Has anyone noticed a recent trend in American theatre? Many new plays are being produced that can be easily encapsulated into a one or two paragraph blurb, suitable for a press release. Recently I had the pleasure of seeing the latest offering at Second Stage, where the new play Good Boys and True is currently running. This is a prime example of this syndrome, the play-as-blurb syndrome, I like to call it.
I liken it to the movie-as-trailer syndrome we sometimes see in film. In the movie business there's a logical explanation for this occurrence, the ubiquitous conference room birthing of so-called "high concept" films. A group of "suits" sits around a table plotting the characters and story arc of the film they intend to sell. The concept is so essential to this culture that movies are born that are too easily summed up in a 2 min. trailer. So much so that audiences frequently feel as though having seen the trailer is enough. Seeing the full movie would be redundant.
But I'm wondering why we're starting to see this trend in the theatre as well. You know what I'm talking about. You read the blurb about the play. Then you see the play and the experience of seeing the play has added nothing to your notions about the plot, characters and themes you didn't already have based on the blurb alone. I will write about a few examples of this more specifically soon. And I encourage anyone reading to weigh in on the play-as-blurb syndrome.
Do you see it too?
Or am I just a kill-joy?
