It’s been brought to my attention (hi, Mom) that my book choices have thus far not been super diverse, so at this exact halfway point in the project, I thought I’d mix it up with a play instead of a traditional book. A few notes on this:
1. Look at the author- easy choice. I missed the performance runs in New York and London, making this just about the only ZB project I haven’t seen many multiples of times (yes, even the not-so-great The Ex. I’d apologize, but he agrees.)
2. Shorter was definitely optimal this week, but not in a bad way because…
3. …given #1, there was no chance I wasn’t going to like this. Sound familiar?
It’s an interesting premise for a play- four strangers happen to find themselves in the same abandoned beach house in New Jersey in the middle of winter, each brought there under a variety of circumstances, each with his or her own darkness and secrets to hide. I’d have loved to have read the novel version of this play…if it existed. This might be weird, but I kind of want to own the hard copy so I can highlight it and write in it and carry it around.
I think this is likely the case with all plays, but it was interesting to go in with no real back story and watch things develop rather quickly. There was no narration, so it was cool to just go off the present day dialogue and some flashbacks to understand who these characters are and the circumstances that got them to the house. The characters question fate and circumstance and- true to Braff form- grapple with their relationship with God and the meaning of life. It was particularly fascinating to see the Braff brand consolidated into so few pages- the play is designed to run 90 minutes but it felt like it would have gone a lot faster based on the dialogue and stage directions.
I suppose I should probably reflect on reaching the halfway point. I’ll do so briefly: reading a book a week is hard. Harder some weeks than others, but hard does not mean impossible, it just means shifting priorities and managing the expectations I have for myself. It’s a lot about willpower and followthrough and while I haven’t always proven the best at that in things like half marathon running, it’s nice to have what still seems to be a fully attainable goal.
I’ll leave you with my favorite of the All New People quotes, the one that gave the play its name and a little dose of wisdom from an unexpected character:
“I was crying in one of the bathroom stalls about something and I’m in a super bad mood and feeling sorry for myself and all of a sudden, [she] opens the door to the stall and she says ‘Hey, Princess…in a hundred years, there’ll be all new people.'”
You’ll like this if: I guess you’ll really like it if you like Zach Braff. I haven’t read a lot of plays so I’m not sure what to compare it to, but it’s got that signature Braff-ness (namely the sad Jews piece, no word on swimming ability/aliveness of mother) that- let’s be honest- would make me read pretty much anything.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 