| re: SWEPT AWAY last night [SPOILERS] | |
| Posted by: morewords 09:15 am EST 12/11/24 | |
| In reply to: SWEPT AWAY last night - NeoAdamite 04:06 pm EST 12/09/24 | |
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| Saw the show in previews. Friend had extra ticket. Perfs and set great, while the music...washed over me. What bugged me was the book. Once the producers made the bold choice to musicalize cannibalism on the high seas...whoever fashioned the book lost their nerve. The "absolve yourself by telling the story" frame means someone needs absolution from something. But who? And from what? That opening TB ward scene plays like the book writer is pulling the cord on a lawnmower to get the engine started, but whatever. Fast forward to the Mate and others in the lifeboat. Mate lists all the bad acts in his life, sings "Devil Inside," murderously. But then, if you're calculating commercially. how do you keep the lead character Likeable? The Mate is a Bad Man, he has told us himself, repeatedly. And he's described a bunch of bad things he's done in his life -- killing Indians, etc. But he has not *done* anything bad on stage...until... We get the classic Hollywood twist, whereupon a character on the edge of being forced to make a difficult choice...doesn't have to choose. Mate was about to choose between murdering or starving. Now the choice is removed. So the Bad Man remains Likeable. The problem is this vitiates the reason why Mate is the lead character, or why the show is about this particular incident in the Mate's life. Eating human flesh is gruesome, yes, but morally justified to preserve human life. This has happened often enough over the centuries that there's a protocol for it: The NYT preview article noted that the book that inspired the Avett brothers to make the Mignonette album is called "The Custom of the Sea" because there is, in fact a customary way to do it (you choose the victim by drawing lots, as the historical actors did not). So, we could make a musical about the guilty Mate who must confess to his greatest sins, perhaps killing Indians? But the Avett Brothers didn't write an album about this. Or, we could make a musical about the most interesting character on stage. It's not the Mate. The Mate, in order to live, ate human flesh. Horrible, yes, but who wouldn't? As a story, it's dog bites man. Consider instead the story of Little Brother. Runs off to sea, accidentally impresses Big Brother into service on the ship. Then, when they're stuck in the lifeboat, Big Brother sacrifices himself so that Little Brother may live. Little Brother survives by eating the flesh of his own brother THEN, once on dry land, marries his sweetheart, has a couple of kinds, and dies, not unpleasantly if prematurely. at about 40 years of age. And he doesn't feel bad about anything. What is his secret? This is real man bites dog material, especially if the dog is the man's own brother, and the man chews. The story of Little Brother is a great human mystery. But no salvation is required. So the play doesn't care. Would a different book have been more commercial? Who knows. But if you're going to go bold, why not go bold all the way? |
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