New Review: Stitching
For New York Press. I rarely point to what other colleagues write, but I thought Aaron Riccio's take on the play was pretty on the money, too. Here's a link to that, but only after you read my New York Press piece.
Speaking of which, here's a tease:
The following review is brought to you by our sponsor, the International Association of Professional Spoilers, always dedicated to the ruination of your evening.
In the final scene of Stitching, Anthony Neilson’s two-hander about a couple that should never have been a couple, the female, Abby, played by spitfire Israeli actress Meital Dohan, reveals that she’s done something to her privates that’s a horrific form of genital mutilation. Not that there’s any genital mutilation that isn’t degrading and demoralizing, but Abby’s is disturbing to an exponential degree—among the worst of the tribal rites you read about in U.N. reports and news accounts.
4 comments:
Hi Leonard,
normally I wouldn't bother following a link to a review of a play that I'm unlikely to see, but your spoiler got me hooked.
Your reaction to the play reminded me of my reaction to Neil La Bute's "The Mercy Seat" where I found it hard to have any emotional investment in a couple whose relationship was going to be shit whether they stayed together or not.
Congratulations on the publication of your book and I hope it does well.
I hope so too -- thanks, Abe. Glad you read the review, too.
Hey, thanks for the notice. You know, it really didn't even occur to me that what Abby had done to herself was all that shocking. I wonder if I've just seen too many shows that are ACTUALLY shocking.
Neither of us liked the show enough to really spend time analyzing it, but two quick thoughts: (1) As an alternative to raging self-hatred (not that she doesn't have that, too), but it may also be that Abby, dead baby on hand, sows up her vagina to "keep" the child safe inside her. (2) I don't have a copy of the script, but I got the impression that the "prostitute" scenes took places after the baby had already been born--makes it even sicker; that is, that her psyche turns her into a creature filled with such hate that it backwashes at her. By the way, I love that line of yours about "webisodes." So true.
I love this play. I almost wish I could afford to see it again...Meital Dohan was awesome, and the whole thing was just really powerful.
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