Word: pterodactylsã
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...Produced by Benjamin M. Poppel ’09 and Christine K.L. Bendorf ’10, “Pterodactyls??—directed by Allison B. Kline ’09—runs through March 18 at the Loeb Ex. The play, written by Nicky Silver, focuses on a wildly dysfunctional family comprised of the borderline psychotic Emma (Lara C.A. Markstein ’10), who remembers nothing about her past due to possibly-justified repression; her HIV-positive, embittered, and somewhat vengeful brother, Todd (Michael R. Wolfe ’09); and their parents...
...plot of “Pterodactyls?? essentially results from the complete breakdown that occurs when these characters are all put together. Most wind up dead, and all wind up destroyed—and just to remind you, this is a comedy. Kline does an admirable job of keeping the pace snappy enough that there’s barely enough time for the shock of a given moment to register before the action has moved on. At the same time, Kline deftly slows down the action at the end for the more dramatic, but still unflinching, final scenes...
...although not always the moral) center of the play, beginning the performance with an introductory discussion of world history to the present and taking an emotionally detached view of proceedings throughout the play. Wolfe makes an excellent ironic observer, smirking his way through the events of “Pterodactyls?? and deftly registering both disgust and pity on his face...
...title of “Pterodactyls?? is a sideways reference to a dinosaur skeleton that Todd unearths in the yard and assembles in the house, where it functions as a ten-foot-tall metaphor for death and decay that literally stares everyone in the face. It is present in various stages of completion throughout the play, adding a level of surreality—albeit plot-mandated surreality—to an otherwise fairly straightforward set. The other notable aspect of the set, which was designed by Courtney E. Thompson ’09 and suggests an apartment with...
...Pterodactyls?? is the type of play where a character’s main concern upon hearing that a friend’s child has cancer is how it will affect the seating arrangements at a wedding. It’s a show in which the best place to put a dead friend is out on the terrace for the rest of the winter, until the ground is soft enough to bury him. While this could be taken as a disclaimer, it will hopefully function as an enticement, because while “Pterodactyls?? is jarring...