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In "Straight White Men", the satire of the young Jean Lee, but deeply human, on the male privilege and white pain, Armie Hammer, Josh Charles and, in a particularly heartbreaking performance, Paul Schneider plays three brothers in the middle of life problems. In the ultra-intelligent production of director Anna D. Shapiro, the brothers are first observed while they spend the family Christmas rituals with their widowed father Ed (Stephen Payne), who is on all crazy jokes.
then to arrive at this opening scene. In a pre-curtain bend, preceded by a few minutes of assault on rap music (coming after you, sound designer ML Dogg!), Two oddly costumed interlocutors of undetermined genre, played by Kate Bornstein and Ty Defoe, have clearly let the public know that it is they, the so-called leaders, who are really responsible. The men in his piece, Young Jean Lee is determined to show us, are his puppets and his toys.
Once released from the feminist clutches of the pre-show, we are in a Midwestern home on the eve of Christmas. In the ultra-naturalistic design of Todd Rosenthal, which stands as a flaccid sofa, a baggy armchair, the bottom half of an unnoticed artificial Christmas tree, a battered coffee table, and a mantelpiece hung with four stockings Christmas will soon be filled with candy canes wrapped in plastic.
Ed, the widowed father of this male household, looks with indulgence on his three adult sons, all in their forties, to perform their fraternal rituals. It means old beloved routines like fighting for who gets the iron (who earns an "undervalued domestic work bonus") in a "Privilege" game, Monopoly's version of the family, and give an impromptu performance of "Oklahoma!" who presents a line of chorus of Ku Klux Klansmen and wins congratulations for the choreographer Faye Driscoll.
The re-written version of the play seems to have prolonged and inflated the fun and games of the original version that played in the downtown area to the public under the direction of the playwright. But who would be delighted with this super casting some extra laughs? Charles plays a game inspired by "Privilege" and Hammer is mostly looking around rubbing his sore nipples after one of those brother-to-brother games
The brothers are such cut, it's worth it to remember that they are adult men. all in their forties, and each one charged with real-life problems. Drew, the successful brother played with such a sunny disposition by Hammer, can be a teacher and a published author – but where is the new novel? Charles Jake's group may be a successful banker and everyone – but how does he feel about his recent divorce? As for Matt, Schneider's super-sensitive, Harvard graduate with the most promising future, anyway, is this poorly performing work with the nonprofit charity satisfactory?
In the spirit of the season, Matt, suddenly, breaks down and starts to cry for no good reason. The playwright is so funny and so funny that the audience is as shocked as the rest of the family. Dad thinks Matt is worried about his heavy student debt. Drew thinks Matt is clinically depressed. Jake thinks Matt should just be left alone.
At some point, all this worry is focused on the fact that Matt is unhappy because he's not living up to his full potential. Certainly, Uncle Andrew drives a truck, and to think about it, Dad could have done more of himself than become a civil engineer. But Matt was still the bright star among these golden boys, and his depression destabilizes them all. Was not it really the dedicated volunteer who volunteered to work in Ghana, happily teaching things that he did not know about people who did not need it or did not want it?
Although the play addresses many topics that haunt intelligently, the real question is whether he's honest about not realizing his full potential. By deconstructing the lives of these white men with all their privilege and power, Lee discovers hidden levels of deep dissatisfaction – let's bang the bullet and call it misfortune – which indicates the kind of existential human pain common to the human condition. At the naked eye, these privileged guys may seem to have it more easily, but in their hearts, they feel the same pain as the rest of us.
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