The Two Character Play (2019)

See it if A well acted play. Good direction and lighting. Not one of Williams best plays,however.

Don't see it if Beginning and end better than the middle where Williams writes the 2 character play. Off stage was entertaining the play part was sloooow

See it if you’d like to see a late work of Tennessee Williams, a dip into Theater of the Absurd, not often performed.

Don't see it if you’re hoping that this late Tennessee Williams play is a simple update of earlier work.

Also I was glad to see this imperfect production of an imperfect but fascinating late Tennessee Williams work. How good Williams remained throughout his life at writing compelling dialog! Here he revives many old themes – mental distress, isolation, alienation from the world, sibling attachment, intrafamilial violence – & gives them a metatheatrical gloss. This brother-sister team is (on & off) performing themselves for an audience in a ramshackle theater (maybe) which is also where they’re spending a night on the road. Williams flirts with Theater of the Absurd: The sister, Clare, even quotes Beckett’s infamous “Nothing to be done.” Lucy for us, the characters do plenty, though confined to the protective trap of this room & adjacent corridors. Williams brings to this somewhat new terrain all the old Southern Gothic that brought him his original renown. That this revival is performed in the very theater that saw the first presentation of an early draft of this play increases its interest.... Read more Read less

See it if A Tennessee Williams fan "Must See. ." Written on his downward spiral.Semi auto biographical. 13th Street Rep.is a cozy intimate theater.

Don't see it if Not a FUN kind of show. Disturbing at times. Two performers.

See it if you want a complete understanding of all Tennessee Williams plays but know this is offbeat, biographical and goes a bit long for the subject

Don't see it if you do not relate to dysfunction between brother and sister actors forced to deal with each other on and off stage in a stationary plot.

See it if you are a Tennessee Williams fan and are interested in his thoughts on theater and performers.

Don't see it if you have high expectations. This performance lacks the finesse needed to bring across the delicate contradictions in the writing.

See it if Traumatised acting siblings rehearse and attempt to stay grounded to the reality of their lives and to the dialogue in their fictional play.

Don't see it if Line drawn between actor and character is slim, so concentration is of the import. The lighting cues seem to muddle the meta experiment.

See it if you would like to see a rarely performed play of TW. Interesting staging. Very unlike style of most of TW's plays.

Don't see it if you want to see only TW's best plays or like a larger venue.

Also It was sometimes confusing to tell whether the actors were acting on stage or being themselves offstage which is probably what made this play interesting.... Read more Read less

See it if If you’re a true Williams fan and can endure the later works.

Don't see it if You’re not near a PhD in Williams’s works.

See it if you must see every work by Tennessee Williams staged in some way; enjoy intimate, quirky, 90-minute productions that make you think deeply.

Don't see it if you need your drama to wrap-up neatly and clearly; you need more spectacle and elaborate set-designs; you’re expecting traditional Williams.

Also The Two Character Play is an experimental Tennessee Williams work: a play-within-a-play structure offers sometimes confusing and weird, always provocative, reflections about art and life. But this is no cliché of life being a stage. Perhaps there’s no such thing as truly living when another person is watching, waiting to manipulate and trip-up the words, actions, and self you think you know so well. While staging is a bit dodgy and costuming “off,” this two-hander grows thrilling when the brother-sister duo, played compellingly by two “unraveling” actors, blur lines between fact and fiction. Humor, darkness, uneasiness, childishness, madness, tension, and violence punctuate an otherwise haunting dialogue and poetic language. We find something unsettling and unfinished that lingers. It is a fragile world, as delicate as the bubbles blown on stage; welcome to life itself and how we corner ourselves in a cold, dark place too often without hope (even while we desperately try to grasp it).... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see a semi- autobiographical show by one of America's great playwrights. Great set, decent acting.

Don't see it if when writers become self-exploratory it usually result in something less than greatness and it becomes intolerable to you.

Also There are many families that live their lives engulfed by the mental illness of themselves and those around them and that makes this play interesting.

The introspective nature of this play makes it much less interesting.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see all of TW's plays, especially this semi autobiographical story.

Don't see it if You're not ready for blurred lines between when they are "in the play" and out of the play. The lighting became more confusing than helpful.

See it if you are fascinated by Tennessee Williams’ obsession with mental illness and human weakness and the restorative transformative power of love.

Don't see it if you are irreconcilably morose from plays about mental illness and poverty, prefer shorter comedies, more than two actors, or scene changes

See it if ..to see an autobiographical play by Williams.It's a play within a play & it's hard at times to figure out which u'r watching.Good acting.

Don't see it if you prefer lighter fare; dislike plays w/o an easy resolution. Dislike being confused as to what is/is not "reality."

See it if You are a Tennessee Williams completionist. You like small, intimate productions.

Don't see it if You aren't into experimental theatre forms or have trouble following a complicated plot structure.

See it if You're up for a theatrical labor of love and a fine example of skill, imagination and talent trumping low budgets. Williams would be pleased

Don't see it if Your brain insists on sequential narrative or has calcified past wonder; truth most often lies between the cracks, so go with it or don't go

Also This is an amazingly rich, detailed and textured production—especially for such a short run—that runs with Williams' script, pushes past his limited descriptions and stage directions and in doing so more than fully realizes his vision. It's hard to imagine a better or more fulfilling production, or one whose use of space could add more literal depth.

Bainbridge and Kiefer are evenly matched and believable as siblings, totally all-in and up to the turn-on-a-dime shifts in characters and reality that make this play so difficult, and difficult to pull off. That said, Keifer's "face of an angel" is hard to pull away from, her nano-second changes of voice & expression fascinating & frightening.

Both actors achieve a wonderful poetry of performance here that allows the text to sing, & kudos to Rebeck, whose surprising trifecta of direction, costumes & set have put in motion such richness—visually, vocally, rhythmically. Nods also to Allison Hohman's subtle lighting. Ah, for a longer run!... Read more Read less

See it if you really love Williams and want to see him indulging in a new playwriting style that diverges from his naturalistic trademark style.

Don't see it if I think the contemporary reception of the play had it about right: it was a miss, but not a mess. Intelligent, irksome, interesting, obscure

See it if You like acting that is fairly good.

Don't see it if You don’t want to see a play that is a little slow and confusing.

See it if you like Williams' plays and don't need a well defined plot

Don't see it if you want a straight linear plot

Also Alot of the laugh lines are funnier if you work in theatre.

See it if You appreciate Tennessee Williams and the poetry of human feeling in his language, you'll see this good production of a lesser work.

Don't see it if You have no patience with ambiguity and confusion in an abstract work. If you hated "Godot" you won't like this.

See it if Tennessee Williams intrigues & enchants you; you like small companies & emerging artists (actors & director all fall in that category).

Don't see it if you dislike Williams or theater of the absurd.

Also Reportedly, Williams took 10 years to write this play, where he loosely bases both actor & character Clare on his mad sister Rose, and both actor & character Felice on himself.

Premiered at Chicago's Ivanhoe Theater in July 1971 as Out Cry, the play then had a 10-day run at the Lyceum in March 1973 & was revived in 1975. One early revival was at the 13th Street Repertory Theater, perhaps before Line opened in 1974.

Williams wrote that this was his "most beautiful play since Streetcar, the very heart of my life."

It's clear why the play was not well received in '71 or '73, when the nation sought escapism & disliked such discomfort as the audience must suffer while watching two unraveling actors, chained to one another, who act two unraveling and likewise chained siblings, in this very dark play within a play.

It's not all that comfortable to watch now, either.

Harry Bainbridge (Felice), tripped over his lines several times & the lines between play & theater often blur.... Read more Read less

See it if you want to see late TW in an experimental mood in a semi-autobiographical play based on his real life relationship with his mad sister

Don't see it if you want to see everything Williams wrote despite the failure of this piece to impress audiences or critics; well acted despite C- material

See it if you enjoy complex two character dialogues with lots of bending of roles and context that interweave to tell a basically sad story.

Don't see it if you mind some confusion and meta-theatrical dialogue. You mind that the play within a play is comic while the wrapper play is dark.

Also I think the play is very interesting. I can see it being confusing how it isn't clear if they are really on stage or even have a real audience. Its imaginable they are really the characters and have invented a role play in an attempt to get themselves out. Lot to discuss.... Read more Read less

See it if Beautiful language and fine acting in a nice space. It's not an amazing play, but it's a good one.

Don't see it if It's depressing. It (spoiler alert) breaks Chekov's rule. This is a seldom-produced for a reason play, but worth seeing once. Esp. here.

See it if Interesting depiction of the Tennessee Williams play by two wonderful actors. A little over-the-top at times

Don't see it if I did find myself losing interest the last 15 minutes or so. However made for a decent night out at the theater.

See it if You are a fan of TW. Fascinating play within a play structure. Heartbreaking characters and story. Fine acting; wonderfully intimate theater

Don't see it if You are looking for a light, uplifting play with uncomplicated characters