Understand you? I don’t even understand myself. In today’s ever-increasingly partisan world, A Misunderstanding challenges our fundamental understanding of reality, offering a philosophical and humorous exploration of the misunderstandings that arise when people with radically different world views become wary of one another and unable to communicate. Leave all your preconceived notions at the door… this play is sure to turn them inside out. Jan. 2-Feb. 3,; The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90038; $15-$30; (323) 960-4418; www.plays411.com/misunderstanding
A Misunderstanding
Reviews
In this second dramatization of Matt Chait's central argument for intelligent design, the debate between a scientist (Bruce Katzman) and a disgraced professor (Matt Chait) is couched in the coinciding and altogether human dilemma of two young people. Howard Blair (Dennis Renard), A prospective Ph.D. candidate, was deeply influenced by professor Bertram Cates (Chait) before his dismissal from the Biology Department for espousing spiritual views on evolution. Blair's fiance, Melinda (Amy-Helene Carlson), is in opposition to Cates' ideas. The couple's opposite sides over Cate forms the emotional center of A Misunderstanding. Because Chait's ideas lean closer to physics than the subtleties of evolution, it's clear that Chait will continue on his journey to be understood.
In the end it is up to each member of the audience to decide whether either one is right or wrong, or maybe perhaps they all are! You go and decide for yourself.
....lacking a sound story and interesting believable characters, the play quickly morphs into an extended and quite literal back-and-forth polemic between a fervent defender of biological determinism and a former colleague who challenges those beliefs...
At some point in his life the thinking man will usually ask himself three important questions: Who—or what—am I? Where am I? and How did I get here? At this point in time a select group of thinking men have come up with two distinct hypotheses. Unfortunately, the two are mutually exclusive. And trying to integrate them usually leads to a misunderstanding. Which leads to Matt Chait's new play “A Misunderstanding” which attempts to explain it all.
The ensemble cast does an excellent job of playing off each other's strengths and weaknesses – each with a very special niche to fill in this potential fire fight. Director de Santos delves into the characters with intensity and manages to add some life (and a few lighter moments) into a story which could have been rather dry and bookish.
His four-person cast is to be commended for the way it has handled his complex but basically static play; with the help of director Elina de Santos, A Midsundersanding's many long speeches are delivered effortlessly and impressively, making for a thought-provoking experience.
The ideas presented here are thought-provoking, and the dialogue is smart and intense, but quite honestly, two hours of watching old white men argue with each other is not particularly entertaining. And just like a family dinner table argument, the same points are made again and again, becoming dull with repetition.
His argument is compelling, rational, and thought provoking, and, like evolution, ultimately unprovable.
Aficionados of evolution theory debating will be mesmerized by the world premiere of playwright Matt Chait's A MISUNDERSTANDING. Others will be most appreciative of the four actors' deep commitments to their respective characters and very lengthy speeches. The technical terminology of opposing theories of evolution - Darwin and creative - abound in Chait's script of a fired biology professor being given a second chance at returning to the college he was unceremoniously let go from.
In this second dramatization of Matt Chait's central argument for intelligent design, the debate between a scientist (Bruce Katzman) and a disgraced professor (Matt Chait) is couched in the coinciding and altogether human dilemma of two young people. Howard Blair (Dennis Renard), A prospective Ph.D. candidate, was deeply influenced by professor Bertram Cates (Chait) before his dismissal from the Biology Department for espousing spiritual views on evolution. Blair's fiance, Melinda (Amy-Helene Carlson), is in opposition to Cates' ideas. The couple's opposite sides over Cate forms the emotional center of A Misunderstanding. Because Chait's ideas lean closer to physics than the subtleties of evolution, it's clear that Chait will continue on his journey to be understood.
In the end it is up to each member of the audience to decide whether either one is right or wrong, or maybe perhaps they all are! You go and decide for yourself.
....lacking a sound story and interesting believable characters, the play quickly morphs into an extended and quite literal back-and-forth polemic between a fervent defender of biological determinism and a former colleague who challenges those beliefs...
At some point in his life the thinking man will usually ask himself three important questions: Who—or what—am I? Where am I? and How did I get here? At this point in time a select group of thinking men have come up with two distinct hypotheses. Unfortunately, the two are mutually exclusive. And trying to integrate them usually leads to a misunderstanding. Which leads to Matt Chait's new play “A Misunderstanding” which attempts to explain it all.
The ensemble cast does an excellent job of playing off each other's strengths and weaknesses – each with a very special niche to fill in this potential fire fight. Director de Santos delves into the characters with intensity and manages to add some life (and a few lighter moments) into a story which could have been rather dry and bookish.
His four-person cast is to be commended for the way it has handled his complex but basically static play; with the help of director Elina de Santos, A Midsundersanding's many long speeches are delivered effortlessly and impressively, making for a thought-provoking experience.
The ideas presented here are thought-provoking, and the dialogue is smart and intense, but quite honestly, two hours of watching old white men argue with each other is not particularly entertaining. And just like a family dinner table argument, the same points are made again and again, becoming dull with repetition.
His argument is compelling, rational, and thought provoking, and, like evolution, ultimately unprovable.
Aficionados of evolution theory debating will be mesmerized by the world premiere of playwright Matt Chait's A MISUNDERSTANDING. Others will be most appreciative of the four actors' deep commitments to their respective characters and very lengthy speeches. The technical terminology of opposing theories of evolution - Darwin and creative - abound in Chait's script of a fired biology professor being given a second chance at returning to the college he was unceremoniously let go from.