SERVING THE DARKNESS BETTER THAN WE HAD BEFORE

Joel Beers' Orange Curtains blog has an interview up with Monkey Wrench Collective Artistic Director Dave Barton about his second go-round directing Mark Ravenhill's SHOPPING & FUCKING, our current production receiving both critical raves and critical walk-outs:

How has your relationship with the play changed since the first time you directed it? Do you find more things to unearth the second time around?  

Ravenhill's work operates on a lot of different levels and I've found that when I've revisited them they always reward me with new insights. The first time I did the play, I took his themes very seriously--even too seriously, in hindsight. I was intimidated by the explicitness of the sex and directed the play with a focus on the more tragic aspects. while my first cast really went where they needed in order to capture the grittiness of the sex, we missed a lot of the play's humor. ...

Another difference is that as good as that first production was, I'm not sure I fully understood the play's harshness and I think I tried to soften some of it, unconsciously. The play's world view is bleak and uncompromising. I think this second production serves that darkness better.

You can read the rest of Dave's thoughts on the controversial nature of the play right here, and, as always, pick up some tickets of your very own by clicking here.

--Orange Curtains