I went to see Kill Floor because I’d recently watched an episode of Law and Order: SVU that Marin Ireland was the guest star on and I missed seeing her onstage. I had no idea what it was about, but from the artwork, I guessed it was about the meat industry.

it was my first time in the Claire Tow Theatre at Lincoln Center – a totally hip and modern space, completely different than the Mitz E. Newhouse and Beaumont spaces. Kill Floor was about a woman named Andy who was recently released from prison and trying to restart her life. The only job she found was through a connection from high school on the kill floor of a factory farming meat plant. She has a son that she’s trying to re-establish a relationship with who wants nothing to do with her and is somewhat easily taken advantage of and sexually confused. 

The play ended extremely awkwardly and I’m not sure what it was trying to say, if it was trying to say anything. Marin was great, but I’m not sure this is the best play she’s been in. Lincoln Center gave it their best shot with Kill Floor. Not everything can be a hit though. 

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Broadway’s The Big Knife Will Star Marin Ireland, Richard Kind, Adam Rapp and Bobby Cannavale; Full Cast Announced

I can’t tell you how excited I want to read this yesterday. My favorite playwright…. ACTING… in a play?!… on BROADWAY?! Sign me up. Plus Marin Ireland? Here’s my money, Roundabout. Just take it now.

I wonder how Rapp will be onstage. He’s always avoided having his plays staged on Broadway (he’s been quoted as saying that his audience is the off-Broadway type), so his leap to ACT on Broadway is astonishing. I hope he’ll be great. Let’s be honest, he probably will be. 

And even if he’s not, I’ll love him onstage anyways. 

Broadway’s The Big Knife Will Star Marin Ireland, Richard Kind, Adam Rapp and Bobby Cannavale; Full Cast Announced

This week I saw a preview of the Public Theatre’s In the Wake, by Lisa Kron.  The story is highly political, starting after the election in 2000 and going through to after the election in 2004.  I was particularly excited because Marin Ireland was starring as the conflicted and political protagonist Ellen.  I first saw Marin Ireland in a play called Manuscript at the DR2 Theatre in 2005 and have followed her career ever since.  

While the country is in their wake, Ellen is in a wake of her own while navigating her way through her long term relationship with her boyfriend, Danny, while maintaining a long distance [open] relationship with a woman in Boston, Amy.  The play is overly verbose and tangents are numerous and often confusing.  One of my favorite characters was Judy, one of Ellen’s relatives from a poor family who now works in third world countries and is fully jaded to the government system in America and makes no attempt to hide her opinion.

I liked the premise of the play and the cast was great all around, but the script needs a lot of work and a lot of trimming.  Ellen’s monologues that divide the scenes served, in my opinion, no purpose and as previously stated, there is a lot of pointless ranting.  The play currently clocks in at two hours and a forty minutes, but two hours would have been sufficient and I don’t think anything would have been lost.

If you like political plays and great acting, get yourself down to the Public before November 21st.

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(photo via)