Continuity

by Bess Wohl

It’s magic hour in the New Mexico desert as an exhausted film crew races against the setting sun to shoot their blockbuster (but artsy) action movie, which takes place on an arctic (Styrofoam) ice floe, and features an ecoterrorist plotting a bombing mission to save all of humankind (supposedly). As the clock ticks and the desert sun beats down on the not-so-frozen landscape, personalities clash, artistic vision meets Hollywood demands, and the gap between fiction and science grows wider than ever. A dark but hilarious “play in six takes,” CONTINUITY interrogates the role of storytelling in a world on the brink of actual environmental crisis.

Genres: Plays

65 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, rounded up.

Wohl tends to run hot and cold for me, but this one is definitely in the winner's circle. It details the trial of a film crew stuck in the New Mexico desert (inexplicably subbing for Antartica), trying to make what appears to be a hokey disaster movie centered on climate change. The main characters include the vapid, Botoxed cokehead leading actress (named Nicole ... hmmmmm!!); the closeted action star leading man; a classically-trained black British character actress, who no matter how little she does, is always told to do less; the harried neophyte female director just trying to get the f-ing movie finished; her screenwriter ex, who has his own schemes in tow; and poor Larry, the science guy who has to fact check all the movie's claims in that realm.

The play is both hilarious, and yet deals soberly with some vitally important climate issues. Set and prop requirements probably means very few actual productions, but if it ever plays near me, I am so there for it - although the reviews of the premiere NY production indicate it didn't really quite work. :-(

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/th...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lif...
https://nystagereview.com/2019/05/21/...
https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/theat...
https://www.thewrap.com/continuity-th...

[Jonathan May · Rating 4 out of 5]

using the framework of film-making, Wohl is able to play with our sense of pathos by weaving in and out of characters, motivations, and appearances

[Caroline]

this play this play this play!

looking forward to doing this show!!

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't quite love this—it's a bit too lacking in theatricality for my taste—but I think it's definitely better than most of the stuff I read that's written for regional theatres. It's a play about making a movie about climate change. It has six scenes—in a clever gimmick, in fact, it's six takes of the same scene. It's funny and sometimes smart and has some nice moments. This is a play about making a movie, and so this has lots of banter and multiple things going on and also some good jokes. It also gets us a lot of information about climate change and it does that without it feeling like we're being beat over the head with it.