The Conduct of Life

See it if Stunning scenes of soldier's family members coping w/ his violent depravity. Creative staging and lighting intensify the disturbing script.

Don't see it if Torture and sexual abuse. Loss of humanity, emotional pain, and extreme anger. Terrified family. Makes its point; you won't forget it.

See it if you are able to make connections between different plot lines

Don't see it if violence depicted onstage is a trigger for you.

Also why is "the help" always the comic relief...

See it if you appreciate Fornes' elliptical plays and want to see a spare but solid revival of one her compact, dreamlike plays

Don't see it if you're triggered by stage depictions of violence, psychological or physical; you don't like claustrophobic environments

Also Practical tip: arrive early to get a seat in the "front" section: you may miss some visuals due to tight sightlines in the side sections of this tiny space.
A welcome revival of a Fornes' Obie-winning work that is more often read than produced. Kudos to the scrappy Boundless Theatre for attempting this play, which takes place in an unnamed, war-torn Latin American dictatorship. The 1985 play now reads as a cautionary tale about the violent nature of dysfunctional relationships--personal, political and sexual. Are the dynamics in interactions between husband & wife, tyrant & subject, and torturer & victim all essentially the same dance of power and complicity?
Fornes' play raises this question in a most provocative manner, and for the most part this production doesn't shy away from it, while still managing to locate some of the sly humor of her writing.... Read more Read less

See it if Very intense story a man that wants power and what he does to get the power.

Don't see it if Deals with torture sexual abuse. You want a happy story with music, singing, dancing.

Also The story very intense and how I know the male actor was very good because I really hated him, watching what he was doing to the women. thank God I knew it was a play because I want to get up and beat the hell out of him.... Read more Read less

See it if you must see all of Fornés oeuvre

Don't see it if if you have no patience for an extended sketch with only moments of humor and insight

Also Elena Arauz the director did a truly great job and Monica Steuer stole the show as they say.... Read more Read less

See it if you enjoy brutal depictions of cruelty and violent behavior which escalates as the production drags it's way to the finish.

Don't see it if you need a more easily understood plot and dislike the depiction of brutality and cruelty on stage; you don't care for minimalist productio

See it if You like complex plays and are able to fill in the gaps between a poorly developed storyline

Don't see it if You want the cast to show chemistry and a play to flow

See it if you believe man is inherently evil or stupid

Don't see it if you want to a show to follow through on the first stage setting scene

Also the first scene promises a show about a sociopath's rise to power. Instead we find a psychopath pretending to be sociopath (not as easy as the other way around) and the enablers who constantly encourage him. There are no good people here, only different levels of moral perversion.... Read more Read less

See it if you like plays that reflect the current creeping growth of moral permissiveness, brilliantly acted. By brilliant Off-Off-Bway author.

Don't see it if You insist on light-hearted entertainment (no shade :)

See it if You enjoy raw, truthful acting with a profound reflection of the treatment of women in traditional societies.

Don't see it if You are looking for a light evening of entertainment

See it if You like shows that explore the darkness of humanity

Don't see it if You like conventional storytelling, and don't like trauma and abuse onstage

Also Really great acting. The young actress playing Nena was mesmerizing to watch.... Read more Read less

See it if you're an off-off-bway skeptic. With ingeniously economical lighting & sets, director Elena Araoz's revival of Fornes wows with intensity.

Don't see it if you don't relish an in-your-face experience. This theater is only two rows deep! On second thought, why not challenge yourself for a change?

Also Memorable line: "I wish you didn't have to be hurt."

See it if you want to see a stunning production of a harrowing play by the greatest playwright the off-off-Broadway movement ever produced.

Don't see it if you don't want to be confronted with the effects of torture & sexual abuse in a tiny space, or can't abide great shifts of tone in a play.

Also Never has the slogan “The personal is political” been more forcefully embodied onstage than in “The Conduct of Life,” the award-winning play by America’s great experimental playwright of the 2nd half of the 20th century. A military man in an unnamed dictatorship brings his work home with him, literally, & that work is torture. This is not only bearable but at several points laugh-out-loud funny because the playwright excavates the absurdity in a range of domestic power struggles & moves deftly from genre to genre—political thriller, marital comedy, feminist reclamation of agency. Director Elena Araoz has been scrupulous in facing up to the play’s graphic material even as she refuses to titillate. The closest there is to an explicit sex scene exposes the abuser, not the abused. The design here, very different from the 1980s original directed by Fornes herself, finds the mania for order, even bureaucratic consistency, in the awful, twisted passions at the base of every abuse of power.... Read more Read less

See it if You are interested in the social and psychological issues of individuals under a dictatorship. Also if you are interested in Latin Culture.

Don't see it if You can’t stand violence and want a light hearted entertainment.

See it if Saw this production w/ 2 other folks. Amongst the 3, we had diverse reactions (1 hated it), though all thought it worthwhile to watch

Don't see it if Centered on a military torturer's private life, we see him increasingly enact punishment on his wife and a sex-prisoner trapped in his home.

Also Similar to the first half of the movie and novel "Room" - an intense fear and anticipation of violence pulses in this work, shot through with moments of pain and some recompensatory gestures.

Ultimately I found the play's focus on the torturer's subjectivity as overwhelming that of the women's - it often veered perilously into horror/slasher/violence-porn territory (all, of course, rendered here with technical virtuosity). The counterpoint - moments of kinship, excess, entrance into the women as subjects - were quite rare. As a result, much of that violence struck me as somewhat hollow.

I'm exceedingly glad I saw this production - but hold it in significantly lower regard than some of Fornes' other plays, such as Fefu and her Friends, that provide more access into women's subjectivity, desires, and kinship than the often numbing focus on pain and sexual violence here.... Read more Read less

See it if You like emotional dramas with some disturbing content.

Don't see it if You have any trauma history and if you are looking for a comedy.

See it if You want to see a well directed, well acted rendition of a show that isn’t often performed and like drama with a political bent.

Don't see it if You don’t like intimate spaces.

See it if A timeless play by one of the US' greatest dramatists. A story about greed, power, denial, and corruption. A thoughtful revival.

Don't see it if if you do not favor elliptical, Brechtian dramaturgy that focuses on tyranny and abuse of power, then this may not be for you.

See it if you're a fan of Fornes & want to see the play that won her much acclaim in 1985; you enjoy political theatre & simulated sex / violence

Don't see it if brutality towards women triggers flash-backs, you prefer happy stories, you want to avoid thinking about repression or class distinction

Also Maria Irene Fornes [who won an Obie for "The Conduct of Life," 1985] remains a demanding non-linear playwright.

Swaggeringly macho and consumed with insecurity, Orlando (Dakota Granados) is 33, a frustrated lieutenant in an unnamed army who swears-- as he does military pushups --that he will not let his sweetheart Leticia (Ana Grosse) stand in the way of his marrying for advancement.

After they have wed, Orlando has sussed out a new route to recognition via his specialty: a skilled torturer for the regime.

Orlando kidnaps Nena, an orphaned girl (Dea Julien), whom he rapes and terrorizes in a bunker -- before falling in love and moving her to his own cellar, where his wife hears Nena's screams.

Orlando's disrespect for his wife & violation of Nena (+ unseen others) are hard to take. This is a no-holds-barred indictment of abusive machismo & a sharp dissection of sexism & class oppression.

As the maid, Monica Steuer has industrial strength charisma and 14-k acting chops.... Read more Read less

See it if you can handle 70min of intense drama: violence against women; corruption of power; psychological & physical dominance; all in a tiny space.

Don't see it if you'll squirm to the above, w/in non-stop schizo scene-changes in a (perfect) claustrophobic space where you can't move, breath or "escape".

Also Just like the characters, you feel trapped...

...but not in a bad way. Riveting, it gets all up in your face from the start. Unfortunately, the book is confusingly chopped-up. Could easily be performed in 90min, delivering a more concise story.

Kudos to the lighting design, used well to separate/highlight rooms in the house: sometimes partially dark, lit w/flashlight (girl's cell); well-lit (dining area); horrid florescent bulbs (interrogation room).

The absolute standout is Monica Steuer ("Olimpia", the maid) who brings welcome (temporary) humor to this otherwise edgy & violent heady play. Totally over-the-top, reminiscent of jovial spanish telenovela maids.

Dea Julien ("Nena", the young girl) is also strong. Silent until the last 10min of the show, she delivers a naive innocent monologue to "Olimpia" (who listens kindly & lovingly), in which she betrays how young she ("Nena") is really supposed to be. Disturbing, uncomfortable to watch, but great job.

It's 70min. Give it a shot.... Read more Read less

See it if you are open to the harsh, machismo treatment of the main character in a political dictatorship in a well-written, well-acted tense piece.

Don't see it if brutality disturbs you.

See it if You appreciate avant-garde political theater performed in intimate space

Don't see it if You can't tolerate emotional and physical violence; you want a traditional plotline

See it if you’re up for a very dark social critique. Bleak forecast for the outcome of entrenched power imbalances.

Don't see it if you don’t like every uttered syllable loaded w/ symbolic significance, sometimes at the expense of plot clarity.

Also Seat tip: Stage is ¾ round/thrust style. The best seats are the front rows of the side sections (running parallel to the table that’s in the center of the stage); but the worst seats are the 2nd rows of these same side sections—really obstructed views for key scenes/entrances. The front section (normally considered the best seats for thrust stages), has no obstructed views but you'll be watching an actor’s back much of the time.

Reminded me a bit of Happy Birthday, Wanda June but much more sober. Subject-wise, Fornes’ interlocking analogies hold up. But stylistically, the play’s not quite in line w/ contemporary tastes & you have to be ok with that. If this was written today it’d probably be criticized for its simultaneous heavy-handedness & obscurity. For better or worse, today’s audiences tend to expect more levity, irony, or identification w/ character even when discussing socio-existential tragedies. Nevertheless, I'm glad the production didn’t compromise on this.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see a disturbing, intense play. The threat of violence (generally not actually shown) makes for riveting drama.

Don't see it if you can't watch cruelty/violence to women. While I was engrossed throughout, I didn't feel the play ultimately coalesced

See it if You like plays with an intense storyline

Don't see it if You cannot watch violence towards women or do not like small intimate plays (I was at most 3 feet from the actors)