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Title: Closer by Patrick Marber ISBN: 0-8222-1722-8 Publisher: Dramatist's Play Service Pub. Date: 01 June, 1999 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $6.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Closer you look, the stranger they are
Comment: Strange things are the human beings. Come to think of them. We are never happy with what we have-- we always want more, and we always have a hard time trying to fulfill our egotistical desire. This wish is what moves the characters in Patrick Marber's play 'Closer'.
A group of four characters get together and falls a part. It begins when the stripper Alice meets the journalist Dan. Months later they are married, he has written a book, and he meets the photographer Anna, who's taking his pictures to the book jacket. Dan grows obsessed with Anna. In an Internet chat room, while pretends to be Anna, Dan meets and have 'sex' with the dermatologist Larry. They arrange to meet in the Zoo on the following day. Larry goes there and by coincidence the real Anna is there. They end up getting together and married. This is when these four persons relationships are about to get more complicated.
It is undeniable that what moves Marber's characters is the sexual attraction, rather than love itself. People desire each other, more than love --albeit they can say they are in love. Dan seems to be the kind of man who wants to be with as much women as possible, while Larry appears to be in love, at first. But this feeling total disappears and becomes a feeling of revenge --sexual speaking. He wants to hurt both Anna and Dan. On the other hand, Alice has a blasé behavior at first, which ends up being an obsessive sexual relationship as the time goes. Moreover, Alice develops a sick patter through the years. Anna, while seems to be a strong and independent woman at first, turns out to be fragile until when she is hurt very hard, and has to be strong again.
The dramatist manages to give a sad and honest look in love and desire in our times. His characters and situations are totally believable and well developed. We can go inside people's feelings and understand what moves them. Not a single scene has flaws-- everything and everyone are where they are supposed to be. A great play for our times.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not as good as Dealer's Choice
Comment: I didn't find "Closer" as compelling as Marber's earlier play, the brilliant "Dealer's Choice." The characters were nowhere near as captivating and their conflicts were extremely superficial. The flow of the play, dialog and interaction between the characters were all quite strong, however - evidence of Marbers skill in an otherwise hollow drama.
Rating: 4
Summary: see it live if you can...comes across stilted on the page...
Comment: Fall 2000 I saw a production of CLOSER at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and really enjoyed it. What I got from Marber's play is that modern relationships are doomed to failure. Men and women are always trying to find the better, more exciting partner. Or we men follow our you-know-what-around while women flit from man to man in search of companionship that excites them. This is hardly new territory, but Marber makes it entertaining...yet I didn't feel a whole lot of sympathy for any of the characters.
The play is much better when you HEAR the lines spoken from good actors. On the page the dialogue flows, but somehow it seems
too easy...too calculated and too clever for it's own good.
Also, I wasn't aware of the time shifts: live on stage I was under the impression this all takes place in a matter of days or weeks not years! (why this is not made known to the audience is somewhat puzzling to me....)
I look forward to seeing more of Marber's work performed live.
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Title: Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber ISBN: 041371490X Publisher: Methuen Drama Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Latins Anonymous: Two Plays by Latins Anonymous, Rick Najera, Edward James Olmos, Cris Franco ISBN: 1558851720 Publisher: Arte Publico Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Mark Ravenhill Plays: 1: Shopping and Fucking/Faust Is Dead/Handbag/Someexplicit Polaroids (Methuen Contemporary Dramatists) by Mark Ravenhill, Dan Rebellat0 ISBN: 041376060X Publisher: Methuen Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg ISBN: 0571211186 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: 06 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: On the Verge by Eric Overmeyer, Eric Overmyer ISBN: 0881450464 Publisher: Broadway Play Publishing Inc Pub. Date: 01 November, 1986 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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