Scan barcode
A review by thelizabeth
After the Revolution by Amy Herzog
5.0
Jeez.
For a couple weeks I've been trying to think of a way to sum up what I loved about this play. It's surprisingly hard to pin down, because it transcends a lot of its traits. The play is original but not unheard of, complex but not ambitious. It's melodramatic and funny. It does a lot of shorthand with a lot of characters. It's built around a very patient backstory and discovery. Yet, all its devices are smooth, its timing, shifts amongst people, exposition, it all comes through like clockwork. Every character clicks and every scene is right on the money. The words sound like they're coming from actual people with many, many unspoken thoughts in their heads. The right questions are left unanswered, both in the story and in the dialogue.
So, as a play it's really good, but also as real genuine deep-feeling writing, it just touches something very legitimate. A few things, I guess. There's the perfect sense that its scenes and themes all dovetail in exact reliance on each other. And the things too small to be themes, the things that just feel like family. The plot is an efficient take on topical politics, but what it's really about are relationships between things like parents and beliefs. There are many ways this comes about, but unquestionably for me the central standoff between Emma and her father bit, fearful and honest. And the list. That she gives.
Often when I read something that gets so much "right" I end up with pages and pages marked with things I need to reread, but I didn't do that while I read this. I think because instead of being a collection of good lines and good ideas, it just was good.
I bought this script because I got to see Herzog's new play 4000 Miles, which was extremely good too. And its central character Vera is a supporting character in this play (earlier both in writing and in narrative). Which is a thing I absolutely love. I hope there's much, much more for the author to find in her ideas behind these people. I want some more of whatever that could be.
(Finally used an ancient Drama Book Store gift that Shannon gave me! I also added this book into the Goodreads system. Oh I am proud.)
For a couple weeks I've been trying to think of a way to sum up what I loved about this play. It's surprisingly hard to pin down, because it transcends a lot of its traits. The play is original but not unheard of, complex but not ambitious. It's melodramatic and funny. It does a lot of shorthand with a lot of characters. It's built around a very patient backstory and discovery. Yet, all its devices are smooth, its timing, shifts amongst people, exposition, it all comes through like clockwork. Every character clicks and every scene is right on the money. The words sound like they're coming from actual people with many, many unspoken thoughts in their heads. The right questions are left unanswered, both in the story and in the dialogue.
So, as a play it's really good, but also as real genuine deep-feeling writing, it just touches something very legitimate. A few things, I guess. There's the perfect sense that its scenes and themes all dovetail in exact reliance on each other. And the things too small to be themes, the things that just feel like family. The plot is an efficient take on topical politics, but what it's really about are relationships between things like parents and beliefs. There are many ways this comes about, but unquestionably for me the central standoff between Emma and her father bit, fearful and honest. And the list. That she gives.
Often when I read something that gets so much "right" I end up with pages and pages marked with things I need to reread, but I didn't do that while I read this. I think because instead of being a collection of good lines and good ideas, it just was good.
I bought this script because I got to see Herzog's new play 4000 Miles, which was extremely good too. And its central character Vera is a supporting character in this play (earlier both in writing and in narrative). Which is a thing I absolutely love. I hope there's much, much more for the author to find in her ideas behind these people. I want some more of whatever that could be.
(Finally used an ancient Drama Book Store gift that Shannon gave me! I also added this book into the Goodreads system. Oh I am proud.)