulent land of the Hamptons, where money and status determine everything, can love conquer all? Freely adapted from Congreve’s classic play, The Way of the World is a sparklingly witty physical comedy illuminating the foibles of the upper-class.”

Our cast of characters:

• Mae: Our so-called altruistic heroine with $600 million who spends most of the play saying she doesn’t want her money and is totally going to donate it to Haiti and build them water systems and hospitals. Drives a Prius and has issues with her friends trying to get her to buy ugly $2,000 hats. Also has legitimate abandonment issues as well as problems with the playboy Henry, who she broke up with after he slept with her and her aunt. Should use some of that $600 million to change her name and disappear to go do good deeds around the world, but unfortunately sticks around with these buttheads. 
• Henry: The philandering boyfriend. Somehow every single person in this play is somewhat in love with him, and I just don’t get it. Okay, everyone claims he is super good at sex, but guys, he’s a terrible person! He gets called a Don Juan or Leonardo DiCaprio, but I don’t see it, and am judging everyone accordingly. Sleeps with pretty much all of the cast at some point during or before the play, except for Reg, who is straight, and Lyle, who is gay. 
• Rene: Mae’s aunt and mother figure, who’s raised her since Mae’s parents went “Eh, $600 million is a good inheritance for a baby, right? So our obligation is done!” and fucked off somewhere. I think the mother went to Paris? Rene is one of rich older women who is prone to histrionics because she’s throwing a party and this $10,000 dress makes her look frumpy! And no, the $6,000 hat doesn’t help! Spends a lot of time being defensive about trickle down economics. Has her gardeners paint the lawn a nicer shade of green. Is hilariously terrible until a spoiler happens. 
• Katrina: One of Mae’s supposed friends and Henry’s ex. Is the one to claim Henry is a Casanova figure that everyone wants, and is obviously still hung up on him while hating his guts. Pushes ugly but expensive hats at Mae, and then buys them herself. The playwright apparently forgets about Katrina halfway through the play, which disappointed me. 
• Charles: Henry’s best friend. Gay, mean, and a lover of gossip. At one point Henry and Mae are having a dramatic fight and he’s just in the background, filming the whole thing with an expression of deep delight. Had a one-night stand with Henry a few years back and is still obsessed with him, even though Lyle is RIGHT THERE whisking Charles off to the Pines and being the least terrible man in this play. Get your shit together, Charles. 
• Reg: Another of Henry’s friends and Lyle’s cousin. A fratboy in the body of a forty-something year old man. Has a lot to say, all of it ridiculous. Can be summarized by the dude sitting behind me during one of Reg’s speeches, who said in a tone of awe, “He’s so stupid!” as though Reg had opened his mind to how stupid people really can be. Also has one of the only genuine moments in the show with Rene, as well as being supportive of Lyle, dropping him from 100% douchebag to 90%. 
• Lyle: Reg’s cousin from Nantucket who is gay and also doesn’t want to talk about whales. Or Moby Dick. But especially whales. Is probably the least awful man in the show, who wants a genuine connection with Charles but is also willing to pretend to be interested in Rene, first because a total stranger asked him to and he didn’t have anything better to do that day, and afterwards when he starts to have a conscience, because Charles asks him to do it for the drama. Despite this, still the best guy, which is saying a lot. 
• Waitress: Waitress working six jobs to spend the summer in the Hamptons. She loves the Hamptons! She also hates the Hamptons. But she especially hates Terrible Tippers. Did you, like, know that the 1% are really bad tippers! I know, total surprise! Sleeps with Henry and manages to get drawn into his bullshit, but mostly comes out of it unscathed. She also falls into the ‘forgotten by the writer’ black whole. I’d say she and Katrina should run off together, but Katrina’s mean to her in the first act and is also clearly a Terrible Tipper, so their love wasn’t meant to be. My advice to Waitress is just steal all the shit and run. Escape, girl, escape.  

My verdict:

Recommended if you enjoy hating on rich people, looking at pretty clothing, watching terrible people being terrible, and experiencing a really gorgeous stage design. 

Not recommended if you want to see any of these assholes have a proper comeuppance. Or if you wanted any of these people to get a compassion bat to the face and learn how to be decent people. Seriously, I was halfway home and went “HEY, EVEN THAT PERSON TURNED OUT SELFISH. RICH PEOPLE!!!” 

One-word review: YIKES. 

Longer review: I…don’t understand the writer’s choices at all. ANY OF THEM. 

• Unexpected Antigone/Polynices incest! I’m just. Look, buddy, if incest is your thing, maybe consider doing an adaptation of Oedipus/Jocasta’s story. Just saying. 
• …Honestly I think it was also implying Creon had a thing for Antigone too, but the acting choices in this were so bizarre I am not a hundred percent sure on that. Also weird Antigone/Teiresias subtext??
• Haemon and Antigone were engaged, but then ten days before the wedding, Haemon sleeps with Ismene? Also why make Haemon a WASP-y dude bro, rude. 
• Okay, so Eurydice doesn’t exist in this adaptation. Cool. Cool cool cool. 
• …Antigone is possibly schizophrenic and definitely hears voices. I…no. Nope. 
• Who are these two killers who keep showing up and murdering random characters? Like, I am pretty sure not this many people died in Antigone. Did these two weirdos wander off the set of a stage play of The Boondock Saints? 
• …And then Antigone dies because Creon institutionalizes her and she jumps out of the window of her room. NOPE. 

There were many things I liked about it!

The actress playing Lady M was phenomenal, and all the acting was strong. I really liked how Lady M and the other Scots spoke Gaelic to each other, leaving the audience as well as Siward (the English lord here to broker peace between Malcolm and the clans) and the other English visitors in the dark and only guessing at their intentions.

But I don’t think I’d recommend it, for a couple reasons.

One, while I can appreciate dark humor, there are times in the play when Grieg goes for a cheap laugh and ruins an otherwise complex and moving moment.

Two, although I don’t really support Lady M (though she’s much more sympathetic in the sequel than in Macbeth), Siward is…augh, just. I am so tired of “honorable” men and their good intentions.