Bonnie's Last Flight

See it if you’d like to experience the work of a smart, funny, engaged, offbeat young playwright in an intimate, one-of-a-kind setting.

Don't see it if you cannot indulge a highly satirical take on how we live now, even when it is also very accepting of all kinds of human foibles.

Also Will emerging playwright Eliza Bent ever be a mainstream taste? Maybe not. But I love her offbeat take on how we live now. I first encountered her work in a solo autobiographic show & thought it strong but likely too arch to ever be broadly empathetic, looking down on those beyond the in-crowd that grasped what she was getting at. I was wrong! I’ve now experienced 3 of her full-length plays & feel that tough love for the quirkiest among us is Bent’s great strength. In “BONNIE'S LAST FLIGHT” the playwright inhabits the psyche of a flight attendant of retirement age, well older than Bent herself, like a custom-fit glove. Other crew members of this flight from hell (well, not quite) get their say, even as they’re gently roasted for their foibles. In holding these eccentrics up for examination, Bent can indirectly engage the issues of the day, making all sorts of stealth commentary, even as America’s great comic writer Mark Twain performs a running, standup act, funny because it bombs.... Read more Read less

See it if Like non-traditional theatre - or theatre spaces. Quirky and fun.

Don't see it if A bit simplistic but a basic story with interesting characters - characters more than persons.

See it if You want to see a truly original immersive play by one of the best new up-and-coming playwrights.

Don't see it if You don't like absurdism/surrealism and/or don't like shows that break the fourth wall.

See it if you want to be immersed in the performance and like comedies.

Don't see it if being immersed makes you uncomfortable.

See it if You enjoy interactive theater or surreal/absurdist comedy, or are looking for lighthearted fare.

Don't see it if You're a stickler for solidly written, thoroughly plausible drama (it's neither)...or you dislike interacting with performers.

Also I had fun at the show and came out feeling "definite thumbs-up!" Thinking about the show later, however, I realized it's not that good--unless you are just up for fun, with some clever staging. But a number of things in the script (Mark Twain, the titular dog, etc.) actually didn't "work"; i.e., ultimately they were kind of pointless plot- or emotion-wise and thus just gags. I went in expecting this to be Jan's story, and that's how the play starts out, but it diffuses into the whole crew's stories. I think this lack of focus hurts it dramatically. And while I enjoyed how they recreated the layout, furnishings and experience of an airplane flight, some things were too inaccurate to overlook: Since when, for example, do they put oversize luggage in the cockpit? (It gets checked!) And since when do crew members go into passenger luggage, like the copilot does with the harp? I'm guessing the playwright was inspired by Christopher Durang's works; it resembles some of them.... Read more Read less

See it if You appreciate broad bits, dwelling in nostalgia, and don't go to the theater for social/political urgency.

Don't see it if Mark Twain guides us on the flight, but the play lacks the sharpness and social insight that lifted his writing beyond mere wit.