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Denmark
When the sweeping force of poetry runs into the wall of one family's incommunicability, something has to give way. Or, at least, such is the premise of Denmark, an ensemble play by Matthew Gasda. Beginning with the autumnally-fading love affair of an ardent young woman and a much older writer, the play quickly reveals its deeper themes: honesty, faithfulness, the impossibility of hiding ourselves, all the ways we still try to do so as the young woman's family descends upon their beach house and discovers the relationship. No silence remains untouched, no secret can be kept guarded, as this mood of lyrical confrontation impregnates every other relationship as well: husband and wife, parent and child, sister and brother, an individual towards themselves. By the end, the single room in which the play is set almost feels like a confessional, but one in which the words and rituals for expressing pain seem to be lacking, a yet-to-be consecrated space in which penance and love may only ever be hinted at or longed for.
172 pages, Paperback
Published May 17, 2016
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 20, 2024
3.5, rounded down. [Caution - spoiler-ish material ahead!]
This is the 7th and last of Gasda's published plays for me to read, although it is an early effort from 2016 - and unfortunately, the one I liked least. It takes place in winter at a beachside cottage near NYC. The first act is comprised of a single LONG conversation between Harper, a 22-year-old college student, one of Gasda's prototypical neurotic, needy, whiny child-women who endlessly obsess over their romantic failures, and her former HS English teacher, Mason, with whom she's been having an affair for 6 years.
Mason speaks almost entirely in often nonsensical philosophical musings that bear little resemblance to 'normal' speech, much of it (intentionally?) pretentious and cringe-worthy:
I live in the burrow I've dug for my own suffocating sense of captivity and loneliness. I'm animal, you know, caught in a world of people... The miracle of language is its metaphorical capacity to reverse what we live into what we feel. To take an ocean outside and transform it into an ocean within.
... and the entire thing is rather circular and repetitious.
The second act fares a mite better, as Harper's mother Elaine, father Paul, and twin gay brother Ryan arrive. Much of this act revolves around a shouting match between the parents, that strives for a Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? viciousness, as each excoriates the other for past and ongoing marital affairs. This act ends with the reappearance of Mason, with the third and final act dealing with the fall-out from everyone learning of his involvement with Harper, and ends with her cryptic disappearance, leaving behind what could possibly be a suicide note.
I don't mean to be overly harsh, as there is much here that is playable and gives the actors meaty stuff to work with - including several speeches that could be used for audition material. But also - as with most every play by this author - the copyediting is atrocious, with words missing, or added extraneously, or in the wrong place, and apparently Gasda does not know the difference between your and you're, as he uses them incorrectly almost every single time! Not only that, but for some inexplicable reason Act 1 and 3 (except the final 5 pages) are numbered, but the rest is NOT! Had it not been for these foibles, I probably would have rounded up to 4 stars, rather than down to 3.
And finally, I haven't a friggin' clue about the title - the play does not take place there and there is no allusion to it anywhere in the play. Perhaps it is meant to invoke that other famous play set there (that would be Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, obvs.), since both revolve around sexual/marital impropriety, family squabbles, and indecision? (PS: That seems to be borne out by a current fundraising appeal to present a new production of the play: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/de.... Harper is apparently an 'Ophelia' manqué figure!)
This is the 7th and last of Gasda's published plays for me to read, although it is an early effort from 2016 - and unfortunately, the one I liked least. It takes place in winter at a beachside cottage near NYC. The first act is comprised of a single LONG conversation between Harper, a 22-year-old college student, one of Gasda's prototypical neurotic, needy, whiny child-women who endlessly obsess over their romantic failures, and her former HS English teacher, Mason, with whom she's been having an affair for 6 years.
Mason speaks almost entirely in often nonsensical philosophical musings that bear little resemblance to 'normal' speech, much of it (intentionally?) pretentious and cringe-worthy:
I live in the burrow I've dug for my own suffocating sense of captivity and loneliness. I'm animal, you know, caught in a world of people... The miracle of language is its metaphorical capacity to reverse what we live into what we feel. To take an ocean outside and transform it into an ocean within.
... and the entire thing is rather circular and repetitious.
The second act fares a mite better, as Harper's mother Elaine, father Paul, and twin gay brother Ryan arrive. Much of this act revolves around a shouting match between the parents, that strives for a Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? viciousness, as each excoriates the other for past and ongoing marital affairs. This act ends with the reappearance of Mason, with the third and final act dealing with the fall-out from everyone learning of his involvement with Harper, and ends with her cryptic disappearance, leaving behind what could possibly be a suicide note.
I don't mean to be overly harsh, as there is much here that is playable and gives the actors meaty stuff to work with - including several speeches that could be used for audition material. But also - as with most every play by this author - the copyediting is atrocious, with words missing, or added extraneously, or in the wrong place, and apparently Gasda does not know the difference between your and you're, as he uses them incorrectly almost every single time! Not only that, but for some inexplicable reason Act 1 and 3 (except the final 5 pages) are numbered, but the rest is NOT! Had it not been for these foibles, I probably would have rounded up to 4 stars, rather than down to 3.
And finally, I haven't a friggin' clue about the title - the play does not take place there and there is no allusion to it anywhere in the play. Perhaps it is meant to invoke that other famous play set there (that would be Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, obvs.), since both revolve around sexual/marital impropriety, family squabbles, and indecision? (PS: That seems to be borne out by a current fundraising appeal to present a new production of the play: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/de.... Harper is apparently an 'Ophelia' manqué figure!)
Displaying 1 of 1 review