"Wrecks"

Ed Harris in Neil LaBute's Wrecks

So tonight I went to see Wrecks at the Public Theater with Emma. It's a monologue play written by Neil LaBute and starring Ed Harris as Edward Carr, a man addressing the audience as if in a private room at the viewing for his late wife, Mary Josephine ("Mary Jo"). It was a very thoughtful show that really made you think about a range of different issues, and the playwright was able to say things very touchingly while remaining true to the character, who is decidedly rough around the edges. There was something about his character that originally threw me off, his "Believe you me" gruff attitude that comes off as a little too haughty, but as the play went along I came to understand him as a character a lot better. Then, whoa, at the end of the play there's a huge revelation that just sends a blow to the audience and our ideas about Edward.

If you're planning on seeing the play, for your own enjoyment later on, don't read the following paragraph, which is written in white font and must be highlighted to be viewed:

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Edward alluded to his wife's being 15 years older than he in the earlier scenes, but toward the end of the play, after describing his love of making love to her, he revealed that she told him a final secret while on her deathbed: she had been raped as a child and gave up her son for adoption. Edward then goes on to reveal the fact that he is her son and that he knew this all along and had pursued her knowing this. All along, she had no idea, and she was relieved to finally know that she had known her son (albeit as a lover/husband). He then goes on to say that all love that doesn't harm others is love (which is valid in most cases, but what about their children!?)
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So, yeah. That pretty much took the audience off guard and opened up a whole mess of cans of worms to make us all question our perception of love, adoption, incest, and so on. And that's what good theatre is supposed to do, make you ask questions. So the play was successful.

As a side note, an interesting thing that was done to enhance the mood of the piece was to hand out prayer cards with the wife character's name on them and play crooner songs to get the audience into a funereal mood. The set helped evoke the feeling with its sterile look, a casket adorned with flowers and Edward's wife's picture out on a table.

Also, after the show, Emma and I saw Helen Mirren in the lobby of the theatre looking wonderful sporting her typical silver fox look. It was neat, because an ad for her current movie The Queen was in the Playbill. She was with her husband, Taylor Hackford (who directed Ray).