Pathetic

See it if Teenage girls fear & embrace sexual havoc, while mom loathes her loss of desirability. Lust as a destructive, uncontrollable monster.

Don't see it if You don’t like weird absurdist wandering. Nudity, simulated sex & other explicit stuff. Violence. Funny & “pathetic” when taken as a satire.

See it if you want to see a very smart script that manages to break the rules at every turn even as it pays its respects to theater tradition.

Don't see it if loud music, intense feelings, violence to body & mind or blood upset you.

Also I’ve scored “PATHETIC” very high but realize it might be a minority taste. Julia Jarcho, playwright & director, is a brilliant provocateur. She writes plays that flout theater tradition at every turn. But it’s a tradition she knows deeply. For me, a theater-goer for 50-some years who still loves the form yet also loves to see it bent again to fit contemporary needs, Jarcho’s minor theater productions are catnip. The tradition that Jarcho is slicing wide open here is straitjacketed French neoclassicism (“Phedre”), & she does it with both scalpel & bludgeon. One contemporary target with age-old roots: the older male whose “big arms” promise an adolescent girl protection even as his big hands grab from her all they can. The older man in this drama (&, for all its formal innovation, this is a well-constructed drama at that) suffers all the humiliation he deserves in a wrenching but satisfying sequence. The hope of being thrilled like “PATHETIC” thrilled me is why I still go to theater.... Read more Read less

See it if Teenage goddess cults, sex and power relations, bloody violence - what's not to like? Jarcho understands the power of affect and feeling.

Don't see it if The narrative drops off in the 2nd half of the play, so even at its short length, the action could have been more concentrated.

See it if You want to see a horrifying, bloody take on girlhood.

Don't see it if You have issues with nudity, teenagers, goddess-summoning, or Sonic.

Also This really intriguing concept and fascinating staging and text would have landed harder if the acting style didn't veer into this weird, druggy, semi-aloofness that undercut the brutality inherent in the dramatic structure. There was, no spoilers, a "murder" - if only the rest of the play had the same energy as said murder.... Read more Read less