THE WAY MEN ACT OR THE SAD LAMENT OF THE PRINCE OF TRUTH
This opening instantly brings a potentially heady endeavor–it’s billed as “a new play based on the writings of Niccolo Machiavelli”–down to earth. Not only does the playwright make fun of his characters, depicting them as gentle buffoons who can hardly stay out of one another’s way, but the actors make fun of the playwright, barely putting forth the effort to convince us they’re anything but overworked amateurs.
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The language of the play is quite elevated, yet the act is directed in a fairly realistic style–the actors are encouraged to focus on one another and on the emotional state of their character in each moment. This provides a lot of important passion but precludes a broader intellectual reading of the play. The result is a flattening of the text, so that rich lines such as “An empty stomach can produce a vigorous reexamination of one’s political philosophies” can’t achieve much resonance. The line remains part of an argument between two people rather than part of a larger network of ideas that form the act. The actors seem to be trying to persuade one another that they believe what they say, rather than starting from a place where the words are already true.
