3C

by David Adjmi

The war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in L.A. to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda's kitchen after a wild night of partying, the three strike a deal for an arrangement that has hilarious and devastating consequences for everyone. Or are they non-consequences? Inspired by 1970s sitcoms, 1950s existentialist comedy, Chekhov and disco anthems, 3C is a terrifying, yet amusing, look at a culture that likes to amuse itself, even as it teeters on the brink of ruin.

Genres: Plays

84 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG, is this dreadful - there is nary a LOL moment in this alleged comedy! I thought it was just me, but the NYT review (below) wholeheartedly agreed. Although I have read (and enjoyed) other of Adjmi's plays, I actually became aware of this due to reading about the court case against the premiere production, in which the producers of the TV sit-com 'Three's Company' (which this parodies) sued the playwright for copyright infringement - a case he won, and which is actually far more interesting than anything presented onstage: https://www.playbill.com/article/3c-p....

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/th...

[Yourfiendmrjones · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story examining the souless seventies using the "Three's Company" sitcom as a prism?


Yep. While the conceit is an interesting one, it's never more than an interesting conceit.

[Connie Staub · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best plays I’ve ever read

[friendo · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF but it pissed me off so bad here's my review: If you start a play with pages of notes explaining your formatting shorthand, perhaps it isn't good formatting shorthand. If you start a play with pages of notes explaining exactly how you would like the play's rhythm and tone to be, what the play is about, ET CETERA, perhaps you aren't doing very good playwriting! Like 75% of what he says in the notes we should be getting from the text itself. And it’s especially frustrating to read something where it seems like the playwright operates under the assumption that everyone but him is stupid. I especially love the part where he says he doesn't write for correct grammar but for the rhythm or the character or whatever. EVERY PLAYWRIGHT DOES THAT DIPSHIT. IT CAME FREE WITH YOUR FUCKING WRITING COMPELLING DIALOGUE. The landlord (& his wife to a lesser extent) sounded like Macy Rodman as Bianca Del Rio NOT HELPED by the constant italicization of the (other) F Word. What point does it make? Like what point are we making by all of this? That post vietnam america was homophobic? was misogynistic? I think we all know that! And the terry and brad scene in act 1 was so... Im assuming that the male lead in three's company was not also a queer man and Brad having feelings for Terry was not part of that pastiche. I could be wrong here. BUT. If we operate off of that assumption, then the Terry and Brad scene in act 1 was NOT GIVING. Like it literally reminded of all the shitty friends-to-lovers Homestuck PepsiCola fanfic I read when I was 14. It was not good. It was giving ao3 friends to lovers one-sided pining Hanahaki disease.

Two stars bc I respect experimenting with format and stylization