The American Plan

Thanks to a friend w/ a free ticket, I got to see "The American Plan" tonight.

After we got settled in our seats, I was immediately taken by the set. A pier that w/ little imagination looked like it was sitting out on the water (the slick look of the stage made me wonder how easy it was to navigate for the actors - as the transitions happened in the show, you never heard footsteps).

As the show began I was easily sucked into this time and place and not knowing a lot about the play in advance...I also wondered where it was going...the first thing that struck me was Lily Rabe's voice. I wondered how this character would come across w/ a voice that didn't sound older than the person speaking. How much work was that voice doing for the part?

Mercedes Ruehl embraces her role as a controlling and manipulating mother but although her daughter keeps warning people, it is not until you actually see her doing it that you believe it's possible. Ruehl's character can be grating but she has a charm about her that makes you want to believe she wouldn't actually destroy her daughter's future and possible happiness.

But then...the story twists further when the happiness isn't necessarily in her new found "love" but in the chance to escape her mother.

At the end of the play they flash forward and I wonder how necessary it was to add, as if the audience were given a chance to reflect on the show up until then they probably would have drawn similiar conclusions- however, it does give the characters closure.

Although the production value and acting was well executed, the play itself is certainly not an uplifting one (and has it's lulls). Especially when it is confirmed what happens to these characters. This play shows a character that tries to fight what appears to be her destiny and then eventually succumb to it. Great for drama on stage but makes you reflective on how such things play out in life. What effort is in vain and what effort is not is often not known until you have that "flash forward" distance to reflect.

All this "deep thought" aside, we had some talkative older audience members behind us that became a show of their own as people within earshot of them would laugh in response to them and not the show. Gotta love live theater! Oh - and Julie White was sitting in the row ahead of us, too. :)