The Glory Of Living
⊆ May 29th, 2006 by courtney | ˜By: Ronnie Ruff
The Glory Of Living - Didactic Theatre Company
Didactic Theatre Company is a fresh addition to DC theatre for a number of reasons — the most important is they stick to their mission which includes making us think out side the box. Even though their latest show, Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory Of Living, is not up to the standard set by their last few productions it none the less has redeeming qualities that point Didactic on the path to a bright future.
Glory is a story of neglect and child abuse that asks us to first feel empathy for the victim, a young wife and mother (Lisa) and then forgive her for terrible crimes she commits as a result of that abuse. The first act opens with Lisa (Casie Platt) meeting a much older Clint (Clay Steakley) in the one room apartment she shares with her mother who is servicing a John in a curtained off makeshift bedroom. After a bit of light conversation and listening to the sounds of mom and her john only yards away they leave for a drive and the “quarry” in his pickup. They get married and have a set of twins before the next scene change — we never even hear a proposal, the ceremony or a simple “I do”. The lights come up to our newlyweds, now just married couple in a motel room but there is a slight twist. A young woman has been procured for her new husband. Yes, Clint has Lisa troll the local strip malls for young female runaways who she can bring home to be raped by him and then disposed of by her. Despite this seemingly large development the entire first act drags along with extremely visual, violent sex scenes but little more plot development until the police finally show up to arrest Lisa and Clint for the grisly murders.
The second act is about Lisa’s attorney (Christopher Powerman) trying to determine the underlying reasons for her murders and self incrimination. She quickly admits to murdering these young women, but the reason for her actions are vague at best. It is almost as if she cannot understand herself at all. The last scene, probably the play’s best, has Lisa and her lawyer finally breaking through and Lisa learning a few notes on her little piano while the executioner awaits sometime in the not too distant future.
Casie Platt gives her character everything she has at her disposal but unfortunately for Casie and us the character is an empty glass of water. Clay Steakley has far more to work with and his Clint is a believable sexual predator that you have no problem hating. Supporting performances are uneven – I never felt the police officers achieved credibility. Christopher Powerman as Carl gives a strong performance but by the time his character makes his entrance it is too late to save the production from being anything more than “the one that got away”.
Didactic Theatre is to be congratulated though for even attempting a play such as this where the only likeable character is introduced the second act. This is a play with no easy answers or any answers for that matter — what is learned though is Didactic does not shy away from difficult material and instead intends to grow from difficult choices. That is a sign of a company to watch.
June 1st, 2006 at 4:36 am
I saw the play last night and never felt it dragged at any point. In fact I was mesmerized the whole time. The portrayal and look of Clint was spot on. I’ve known guys that act just like him. I would recommend this show to anyone who loves gritty dramas and doesn’t mind seeing full monty.
June 1st, 2006 at 6:33 am
Didactic is a great small theatre company, this is just a difficult play that requires a lot of attention from many areas to pull it off. I just could not get past being at the middle of the second act with little or no knowledge of what is in Lisa’s head. Yes, we know her mother serviced johns in her presence. Does that make someone into a serial killer? Why are all these women dead? Who was the like-able/interesting character? The only interesting thing about Lisa is that we know nothing of her thoughts or reasons for her crimes, we know she feels remorse but that is it. Yes Clint is a "spot on" abusive man.. but again why? how did he get that way? For me a drama drags if nothing meaningful happens to give me information about what is going on inside the characters — their thoughts and feelings are essential to plot development. A wonderful example of getting into the mind of the killer is being staged at Theater Alliance with The Monument.
A great little read on character development is here
One can do much worse than this or any play from Didactic, I was hoping this was to be their step to a next level. They will get there in my opinion, keep an eye on them.
June 1st, 2006 at 3:40 pm
I also saw the play last night (with Janet and our friend Barbara) and enjoyed the production and like Janet didn’t feel that it dragged. I do agree with Ronnie in that Lisa’s character needed to be better developed…there just wasn’t enough information provided to allow the viewer to understand what motivated her. The other thing that I found a bit troubling was that almost all of the actors appeared to be about the same age. Lisa was supposed to be 15-18 years of age while Clint and the mother were supposed to be much older. Yet on stage they all looked to be the same age. In my opinion it made the characters that these actors were portraying to be less creditable. Either a better job should have been done in making the actors portraying Clint and the mother look older or older actors should have been casted. Cheryl
June 1st, 2006 at 3:49 pm
In a drama I am expecting the dialog and the acting to be telling me something to further the story. So.. for me dragging is not used to mean speed but just wasted time, where I am not getting information to process. I am wanting desperately to identify with or care about someone in this story but I am not getting enough information to do so. I also thought there was misplaced humor. There was laughter when Lisa referred to one of the victims as a "retard".
I as well noticed the "age" issue and that is why the police officers did not come across as believable for me. Detectives who are assigned serial killer cases are usually seasoned police officers.
All that said I think both of Didactic’s last two productions had a better grasp of the material. I do not think the shortcomings of this show for me had anything to do with the acting performances.
June 1st, 2006 at 3:55 pm
BTW, thanks for the comments folks! This is the kind of conversation I think is really constructive.
June 8th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Ronnie, I would like to suggest a topic for discuss about how one’s life experience and/or mood at the time of attendence affect how much one enjoy’s a show. For example, last night a small group of us went to see Charlie Victor Romeo. I loved it, but everyone else hated it. ..
June 8th, 2006 at 11:58 am
I think mood-life experience can definitely effect how one feels about a show. We are human and complex creatures. it is very hard for me not to let these things color a review. A comedy is a good example. I am tired, been to 2 shows on two consecutive nights. Maybe things do not seem so funny but I notice the crowd is howling. I have to then think about why it is funny for everyone but me :-)
In a drama it is harder but I try to look to the things that make up a good show. If I jot down my thoughts at the time and revisit them the next day I usually can see where a show went south for me or I may actually see where my thoughts at the time were unreasonable. I always try to give the show the benefit of the doubt.
Some topics I think are hot for different people. Something that happened in your life could cause this for sure. I am a sucker for an "underdog" story. I usually can identify with such characters but they must have depth and I need to see why they behave as they do.