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January 27, 2006
TT: Mixed doubles
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column I report on my recent playgoing in New Haven, Connecticut, where I saw the Long Wharf Theatre's production of Private Lives and the Yale Repertory Theatre's production of The People Next Door:Is there a more perfect comedy than "Private Lives"? It's not my favorite Noël Coward play (I prefer "Present Laughter"), but for sheer elegance of craft it can't be beat, and it's madly funny to boot. Written in a mere four days, it contains more of Coward's best-known lines than any other play, from "Very flat, Norfolk" to "Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs," and it never fails to make its effect, even when performed by amateurs. I have yet to see a hopelessly bad "Private Lives," and Long Wharf Theatre's new production is splendid....
Of the making of tendentious plays about 9/11 and its aftermath there is, apparently, no end. I have yet to see a watchable one, and Henry Adam's "The People Next Door," now playing at the Yale Repertory Theatre, is no exception. Mr. Adam is a Brit, and like virtually all British playwrights a Man of the Left, which tells you most of what you need to know about this ostensibly black comedy about Nigel (Manu Narayan, lately of "Bombay Dreams"), a wimpy, heroin-sniffing slacker of "mixed, indeterminate race" (so says the script) who falls afoul of Phil (Christopher Innvar), a fascist-type Scotland Yard detective in search of a likely-looking pigeon to spy on the neighborhood mosque. What ensues is utterly, agonizingly predictable...
No link, and that's only a sample of this morning's column. To read the rest, go to the nearest newsstand and plunk down a dollar for a copy of the Journal, or go here to subscribe to the Online Journal, which will provide you with instant access to the full text of my review, together with many other worthy art-related stories.
Posted January 27, 2006 12:00 PM
