Lots of plays are about abhorrent behavior and scheming slimedogs who seek to benefit from the tragedy of others. If this play is able to do more than exploit or explain away then it will be deserve to have some success. That said, my gut is wrenched in knots knowing that this particular story is still too soon to be told.
Last night I attended the Sydney Theatre Company's production of A Streetcar Named Desire here in DC. Through a peculiar and unplanned series of events, I attended up partying with the cast and crew after the show. My roommate and I were sitting with a number of the company's top administrators for most of the night, and since the media was one of our major topics of conversation, we ended up talking about this play quite a bit.
I can't speak for Soderbergh -- he wasn't there -- but as for those running the company itself, I have to say, they were clearly interested in the journalism/media aspect, and nothing they said struck me as remotely exploitative. They spoke with deep respect about the New York Times, saying that none of the media outlets in Australia approached its quality, and they were clearly disturbed by the media sensationalism in their home country and here.
I don't know how to feel about this play either -- I was quite taken aback by the idea when they first described it -- and I have no idea what Soderbergh's motives might be. But I do now have a great deal of faith in the professional integrity of the Sydney Theatre Company, and I'm willing to reserve judgment. #totmom
@SaturdaysChild: Well, I didn't love it quite as much as Peter Marks did -- [www.washingtonpost.com] -- but it was certainly very good. Of course, Streetcar being good meant it was incredibly depressing. I kind of wanted to die the entire time. #totmom
A blog like this one is just as much entertainment as any play. The site even has carefully scripted dialogue, stars (too obvious!) and bit players, and plenty of throwaway lines. So if it's all right to post stories of murdered children here and prominently feature Polanski's case--which meant those lurid details being rehashed in comments dozens of times--why is a film director automatically suspected of exploitation? #totmom
If it were another writer, I would be more worried. Soderbergh's work, while not all golden, does tend to be nuanced and smart.
Nancy Grace being a famewhore about it is no surprise, but honestly I'd be surprised if the play didn't involve skewering her role in all of this. Her interpretation of the play on her site may not be accurate.
Art, in all its forms, can help us make sense of things, as well as make us look at something with a new angle. I trust Soderbergh as an artist to handle this with some grace(no pun intended) and not to turn this into TMZ: The Musical. #totmom
@Chamalla,barren crone: The title alone makes me suspect this play might portray Grace in at least a partially unfavorable light. Her insistence on repeating the name "Tot Mom" as often as possible is grating and ridiculous. #totmom
That being said, there's something a little too "Ripped from the Headlines"/Law & Order about this. But it could also be brilliant, so I guess it all remains to be seen. #totmom
And yet another reason why Jon Gosselin is pure amateur at this 15 minutes game. Can he be original for once? Nope? Yeah, I didn't think so either. #jongosselin
Interesting that Jon has chosen the faux-Jewish route instead of the faux-Born Again route to public-image rehab. I await news of him changing his name to Yehuda and exchanging Kabbalah bracelets with Madge. Oy. #jongosselin
@ihateyourescalade: He was (is?)already Born Again. The Gosselins even got invited to megachurches around the country to talk about how godly Christians who get blessed with sextuplets during fertility treatments and don't selectively reduce are blessed with relatively healthy babies. It's a Miracle! #jongosselin
I could not possibly care less about A-Rod, the Yankees, or baseball, but the centaur thing made me positively SNORT with laughter. That's just too good.
Although if I was going to be immortalized in portraiture as a mythological creature, I'd pick Medusa. #jongosselin
11/01/09
11/01/09
I can't speak for Soderbergh -- he wasn't there -- but as for those running the company itself, I have to say, they were clearly interested in the journalism/media aspect, and nothing they said struck me as remotely exploitative. They spoke with deep respect about the New York Times, saying that none of the media outlets in Australia approached its quality, and they were clearly disturbed by the media sensationalism in their home country and here.
I don't know how to feel about this play either -- I was quite taken aback by the idea when they first described it -- and I have no idea what Soderbergh's motives might be. But I do now have a great deal of faith in the professional integrity of the Sydney Theatre Company, and I'm willing to reserve judgment. #totmom
11/01/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/01/09
11/01/09
11/01/09
11/01/09
11/01/09
Nancy Grace being a famewhore about it is no surprise, but honestly I'd be surprised if the play didn't involve skewering her role in all of this. Her interpretation of the play on her site may not be accurate.
Art, in all its forms, can help us make sense of things, as well as make us look at something with a new angle. I trust Soderbergh as an artist to handle this with some grace(no pun intended) and not to turn this into TMZ: The Musical. #totmom
11/01/09
11/01/09
That being said, there's something a little too "Ripped from the Headlines"/Law & Order about this. But it could also be brilliant, so I guess it all remains to be seen. #totmom
10/31/09
And yet another reason why Jon Gosselin is pure amateur at this 15 minutes game. Can he be original for once? Nope? Yeah, I didn't think so either.
#jongosselin
10/31/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
Oh. Attention. Right. #jongosselin
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
Bullet. Dodged. Now go back to your normal life and lets never speak of this again.
Sincerely,
Phantom Lady #jongosselin
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
Although if I was going to be immortalized in portraiture as a mythological creature, I'd pick Medusa. #jongosselin
10/30/09