Review - Scenes From a Marriage

Last night, a wonderfully handsome friend took me to see Scenes From a Marriage at New York Theatre Workshop.  I've been hearing and reading all kinds of tidbits about this production ever since it was announced and I was really looking forward to the experience.

I try not to read anything about a production before I see it, I want to go in without any preconceived notions.  I did, however, hear a few things: I knew the show would run about three and a half hours, and I knew there were two different storytelling devices used.  I also knew there would be an extra-long intermission.  So I'll admit to having a few qualms about the evening before we got there, mainly because it's been a long week and I was a little tired.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to give the show the attention I thought it would deserve.

I shouldn't have worried.  Even though Scenes From a Marriage wasn't completely successful for me, it was still intriguing and fully kept my attention for the entire playing time.  I thought the storytelling devices were terrifically used and the acting (well, most of it) was so good, it was easy to stay onboard throughout the evening.  I guess that I should toss in the caveat that I've never been married, so some of the stuff was beyond me, but some of the stuff was still recognizably emotional.  Oh, and I should also throw in the caveat that I've never seen the movie that inspired this play.  I will be on the lookout for it now, though.  But if you don't know the movie either, spoilers will probably abound.

Even though I generally try to stay away from any liquids before a show (I know, I'm thisclose to becoming a cliche matinee lady), I did have a Coke beforehand, figuring the caffeine would help.  When you pick up your tickets at the box office, there's a lengthy explanation of what you need to do - they also print up instructions.  We were told to make sure to wear both wristbands (we had a white one, which indicated that our seats would be reserved instead of general admission, and a blue one, which indicated where we would begin our evening).  Because we had the blue wristband, we saw the scenes played out in chronological order. We entered through a downstairs, backstage entryway which luckily had a bathroom for pre-show pit stops. You can also get your program before entering the seating area. We forgot to sit in the reserved seats, but the helpful usher came and moved us. We ended up sitting next to a delightful playwright and his husband and we had many laughs and giggles before the very-serious show started.  The NYTW space has been completely reconfigured - there were three small connected playing spaces, each representing a different room, and in each space, you see a scene from the marriage of Johan and Marianne.  There are three sets of actors playing Johan and Marianne at various stages in their lives/marriage.
 
In the first scene, the younger couple is throwing a dinner party that goes horribly wrong, then they have a startling conversaton in private afterwards.  I didn't especially like the two younger actors - they were all actory and twitchy in a way I didn't enjoy - but I did find their story quite touching.  Each of the scenes last approximately a half hour, then one of the actors in the next scene comes and tells you it's time to move to the next theater space.  So we got a very intimate, close-up look at a scene, then a little breather to move into the next space, then another intimate, close-up look. 

photo credit: Jan Versweyveld

The middle couple was probably my favorite, middle-aged people dealing with thwarted expectations, ennui and wonderment of 'is this all there is'?  I could relate to that, even without being married.  Plus, hello, Dallas Roberts. And this second scene probably had my favorite monologue of the evening - Marianne is a lawyer and she interviews a client who wants a divorce.  This woman is middle-aged, with a seemingly fine life, but she wants out.  She doesn't love her husband and she wants love.  She doesn't know what love is, she doesn't know what it looks like or where to find it, but she knows she doesn't want to live where it isn't.  Mia Katigbak was brilliant in this scene and, although the play wasn't ostensibly 'about' her, she was the touchstone for me and my favorite acting performance of the night.  She also comes back in the second act as Marianne's mother and is again wonderful.

I have to admit, though, I was vaguely disturbed during the first two scenes that the wife, Marianne, seemed to be unstable and the cause of all the problems in the marriage.  I'm not quite sure if it was the script or the acting, but I hoped we weren't in for an evening of bitchy women ruining the lives of just-wanting-to-be-loved men.  Thankfully, the third incarnations of Johan and Marianne were both unpleasant people and seemed to be equal partners in the misery that their marriage had become.  At this point, Johan has begun an affair and wants a divorce.
 
I really liked these three, very intimate scenes; they were just long enough to get to know the characters and what was going in their marriage, but not too long that they overstayed their welcome.  I also really liked how we could vaguely hear snippets of the other two scenes as we were watching ours unfold - it was if the past, present and future were all happening at once, which of course it does in real life.  Much of the dialogue was very rich and deep, and there was a lot to think about.  The first act was terrific. 

The box office had also included on the instruction sheet a list of restaurants offering special deals for the intermission.  We had about a half hour, so we went to Contrada restaurant across the street.  Their special deal was a glass of proseco and a special appetizer plate for $16 each.  My wonderfully handsome friend and I had a delightful glass of proseco, and our appetizers were crostini with ricotta and honey, and mushroom arancini (deep-fried risotto balls. shut up.).  They were really perfect snacks for the intermission - they had a little protein, a little sugar, and contrasting textures to wake you up and get you ready for the second act.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't eat anything at intermission, but I thought it was important to be able to get through the second act (which would still clock in at a little over an hour) without starving to death.  It was a good choice.

When you return to the theater for the second act, the three separate rooms/playing spaces have disappeared, and it's one huge open space with just a few props.  The audience is now surrounding the entire space.  The scenes are about Marianne and Johan finalizing their divorce, and all six actors come back to play the couple.  They are all playing Johan and Marianne at the same time, sometimes with their partners from their scene, sometimes with other partners.  Sometimes they're saying the same lines at the same time, sometimes you hear them each say the lines with different inflections.  The actors move swifly around the space, so the audience is almost always very close to one of the couples at any given time.  There is shouting and kissing and private conversations that get louder and louder and louder until they escalate into an extremely violent section.  I found the violence very disturbing (as I'm sure I should've) - seeing three different women, whether they were playing the same character or not, getting physically abused at the same time was really terrifying.  Watching each of the male actor's different reactions to what he had done was amazing - Dallas Roberts, in particular, was heartbreaking.



photo credit: Sara Krulwich

I would've been completely satisfied if the play had ended after this scene - violence, calm and divorce.  But there were two more scenes, which seemed a little too 'on the nose' for me and didn't really make me feel more fulfilled and certainly didn't move me in any way.  Although seeing Arliss Howard do an interpretive dance to "The Windmills of my Mind" is something I'll probably never forget.  :)

After all that blabity blah, I have to say that I enjoyed Scenes From a Marriage - I was intellectually engaged and I greatly respected the theatricality of the production.  But I was never really moved.  I think that may have been partly because of the acting style in the first act - every conversation seemed a half beat too slow, as if once you heard your partner finish, you had to wait just a half beat extra before answering.  There was always a lot of dead space hanging, which I know is probably the point, but it did hinder hanging my hat emotionally.  Which I'm sure never entered the director's mind.  There wasn't as much of that in the second act, but it was all very loud and more and more and more, so it was dizzying and often exciting, but again, not moving.  And I really didn't care about the 'resolution' at the end.  Maybe I'd just had enough of these people.  I was never bored, but I guess I'd had enough.  Like Johan and Marianne.  How meta.  The show runs until the end of October, so I highly recommend you see it - you're unlikely to see anything like it again...