When a play is over but the audience isn't really sure it's over

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 7:20am

is that the playwright's fault?  The actors' fault?  The director?

I ask this now because we saw Rajiv Joseph's new play "Guards at the Taj" this weekend, at the Atlantic.  Really enjoyed the show all the way through, then there's a scene that was a bit out of place in context with the show, then the lights went down . . . and it was over.

 

And no one clapped.  Why?  There were 3 or 4 other scenes that ended with the lights going down and then the show resumed with the sets or costumes or something else changed, and the break was exactly the same.  Actor line, all goes dark, 45-60 seconds later lights up, changes made, show resumes.  But at the end of this, after the lights went off, a few seconds later a few hands clapped, and then the lights went up and the actors came out for their bows and the real ovation began.

 

I can understand this happening when a show is a mess, but this show was pretty tight, with a compelling story and great acting.  And maybe it's just the last scene that didn't really fit in that raised the expectations that there might be more.

How do you solve this problem?  And what other shows have this problem?

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 7:42am

I haven's seen the show, but often this happens when the direction is not very precise and the same choices are repeated over and over.

Some years ago I saw a production of Pirandello's Everything's Fine when the exact opposite occurred: the audience kept thinking the play was finished because many scenes were arranged in such a way that they seemed to be the finale.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/26/15 at 7:48am

In my experience, there are two separate problems.  When the storytelling in the text seems to resolve multiple times (for me, "The Bridges of Madison County" is a perfect example, when the coda annotating all of the post-liaison turns in the roads seem to meander without a final satisfying end); and, when direction doesn't put a period on the evening.  Sometimes, a good director can minimize the first problem; at other times, a poor director can make a good story feel unfinished.  Musicals that carry over the storytelling into the curtain call are a new and to me bizarre trend.  I find it peculiar when actors have bowed, but resume their characters for final upstage clenches ("Ghost" is one) or other staged business that suggests they are momentarily back inside the people they just played. In pieces that break the 4th wall, this might make a modicum of sense, otherwise it's both arty and rather silly.  It reminds me of the infamous fade-out to "Bad Seed" when the actors playing mother and daughter played out a spanking. It has a strange ability to undercut the power of what we witnessed (well, that was the 50's, which partially explains it).  

Updated On: 5/26/15 at 07:48 AM

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 5/28/15 at 9:51am

Any more thoughts on this?

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/28/15 at 10:51am

How else would you end "Bridges of Madison County" if not with "Always Better", in my opinion a perfect finale, a culmination of themes with a haunting stage picture to boot. 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:18pm

It is not a consistent answer -- because the fault can be anywhere.  HOWEVER, more often than not, I would say it is a directorial problem, even if the writing is weak.  It is the director's job to overcome.

 

Anytime my actors struggle with a specific line, I remark that we just haven't figure out fully what the writer wants from it.  Yet.   Same thing here, the director has to figure it out.

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 5/31/15 at 10:24pm

i saw Guards this evening, whatever issue there was has been fixed because the show ends on a VERY snap your fingers type blackout and it was very clear it was over. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 12:19am

Preludes tonight felt the same way. Sometimes the end can come as a shock - a good shock - but tonight it was like "Oh....that's it?" even though the 2hrs. felt like 15. 

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 1:23am

When I saw Curious Incident, I didn't realize Christopher was actually going to tell us how he solved the math problem. After everyone bowed, I got up and made my way downstairs, and then suddenly Alex Sharp ran back out and I along with a lot of other people were thrown off by it. 

I stood in the aisle of the orchestra and watched as the math problem was solved. 

Updated On: 6/1/15 at 01:23 AM

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 9:11am

"i saw Guards this evening, whatever issue there was has been fixed because the show ends on a VERY snap your fingers type blackout and it was very clear it was over. "

 This is good to hear.

[CurtainsUpat8]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 9:25am

I saw Guards at the Taj yesterday and it was quite clear when the play was over.

[Tom5]

Posted: 6/1/15 at 10:34am

Almost always the playwrights. Unless, it is the playwright or the director's artistic choice to leave the audience hanging on purpose. One prime example - which everyone I'm sure here has seen - is the non-ending and definitely not a mistake non-ending of the film No Country For Old Men.