Theater Review (NYC): Reflections and Geographical History of America - Page 2

It hurts that teasing Beckett, Wilder, and Chekhov stands in direct contrast to the remarkable revivals that all three have experienced in bigger, more professional productions this season. If you’ve been raised with this attitude, however, Reflections is not just a waste of time and money, it’s also insulting. The same people who were supposed to change the world continue to lecture us. Meanwhile, the less-experienced educated classes are relatively penniless. They’re charging $18 a pop for a play that addresses the same issues that Generation Y saw on TV when they were in elementary school.

Perhaps the relative successes of the revivals of the plays that are mocked in Reflections are not coincidental: the classics, the “canon,” may have ideas in them which are more vital in desperate times, and more easily mocked in relatively clear economic sailing. If the David Denbys of the world don’t like the virus of snark that supposedly permeates the Internet, they would do well to see how their own generation perpetuates in the only medium that can’t be transferred online.

In the old world, I would emphasis Geographical History of America’s similarity to Gertrude Stein, and not to Seinfeld or The Wire. I would also hesitate to engage with the artists of the play in any capacity. However, Geographical History has more in common with those shows than it does its namesake. Like The Wire, the play emphasizes how individuality and personal identity get lost in the preservation of the larger whole of society. The Human Group’s name bears a remarkable resemblance to the Human Fund: Money For People, a fake charity invented by Seinfeld's George Costanza to get out of giving office Christmas gifts.

The Seinfeld joke requires an understanding of a society that has grown blind to the notion that charity is intended for people in need. Yet that episode aired in 1997, and has been heavily shown in syndication ever since. Even for those born in 1980, the oldest of Generation Y, the joke first premiered in high school on the most popular television show in America.

So why is Geographical History of America so much more vital to American theater? Perhaps because it revives a focus on an idea that was always behind radical ideology, but somehow got lost in 40 years of social upheaval: the focus on compassion for your fellow human being. Like Stein’s work, the play surveys various American factions and sects while focusing on how little actually separates Americans. After breaking the audience out of a contemporary mindset by its retro greeting in the KGB bar, Geographical History focuses on the history of identity politics, what makes America unique, and how a noble set of ideas ended up dividing us. When the lecture-like performance asks what comes next, the actors turn silent. They can only resort to childish gibberish, the same gibberish they use to mock the upper crust.

Article Author: Ethan Stanislawski

Ethan Stanislawski is a freelance journalist/critic and new media specialist. He is a regular reviewer and staff writer at Prefix Magazine, and also contributes regularly to Blogcritics Magazine. His interests include theater, film, and pop music …

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