Comments on: Shading the Picture http://blog.steppenwolf.org/2008/01/03/shading-the-picture/ Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:43:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0 by: Martin Baumgaertner http://blog.steppenwolf.org/2008/01/03/shading-the-picture/#comment-319 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:51:32 +0000 http://blog.steppenwolf.org/2008/01/03/shading-the-picture/#comment-319 This play was a manipulative and implausible disappointment. Combined with the Ignatian principles dripping with irony in the upstairs hallway, it seemed yet another concerted attack on Catholic education. In lieu of a pedophilac priest, the antagonist is the genetic absent Father, lay pillar of the community. In the end, the poor, privileged lad, having squandered several opportunities to take reponsibility for his evil deed, and having been offered by the playwright a series of other trite excuses for his behavior, seem to emerge the victim of his pathetic dogooder absent sadistic father. "Pop" culture needs a more skilled and believable interpreter. This play was a manipulative and implausible disappointment. Combined with the Ignatian principles dripping with irony in the upstairs hallway, it seemed yet another concerted attack on Catholic education. In lieu of a pedophilac priest, the antagonist is the genetic absent Father, lay pillar of the community.

In the end, the poor, privileged lad, having squandered several opportunities to take reponsibility for his evil deed, and having been offered by the playwright a series of other trite excuses for his behavior, seem to emerge the victim of his pathetic dogooder absent sadistic father. “Pop” culture needs a more skilled and believable interpreter.

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