The Antipodes - Signature Theatre

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:15am

The Antipodes by Annie Baker starts performances today at the Signature Theatre. I'll be seeing this show a grand total of six (6!) times, but the first preview is not one of them. Anybody going this evening? Please report back.

The short clip they had made it look like a thriller. John scared the bejeezus out of me, and that was supposed to be a domestic drama. If this is genuinely a horror play, I don't know how I'll be able to stand it.

Updated On: 4/4/17 at 02:15 AM

[dshnookie]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:22am

May I ask why you're seeing this 6 times vs. seeing it once and choosing to revisit? No judgment, just curious.

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 2:30am

Because I am a crazy person.

(in all seriousness, it's because I knew that the show would sell out and I wanted to take advantage of the $30 seats while they were still available. I'm also an Annie Baker nut who has seen all of her plays many many times and never been less than enthralled—even at the comparatively minor Body Awareness. If I don't like the play—which is doubtful—I will probably get a pretty good price for tickets on Stubhub)

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 6:21am

Seems like if you're doing 6 times, you should be seeing the first and last show to bookend the whole thing, heh. When I saw JCM in Hedwig, I went to his first and last show intentionally for that reason...

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 6:37am

BakerWilliams said: "The Antipodes by Annie Baker starts performances today at the Signature Theatre. I'll be seeing this show a grand total of six (6!) times, but the first preview is not one of them. Anybody going this evening? Please report back.

The short clip they had made it look like a thriller. John scared the bejeezus out of me, and that was supposed to be a domestic drama. If this is genuinely a horror play, I don't know how I'll be able to stand it.

 

"

Your favorite feeling must be boredom.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 9:28am

I so hope I get to see this. I'll be waitlisting soon, but I'm already on the edge of my seat. John is a highlight of my theatre-going career (even if I did only see it through TOFT at NYPL) and I'll gladly follow he talented Miss Baker off a cliff any day.

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:08pm

bump

[RippedMan]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:18pm

I almost bought a ticket, but I saw John and was incredibly bored and confused. I don't think she's for me. But curious to hear reports. 

[Andre4]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:27pm

Well there seem to be a lot of Annie Baker fans on here so I better be careful :) but that was one of the absolute WORST "plays" I have ever seen! Sophomoric, pretentious, emotionallly flat, with a story going nowhere...however, it is a great chance to see a few famous TV actors super close and the ticket was only 30$ so...F- for the play, B for the experience! :) however, if this had not had good actors in it I would have left after 10 minutes!

It is essentially an absurdist play set in an office conference room centered around the idea of a "retreat" of a group of people coming together to brainstorm without judgment to recreate a moment of spark that once led to a great movie or play or something. Then it gets gross, very slow and meditative, elliptical, bizarre, and repetitive for two hours with an abrupt ending that does nothing to wrap anything up.

I was trying really hard to give the author the benefit of the doubt trying to find allusions, images, subtle connections between ideas but anything truly clever eluded me tonight. I just kept thinking "why would good actors sign up for this?", "why would any respectable authors have characters say things like this?" And, perhaps more scarily, "I could be on the stage and do this - little acting experience needed!" (which I almost never think since it is such an amazing craft if the writing is good and the emotional arch is complex). Normally I can find a lot of good in almost anything I see (truly!) but this was not my cup of tea. 

Hope others like it better!

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 10:57pm

Thank you for the review. Just a question: have you seen any of Miss Baker's other work, and if so, did you enjoy them? I haven't seen this play yet, so it may be as awful as you say, but the threads for The Flick and John also got major negative responses (and an equal amount of love), so the current trend is that Miss Baker is polarizing.

Just a quick note, as an actor, I would actually take your thoughts as compliments. It is the most deceptively natural plays that are the most challenging (in my mind, at least). Especially Miss Baker's rigid repetition and constant Uhhs. That's what makes natural plays (where you are supposed to feel the characters are speaking like actual modern-day humans do, not in a heightened language like Williams or Kushner) like so hard to master and convincingly pull off, especially Chekhov, Churchill, and Baker.

[Andre4]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 11:34pm

First of all, I absolutely acknowledge that this is simply my personal view of course and I do always absolutely believe that actors try to do their very best with the material and that a playwright is trying to create something wonderful and unique. This is my first play of hers and the only other playwrights so far that I have not really liked are David Mamet, Neil LaBute, Eugene O'Neill, Will Eno, and now her. Although certain productions and actors make those work as well sometimes (e.g., Break of Noon with David Duchovny was appealing). 

As to the point about naturalism, I am also not a form of dialogue that feels as if no human being ever spoke it where actors are mere devices to convey points of view. But I have seen quite a diverse array of plays in which characters go through complex and multifaceted emotional journeys and speak in ways that are both accessible yet also beautiful and inspiring.  A View from the Bridge, Red, One Man Two Guv'nors, La Cage aus Folles, The Other Place, Constellations, and many many more come to mind across genres.

To me, this was really none of that. Listen to characters talk about masturbation and other sex acts in very ordinary and graphic ways (and I am not particularly prude) or create really bizarre and sophomoric stories otherwise without much depth does not really come across as particularly creative or incentive to me - rather simplistic and immature. But, hey, to each his or her own, right? Annie certainly has an audience for whom her style works but I am not part of that audience it seems based on this! :)

 

Updated On: 4/4/17 at 11:34 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 11:44pm

The play champions the cause of storytelling. Unfortunately, it proves a very poor advocate for its cause, since the dreary tale it presents is devoid of both interest and theatrical viability. No doubt the playwright's adulating fans will be enthralled by it, but I was bored and irritated throughout, and couldn't wait for it to end. It's pretentious, self-indulgent twaddle, served in a rambling stream of tiresome babble.

"We need stories," a character explains. Well, certainly not this one, nor the stories recounted within.

Updated On: 4/4/17 at 11:44 PM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 11:55pm

Dearest After Eight! How I've missed your grumbling <3

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 4/4/17 at 11:59pm

I can only judge from her other plays, but Miss Baker's dialogue has always seemed very natural to me (i.e. I believe humans DO actually speak that way). Certainly this might not be true of The Antipodes, but if it's anything like Circle Mirror Transformation, The Flick, or John, I have no doubt I will be "enthralled".

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 4/5/17 at 10:57am

"It's pretentious, self-indulgent twaddle, served in a rambling stream of tiresome babble."

That has to be one of the most pretentious sentences I've ever read on here.

That being said, I'll be going into this with no expectations since I loved John and mostly disliked The Flick and - as Sally said - Ms. Baker tends to be incredibly divisive anyway. I have tickets for April 14th.

[bandit964]

Posted: 4/5/17 at 10:48pm

Wow.

I absolutely adored John and The Flick, but I still can't put into words what I witnessed tonight.  The Antipodes is a complete mess; reaching so far in so many areas.  I'm still trying to grasp what the main point of the evening was?  What am I supposed to take away?  

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

Is the meaning that there are no original stories left?  That we're all made up of past stories?

 

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/5/17 at 11:38pm

 "I'm still trying to grasp what the main point of the evening was?  What am I supposed to take away? "

 

Just be patient, as I'm sure some pedantic sort will come here and explain to us all that we missed, and how obvious it all is to the enlightened few. And if someone here fails to do so, then you can be certain the critics will take up the task ---- in unison!

[haterobics]

Posted: 4/6/17 at 9:50am

After Eight said: "Just be patient, as I'm sure some pedantic sort will come here and explain to us all that we missed, and how obvious it all is to the enlightened few."

So, your equivalent on the opposite side?

[lida rose]

Posted: 4/8/17 at 10:03pm

(spoilers? maybe?)

 

I was there this afternoon. the early negative reports on here had me worried, but I really enjoyed myself, and so did the two people I went with. I can see why it's polarizing-- not everything works, and it's intentionally dramatically inert, but there's a lot to chew on here. I don't know if it'll win her any new fans, though. none of the connections she makes are explicit, and there's no traditional narrative or character development, but the whole thing is a deconstruction of stories/storytelling, both within the text & structurally. my first instinct is to say it's a very Annie Baker-y way of reckoning with writer's block and the pressure to create original narratives, combined with a surreal, nightmarish take on working in a writer's room/mining your personal trauma to create "content". it might read better than it performs, and it'll probably be deadly with less-skilled actors.

one of my favorite things about her writing is that it's never on-the-nose, and I think that same ambiguity is probably what other people find frustrating. I don't want to go into too much more detail, but I found the majority of it extremely compelling. I hope I can go back again before the end of the run.

[mordav]

Posted: 4/10/17 at 12:10am

Saw this tonight. For the most part, I thought it was pretty meh. But there was one moment

 

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 where the character of Danny told a story about looking after chickens, that switched from strange non-sequitur, which he had done earlier, to deeply moving and incongruent with the other stories, in a couple of lines, showing the character's vulnerability,

that was simply an incredible piece of writing. I understand why this theme wasn't pursued further in the context of the play. But it's a pity. If that had been the jumping off point, thematically, of the play, and we had seen more of the characters vulnerability, as we did with this character, this would have been something special.

[bandit964]

Posted: 4/10/17 at 7:57am

I agree that this might be a better read.

The one bit I did love was when they discussed...

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

...how they each viewed time.

 

After Eight, I remember your comment regarding John,

"So when do we theatregoers know we are going to be in for it big time? 

When we see that a play is by Annie Baker? 

Well, yes, obviously. 

But also, when we hear a character on stage ask another, "tell me a story." 

When the synopsis said "A play about people telling stories about telling stories," I immediately thought of you.

Updated On: 4/10/17 at 07:57 AM

[Matt Rogers]

Posted: 4/10/17 at 8:05am

lida rose said: "(spoilers? maybe?)

 

I was there this afternoon. the early negative reports on here had me worried, but I really enjoyed myself, and so did the two people I went with. I can see why it's polarizing-- not everything works, and it's intentionally dramatically inert, but there's a lot to chew on here. I don't know if it'll win her any new fans, though. none of the connections she makes are explicit, and there's no traditional narrative or character development, but the whole thing is a deconstruction of stories/storytelling, both within the text & structurally. my first instinct is to say it's a very Annie Baker-y way of reckoning with writer's block and the pressure to create original narratives, combined with a surreal, nightmarish take on working in a writer's room/mining your personal trauma to create "content". it might read better than it performs, and it'll probably be deadly with less-skilled actors.

one of my favorite things about her writing is that it's never on-the-nose, and I think that same ambiguity is probably what other people find frustrating. I don't want to go into too much more detail, but I found the majority of it extremely compelling. I hope I can go back again before the end of the run.

 

"

LOL - "intentionally dramatically inert".

Now there's the pull quote they need to catapult this straight to Broadway. 

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/10/17 at 9:11am

"LOL - "intentionally dramatically inert".

Now there's the pull quote they need to catapult this straight to Broadway"'

 

That's the kind of pull quote to assure them a passel of awards, not to mention untold doctoral dissertations!

And don't forget the egghead elite's cherished word and concept: "deconstruction."

This play really has it all!

[After Eight]

Posted: 4/10/17 at 9:21am

"The one bit I did love was when they discussed...

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content"

 

I thought that was some of the most pretentious bunk I've ever heard. Actually, the whole play was. Absolutely excruciating!

 

 "After Eight, I remember your comment regarding John,"

You do? Well,  that's  more than I can say! But really, that was one play I'd like to forget --- if only I could!  Not trying to blow my own horn, but rereading now what I wrote then,  I would say I was right on the money!

Updated On: 4/10/17 at 09:21 AM

[BakerWilliams]

Posted: 4/10/17 at 11:11am

I hope that one day I'm as assured of my opinions as you, After Eight.

As for The Antipodes, it's definitely more minor than most of Baker's previous work, but I really enjoyed it.