Kudos to the Laguna Playhouse for their current play, “The Realistic Joneses.” It is a serious play about a serious topic, the most challenging play I have seen at the Playhouse.
At the performance I attended, a few people left in the middle. If you are watching a play and wondering, “what the hell is this about?” It might be intended to be thought-provoking, not putting the emphasis on entertaining you.
When on Broadway in 2014, the New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood wrote, “Plays as funny and moving, as wonderful and weird as “The Realistic Joneses,” by Will Eno, do not appear often on Broadway.” “Broadway has long been a place inhospitable to the truly active currents of contemporary theater, so the opening of Mr. Eno’s play at the Lyceum Theater — is an occasion worth celebrating.” “And I hope the word ‘weird’ doesn’t scare you off: Mr. Eno’s voice may be the most singular of his generation, but it’s humane, literate and slyly hilarious. He makes the most mundane language caper and dance, revealing how absurd attempts at communication can be. He also burrows into the heart of his characters to reveal the core of their humanity: the fear and loneliness and unspoken love that mostly remains hidden beneath the surface as we plug away at life, come what may.”
Isherwood includes in his review that the play is about “a degenerative disease and a leading doctor in the field happens to live here. The treatments are experimental, and the prognosis isn’t rosy.”
Certainly, it is not easy to deal with a prognosis of an incurable degenerative disease. Likewise, the spouse has grave challenges. As I am aging and being more forgetful, the idea of an incurable degenerative disease is not the most entertaining play to watch. There are giggles aplenty as the two couples struggle with how to deal with what life has dealt them. There is plenty to think about. Go see it if you can. It runs until May 14.
Gene Felder, Laguna Beach
