WHEN IS A CLOCK

I haven't written about this play yet, but I found Matt Freeman's When Is A Clock to be simultaneously lovely and panic-inducing.

Lovely because it's written with such clinical compassion and such unshowy linguistic precision, panic-inducing because it's about a man I'd really like to never become. It's about a man succumbing to that unique feeling of purposelessness that can creep into adult American lives - a man who doesn't know why he lives where he lives, why he works where he works, or why he lives with and loves the people in his house. When he starts to lose the things in his life, this spiritual dislocation robs him of the tools he needs to properly fight for them. This is a very hard subject to write about, as it doesn't lend itself to fiery dramatic confrontations but instead to quiet moments of observation. Freeman resisted the impulse to jack up the conflict in some way (which is what I would have done), and as a result has come up with a somewhat austere play that is hard to like right away, but which haunts you increasingly in the days after you see it.

There's a lot of other stuff there - magic spells and mysteries and quite a bit of comedy - but the Man I Don't Want To Be part is what got me in the gut.

Anyway, it's worth seeing this weekend after you've seen Colorful World six times. Now, I could be a career-hungry New York blogger plugging my smug little clique in order to better position my networking or whatever, or I may actually mean it. There's no way for you to know for sure!

--SlowLearner

Comments

[Travis Bedard]

Be more civil.

[Mac]

You can suck my (whenisa) Clock, Travis Bedard!

[Joshua James]

Plugging a show on your blog? Perish the thought! A blog is for ideas, not theatre!

[freeman]

I feel properly networked with. I have written down in my book.

Thanks, though, for the good thoughts.