The Pain of my Belligerence (Playwrights Horizons)

[HBBrock]

Waiting for reports on the new Halley Feiffer play. Started previews last night.

[Susanswerphone]

Seeing it this evening. Very excited!

[HBBrock]

Let us know your thoughts! We go next weekend!

[Susanswerphone]

It's in very good shape and it's a wonderful, disturbing, funny, painful work. I think it will be very polarizing and may trigger some. A woman near me looked shell-shocked as the cast took their bows.

[LightsOut90]

its a real whiplash of a play as it covers about 8 years in the course of just three scenes but it was one of the funniest plays ive seen in awhile, and horrifying too, the last moment could use a bit of work but im glad I caught this one, Feiffer is giving a carousel of a performance and IDK where she finds the energy to do that over and over 

[Cape Twirl of Doom]

I saw this tonight and I thought it was one of the worst shows I have ever seen. I simply hated both characters and did not want to see anything they were doing. She was a spineless simpering weakling who I was hoping would stand up to that asshole and leave the damn restaurant. I have no idea what she was supposed to see in him that was attractive.

The third scene was at least watchable because finally it involved a character I didn’t want to smack in the face.

It was 80 mins and it felt too long. What was the point supposed to be anyway?

eta: If it was supposed to be funny, there were very few laughs heard there tonight. 

[CatastrophicDay]

I had a great experience with this play. I had no idea what to expect going in, and came out thoroughly satisfied and devastated by the small portrait of a woman that I felt like I knew. 

I don't think this play is very funny at all (I was somewhat disturbed when a subset of audience members laughed loudly at a line about suicide) but that's par for the course for me lately, because I felt the same way about Burn This.

The best thing I can say about Hamish Linklater as the guy is that I had to remind myself throughout Act I that he was an actor playing a role and not an actual human being. His character was exaggerated, but also eerily real. I've known too many men in that same mold. Same with the girl, Halley Fieffer's character - she was frustratingly naive and forgiving, but I've borne witness to friends who acted in the same manner, sometimes in worse situations.

While this definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, I would recommend this show highly as something uncomfortably real and well-done. 

[jbird5]

Definitely a huge step up from “A Funny Thing...” (her last play). It would be interesting to see other productions of this when it gets done regionally. Halley really puts herself out there as it were. And Hamish’s character doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities. A less charismatic actor would be pretty insufferable in the part. Vanessa Kai is popping up in some pretty good places of late- KPOP, Henry VI, this.

The theater is pretty tiny so you’re right on top of the actors. Not for prudes.

[VintageSnarker]

I'm a pretty strident feminist but I feel like I would be annoyed at a character knowingly getting involved with someone married without a good reason, especially if the married character was written without charm or redeeming qualities. Does this play rise above the premise? I've sat through some pretty tedious plays at PH so I'm wary.

[LxGstv]

Saw it this evening and I really enjoyed it, my favorite show of their season so far. It does an excellent job riding a very fine line between funny and sad. All of the actors are tremendous in it. Hamish Linklater does bring some charisma to a pretty unlikable character. Vanessa Kai has a lot of funny moments and she nails it, very dark humor, her delivery is just utter brilliance, her final line being a standout.
Halley Feiffer is just amazing, like LightsOut90 pointed out, it’s a carousel of a performance. The set was also pretty interesting, it was the best use of the space I’ve seen since “A Life”.

VintageSnarker, not sure if it helps but...

 

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When Cat meets Guy he’s actually in the process of separating from his wife. It all gets addressed again in the third scene.

Also, they hand out the playbill after the show, and I feel it would have helped if they had done it prior to it. On the author notes, she describes this being a nightmare version of events, so all the exaggeration on the first scene makes a bit more sense.