The Curious Savage by John Patrick started
off with an interesting, motley looking group of characters. As an audience
member, one was not sure whether the people were insane or whether you just
didn't understand anything. As the scene goes on however you find out that it
is indeed an insane asylum.
It was clear that a lot of work had gone into
making this play, and the acting was superb. It had a nice storyline but
some of the dialogue wasn't quite as fluid as it could have been and a lot
of the lines intending to be humorous sounded more forced than funny. It
seemed like John Patrick wanted the play to be written in a way to be
lighthearted but still touch upon deeper issues, and it fell just a little
short of that. The plot was cute and the play did have its moments. It started
a little rough but by the end of the second act, one was probably quite curious
to find out what would be the final outcome.
Some of the characters were lovable but their
goofy and supposed-to-be lovable personalities also seemed a little forced.
Most were too quirky to actually be able to relate to. Like previously stated
there was a somewhat forced feeling behind the scenes. Each character seemed to
be a caricature of a caricature. It was sort of like trying too hard. Which is
bad just on the other side of the spectrum.
For example, one of the patients, Fairy May,
was a young, plain looking girl who thought she was beautiful and was also
quite, well, crazy. Ruby Keutzer who played Fairy, did an excellent job of
portraying her, however all of her lines seemed to go just a little far in
trying to show how a "crazy" girl would act.
The main character, the "mother,"
Mrs. Savage was played excellently by Sonia Goldberg, and she acted exactly
like how a quirky old lady would act. That is because in the script they wanted
her shown as LESS crazy than the actual crazy patients. Thus making her the
"normal" amount of crazy.
The Curious Savage did make some good points
and there was a little bit of wisdom, but yet again the wisdom was more forced
sounding that natural. And the quirkiness of the wisdom was such that it was
clear who ever came up with said wisdom was trying really hard to be quirky.
Some of it though, when not trying too hard to be clever or cute, was actually
really deep and kind of bittersweet. When Ms. Savage wanted to stay at the
asylum because she saw how content all the patients were, the doctor replies to
her, “Don’t
be fooled by the illusion of contentment. Make peace with your loneliness.” If
only the play had had more lines and moments like that it might have been a
little deeper and better for older audience members.
An older audience member would catch all the
dirty jokes, and a younger one would probably appreciate the overall plot much
more. Compared to some of the previous shows put on by the Young Company
this wasn't as superb as they normally are. However, that is not to say that it
wasn't still good.
The very last scene was so beautiful and
poignant, in my mind it made up for any other faults the play might have had.
It showed all the mental patients as they saw themselves. The setting and how
it all happened was very sweet. I'm sure that very few eyes in the theatre were
dry by then. Just that ending which wrapped up everything so very nicely was
terrific. A great ending is what truly sticks with us after all, and being the
very last thing that one sees makes it the most memorable, and memorable it
was. Overall I'd give this show a 7/10.
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