Summary
The Boundary is sort of a Scud-missile version of Death of a Salesmen, [Willy McNamara]'s dramaturgical schematic being fairly similar to Willy Loman's. The difference, however, and it's an important one, is that while Loman, for all his faults, has a certain nobility, McNamara has none. When a playwright of Ryan's ability sets out to write loathsome you can bet that loathsome is what you'll get. It's two hours of the vilest piece of humanity you've ever seen, monstrous in his childish pettiness and endless self-pity. It's interesting, in a sick way, in Act I, but I'm not sure what's to be had from spending two acts with such an unrelenting, vicious bully.
AND SPEAKING OF ESSENTIAL play-wrights, here comes one of Pittsburgh's best, Tammy Ryan, and the University of Pittsburgh Repertory Theatre's production of her play The Boundary, about a man and his radioactive relationship with his family, set during Operation Desert Storm. In truth, however, the Gulf War turns out to be merely the MacGuffin drawing us into a "Daddy, why don't you love me?" dysfunctional-family drama.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Visit; the Boundary
MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE that themes of love, honor and truth are what make a play a classic ... but for me it's revenge, which is precisely what Swiss dramatist Friedrich Durrenmatt served up in his 1956 play The Visit.
As an unwed and pregnant t...See the full content of this document
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