54: Grey House

My husband and I visited New York City this past week. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time: the Met, the MoMA, the Cloisters, the National Museum of the American Indian, and two Broadway shows (one musical and one play). We walked everywhere. We ate like kings. The MTA blows the CTA out of the water. I get why Chicago has a complex about NYC now. I loved my time there, although it's good to be home.

One of the two shows we saw was Grey House, which is still in previews. It's a ghost story with a Stephen King sort of flavor to it: the play is a thriller in a cabin in the woods, inhabited by five spooky children and the woman taking care of them (played by Laurie Metcalf) who may or may not be their actual mother. The house's equilibrium is knocked off its axis when a couple arrives on its doorstep, having just survived a car crash in a snowstorm. Henry (Paul Sparks) is a recovering alcoholic; his wife Max (Tatiana Maslany) has to support him both figuratively and literally, as he's broken his leg in the crash. Both are battling personal demons, which become more pronounced the longer they stay in the cabin.

The production's atmosphere is arresting, in part because of its tactile simplicity: the entire play takes place in a single act, on a single set. One of the details that tips the audience off that this is no ordinary house is a drawer in the kitchen that opens before any of the players physically touches it. The ceiling of the house is studded with shining trinkets and hung with black feathers, like some secretive raven's nest; other secrets are revealed through doors opening and closing, and by a carpet being pulled back. The production design, layered with the performances, made for a believable horror story. Bernie and Marlow, two of the cabin children played by Millicent Simmonds and Sophia Anne Caruso respectively, made the setting creepy because both actors played their roles as though they were ordinary teenagers, one kind, and one prickly. Laurie Metcalf carried much of the rest of the play with her physical performance, and with her own character's bitter line deliveries.

Unfortunately the script wasn't able to live up to the promise of the show's production design or performances. Tatiana Maslany in particular felt underserved by the script; her character's inner conflict leads to a choice on which the climax turns, but we don't get to spend enough time with her to understand how or why she would make that choice. Most of the action happens to her, with little room for even a reaction. What should be an emotional peak near the end falls flat, despite a soundtrack that pulses and builds, presumably alongside her character's emotions. I wish the play had trusted its audience enough to outline Maslany's character's emotional landscape, rather than simply telling us about the choice she makes. I came away knowing the plot beats but not fully understanding how or why they worked, which to me felt like the equivalent of telling a ghost story with all the lights on, and with all the mysteries explained.

Grey House was written by Levi Holloway and is directed by Joe Mantello. It premieres May 30.

What I talked about:

As mentioned last week, I was able to join the Movies with MZS series at IFC Center in New York this past week. Matt Zoller Seitz screened the theatrical cut of Aliens, which is always fun to watch with a crowd, and then he and I had a conversation and a book signing for my book Becoming Alien immediately afterward. Matt recorded the conversation, which I'll link to here once it's up–watch this space.

What I'm reading:

This past week I got swept up in the last good thing to happen on Twitter in a very long time. A Trigun fan account tweeted, ardently and emphatically, about how much they loved the book This Is How You Lose The Time War. Due to the mysteries of the algorithm, and to the enthusiasm other lovers of the book have expressed in response, the book rocketed up the Amazon bestseller list. Amal El-Mohtar, who cowrote the book, recapped the saga in a very funny newsletter post, which is also worth reading. The whole incident is a confluence of things I love dearly: Trigun, science fiction, books with lush and densely constructed sentences, and Twitter nonsense. The book's great, too–I read it in an afternoon.-=--

What I'm listening to:

I didn't record a Seeing and Believing episode this week, as I was gallivanting around New York City. But Kevin kept the podcast going with guest host Chris Williams, who helped him review Fast X (which sounds wild). It's a little weird being back on the other side of the microphone for my own podcast, but I'll be returning to our recording booth next week.