Against the Hillside

See it if you enjoy plays that are trying to make an interesting point but ultimately fail. Good staging by Carden does not help this inferior script.

Don't see it if you are looking for a cohesive drama.

Also Interesting topic, but ultimately fails. Has too many characters, some of whom disappear after one scene. This play needs a number of rewrites. It is definitely a work in progress.
Also, there was a chorus practicing on the floor above the theatre. Their voices permeated the action. Perhaps EST should not rent out that space when a play is in progress. This was a major distraction.... Read more Read less

See it if you’d like a play that reiterates the fact that there are no winners in our never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Don't see it if you don't tolerate plays that substitute exposition for drama.

Also Against the Hillside starts promisingly with a scene of a Pakistani couple followed by one with an American couple. Both couples are in crisis, primarily the Pakistani wife and the American husband. The American husband has been watching the Pakistani couple via drones; he sees, or imagines, an enviable relationship between the Pakistanis that is eluding him. Unfortunately, Reem (the wife) and Matt (the husband) disappear from the play before the halfway mark, and the play never regains dramatic momentum.... Read more Read less

See it if You want to see a young writer and talented actors at work and you don't mind poor staging, frustrating design, and a truly jumbled story.

Don't see it if You need a coherent emotional arc, or well-drawn characters. It's upsetting to see a show with such high stakes handled so clumsily.

See it if You're looking for a docudrama about the perilous consequences of drone warfare.

Don't see it if You're looking for an evening of compelling drama.

See it if you are interested in how the military spies on terrorist suspects (real or imagined) and how this surveillance effects both sides.

Don't see it if you are not interested in how military actions effect both the military men and the people on whom they direct their surveillance.

Also The ideas in this play were very interesting and edifying. We rarely consider how soldiers who are not in combat react to other intrusive actions in which they may be required to engage.... Read more Read less

See it if there are some smart, thoughtful ideas here, and engaging characters, though the play probably tries to bite off more than it can chew.

Don't see it if you need a fully realized world, or need to see the final word on a play: I feel like this script may be revised and tightened some day.

Also The script is probably a little too ambitious: nine actors (nine characters before oddly doubling in the very last scene, which takes place decades into the future), but never more than three in any single scene, in under 90 minutes, means characters disappear for a half hour or more just when you're starting to get invested in their story. So there's interesting stuff happening here, but it's kinda scattered, jumping around so much. Might be better off trimming a few characters entirely.... Read more Read less