The purpose of theater is to cure the nausea of life — or so playwright Christopher Durang would have us believe. His play “Durang/Durang,” which opens in the Arena Theatre today, is a vicious assault on pretentious theater and playwrights.
Being an insider himself, Durang’s blows go right for the jugular, daring playwrights to be “deep” so he can point out how shallow they really are. The show goes four rounds, with four short plays having nothing to do with one another except their abuse of the theater. The purpose of theater mentioned above starts the barrage and comes from the opening monologue, in which Mrs. Sorken, an eccentric older woman, talks directly to the audience about her take on the performing arts. “Drama,” she says, “comes from the Greek word ‘dram,’ meaning ‘to do,’ and the English word ‘drain,’ which means to empty totally.”
If you didn’t get that joke, you have not done theater. Durang wrote a play mocking his peers and his craft, and it is most appreciated by those with similar knowledge. The next two plays poke fun at “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, “Lie of the Mind” by Sam Shepard (who also wrote “True West,” performed earlier in the Pocket) and they also get in a jab at David Mamet. In the spirit of the moment, senior actress Jackie Jacobus even throws in a reference to the University’s presentation of “Electra.”
It seems that along the way, Durang forgot that he was trying to combat pretentiousness. But these plays aren’t required reading for enjoying this show. It also speaks to anyone who has been dragged to a theater and left questioning what the hell just happened. In the third play, “A Stye of the Eye,” the protagonist starts by telling his mother that he killed his wife for being a pretentious actress. It only gets crazier from there and will have everybody’s head spinning.
The funniest moments in the play for the non-connoisseur will be focused around junior Connor Dudley. He brings a wonderful physical and vocal comedy to the play. His acting would be over the top, but it isn’t possible to take Durang too far. However, Dudley ends the play in a more reserved role just to show that he isn’t all about antics.
The cultured theater-goers will appreciate “A Stye of the Eye,” as they will pick up Durang’s well-placed references. But they just as easily might fall for Dudley too.
This show was not written to be understood. Anyone who tries to think about this play will have a terrible time and then die of an aneurysm. Director Craig Willis shows his understanding of Durang’s humor by making it as difficult as possible for the audience to take the play at all seriously. When a character is conscious of a scene change, the generally accepted transition is too odd not to laugh at it.
The play runs today through Sunday and May 17-19 at 8 p.m. in the Arena Theatre (Room 104 Villard Hall). Tickets are $4 for University students ($3 for Wednesday and Thursday productions) and are available at the EMU Ticket Office or at the University Theatre box office on days of performances.