A "Playful" insight into New York!

Our latest class outing was to a Broadway production of "The New York Idea" produced by the Atlantic theater company. It turned out to be a delightful and memorable evening on many levels. First of all, "The New York Idea" was supposed to be a nice four act comedy treat for somebody like me who has always found a comedy of manners entertaining as well as intellectually engaging. Furthermore, the small theater setting brought the stage and the actors right before my eyes and it was an absolute delight to be able to observe and scrutinize the actors and the stage meticulously.

The play begins with two representatives of the old generation who, even in 1906 New York, are holding on to their notions about social propriety, societal norms and practices. The problem presented by the play is a complex one for their generation and they make a point by showing it as such on the stage through their discomfort with sending out invitations and their unease at the thought of breaking the news to their cousin William who is in agreement with the aunt about two divorced people getting married. On the other hand, the representative of the young and energetic generation, Cynthia appears exceptionally carefree about the matter when she enters the stage for the first time. Anybody who was watching the performance first hand without any existing knowledge about the plot and the characters might have mistaken her for another member of this family and certainly not the divorced woman who is about to get married with the head of this household. For me, the characters succeeded in portraying and maintaining the tension between the generations throughout the first act which the playwright had probably intended. 

Another actor that really struck me during the performance was the woman playing Vida Phillimore because she was really able to strike cords with the character. Vida comes out some sort of eccentric to me who has exceptionally 'liberal' notions about societal behavior in the 20th century modern New York. She is full of epigrams and witty comments and is a kind of counterpart for 'Algernon' who plays an eccentric English gentleman in Oscar Wilde's famous comedy of manners "The Importance of Being Earnest". Another important aspect of Vida's character is her attractiveness and in addition to my personal judgement, my professor, Cyrus Patell, reiterated the point by mentioning not once but twice that "the actor playing Vida is very attractive." For somebody like me who has never been to a theatrical production of a comedy of manners, it was exciting to see the effect that the characters could have on the audience.

The second act builds on the character of Vida Phillimore and also brings out important characteristics of Cynthia in the context of the play. I want to share something about the play on the name Cynthia which I found not only hilarious but also very meaningful considering the problem, plot and the ultimate resolution of the play. I thought it was interesting that the ex-wife of Mr. Karslake is the namesake of the most uncontrollable and "high strung" mare that John Karslake owns called Cynthia K. So, even though Vida comes out as a negative character, I think she is a more constant character than Cynthia who goes through these fits of rage, excitement as well as 'whims' about different emotional situations that arise in the play.

Due to time constraints and especially because I do not want my readers to get bored to death with a dull critical analysis of the play, I will draw my blog post to a close with a few interesting observations about the ending of the play. For instance, the last two acts were much faster in pace as compared to the first two acts and the resolution at the end of the play happens quite briskly as well. This certainly gave me an impression of how rapidly relationships and married, or divorced lives in this case, change in New York and the fact that the play picked up pace is symbolic of how modern New York society picked up pace during the late 19th and early to mid 20th century in terms of construction of the subway, architecture, the art scene as well as societal attitudes and individual behavior in general.