The Seattle Rep

The Seattle Rep: Fences and Glenn Gary Glenn Ross

Fences was the other play I both read and saw performed throughout the course of this semester. It is interesting to me how many things I picked up on when seeing it on stage that I didn’t pick up on when I read it and visa versa. However, I almost wish I hadn’t read it when I went to see it. I was so impressed by the production at the Seattle Rep, but I also wished I didn’t know what was coming next. I thought that the actors did a really good job of taking August Wilson’s words and making them their own. Fences is definitely an extremely well written play. I was not impressed by Cory however. I thought that his character was a very weak portrayal of the character that Wilson wrote. I am however confused by his performance, because in the last scene when he comes out in his army uniform, I was all of a sudden extremely impressed by his acting and his character. This, of course is huge transformation from the last time we’ve seen him just in the way the character is written, but I was more confused with this actor’s transformation because he went from me not liking his performance at all, to absolutely loving it.

Fences is another one of those plays that takes place in a single setting, which allows for a lot of character development. I thought that the set was absolutely incredible and really worked for the large space of the Seattle Rep. I also thought the lighting designer did an absolutely amazing job determining what time of day it was. Because I have already blogged about this show I don’t want to be repetitive.

I also saw Glenn Gary Glenn Ross at the Seattle Rep this semester. This play was very confusing for me because I had a very, very hard time keeping all of the characters straight. The thing that saved the plot for me was that before the play started you saw someone working in the undestroyed office. Then when the first act ended, which takes place in a Chinese restaurant, you were familiar with the setting of the office when it appears the second act and its been destroyed. The first act is a set of conversations and monologues in the Chinese restaurant, and because you are not familiar with the characters, I had a very hard time knowing who was who, what the relationship each of the characters had to each other. I think that is definitely an error on the playwright’s part, not on that of the actors.

I also had an issue that most of the humor from this play comes from profanity. Now I really don’t have any issue using profanity in plays. However I do think that if its your only means of humor, it gets really old after a while. I thought that this play was very clever in its plot points but maybe it wasn’t written in the best way. The monologues are very hard to follow, because you go into their conversations without knowing anything about any of the characters. I had a very hard time understanding a lot of the business lingo that they use as well. Being a theatre major and all, I have not been expected to learn what those terms mean, and it made understanding what they do, what kind of office they run and the transactions that take place all mean. However, in the second act many of these were explained to me just because of the way that they were acting towards each other and the events that occurred. This vocabulary barrier was really what kept me from wholly enjoying this show.