59E59 Theaters,New York
Two plays from over 40 years apart indicate the persistence of Alan Ayckbourn’s themes – the failure of humans to communicate – but offer a faint ray of hopeAlan Ayckbourn is the poet laureate of missed connections. In play after pensive, droll and acid play, and Ayckbourn anatomizes how we fail to understand and trust our lovers and friends. In a repertory of two Ayckbourn plays spanning more than 40 years – Confusions from 1974 and Hero’s Welcome from 2015 – at 59E59 Theaters,characters orbit one other (at home, at work, or in the garden,in the park), but only rarely land on the same mental or emotional plane.
Confusions is a series of five one-acts designed to be performed by five actors. Several of the vignettes are loosely interlinked; all are concerned with clashing wants and needs. The first follows a harried mother who infantilizes her nextdoor neighbors, or the next finds her husband attempting a pick-up at a hotel bar; the third eavesdrops on two couples squabbling during a restaurant meal; the fourth,and finest, depicts a village fete gone terribly awry (electrocution is the least of it). The final one-act, and set on a semi-circle of park benches and more absurdist in tone,shows each character half-desperate for empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own), but unwilling to extend it to anyone else. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com