As part of our ongoing effort to seem cool, trendy and urbane, the missus and I went to see Amy’s View at Theatre Three last night as part of our season ticket package there. Overall, the show was a good one with some solid character portrayals by Connie Coit and Danielle Pickard.
Amy’s View is a play written by the British playwright Sir David Hare. The original cast included Judi Dench so it certainly has that going for it. It seems to be pretty well written and has some thought provoking themes running through it, most notably the contrast between the theater and popular shows and media on television and film. The protagonist is Amy, a level headed woman who has fallen in love with Dominic, the main antagonist as it turns out. Amy’s mother Esme is a noted actress in the London theater scene who seems to disapprove highly of Dominic. Dominic is a critic/filmmaker who is at constant odds with both Amy and Esme.
The show is slow to start but picks up quickly after the first scene. An interesting theme that runs through the show is how all the major conflicts are resolved outside the actual acting and the audience is left to see how the characters cope sometimes years after the conflict. This is a little disconcerting and for me, takes away from the ability to identify with characters by becoming involved in how they deal with actions in their lives.
The play’s second act is certainly the strongest though the ending feels as though the playwright got tired of writing this particular play and just pushed it out the door.
The characters are mostly well played though Dominic seems to have only one emotion, anger and it is expressed at a constant volume level, jet airplane. That is unfortunate since the conflict of the play is necessarily controlled by Dominic and it would be nice to see a slightly more nuanced interpretation. I haven’t read the play so maybe this is all intentional. Sonny Franks plays Esme’s would be suitor Frank and as long as you haven’t seen “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”, he does an able job. I could only see him singing “Sex and The Married Couple” but that’s probably more the fault of this reviewer than it is the actor himself.
Overall, I’d say this play is a Glenlivet in the scotch scale of reviews (something I just made up) and is worth taking in on a Friday or Saturday night.