Today’s DUCHY goes to Linda Winer at Newsday for her review of Opus, which we reviewed the other day.
“[The playwright, Michael Hollinger] describes classical music – a most abstract art form – without descending into metaphoric nonsense,” she writes.
I’m guessing Winer hasn’t had a metaphor in quite some time, because these “subtle” moments she refers to are monologuey passages where the characters swoon as they try to describe the quintessential musical moment, which, at least twice, became a metaphor for sex.
To further cram her into this week’s top DUCHY spot, Winer’s handling of the Opus‘ gayness is totally suspect. Read:
“Hollinger grandstands during the last few minutes, and we wish he hadn’t resorted to passé cliche by making the most screwed-up character gay.”
Umm, Ms. Winer? Which gay character did you mean? The violist, or the violinist?
Aside from using the royal “we” to generate faux concensus, it’s mindless to use the smugly subjective phrase “most screwed-up character,” which she does not go on to articulate who she thinks the most screwed-up character is so I guess we’re just supposed to guess oh no wait! she’s told us it’s the gay one! Later, she seems to imply to mean the violist (who’s character suffers from mental illness), but by the end of the play–if you were there–you come to realize that the most screwed-up character is actually the other gay one, the 1st violinist (and lover of the violist) who can’t see past his need for control, which ends up destroying the ensemble.
Aside from Winer’s failure to identify metaphor, her inability to parse the difference between one screwed up homo and another is evidence that girl needs to spend a little more time with her gay friends, and a little less time writing utter poop.
Leave a Comment
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
