BLASTED

I am reeling from seeing Blasted, a play that just opened at the Gables Stage in Coral Gables. My husband and I have been subscribers of this edgy, challenging theatre for a number of years. The artistic director, Joe Adler, is someone we admire and enjoy (I sometimes think he should just appear alone on stage and do and An Evening With Joe.)

However, I seriously part company with his judgment in the latest production. He says he thinks this is the most important play they have done in 12 years. My worry is that if he truly believes that and plans to follow it with more of the same, I will have to go elsewhere after this season. The play runs for 90 excruciating minutes (a device that Gables Stage has implemented frequently over the past several years)and catapults the audience into inescapable sadistic horror. After the play, our friend, who has served on the board of Gables Stage, proclaimed that it is important for people in our part of the world to understand that terrible things are happening simultaneously with our existence and that this exposure is important for us to comprehend.

Anyone who is an avid reader of two daily newspapers, and countless other news magazines as I am, knows that there are atrocities taking place. I do not wish to be trapped in a theatre on a Saturday night to be reminded of these things. As a psychologist, I am frequently reminded of how inhumane people can be. I don't choose to have my nose rubbed in it by Blasted. I was half tempted to hand out my cards to the audience for the treatment of post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) when the play ended.

I will say that the acting and staging were fabulous. It was the gratuitous violence that left me angry, horrified and crazed. If that is what Joe wants his audiences to feel, that is fine for him and them. At least, then, he should provide the intermission that would allow an escape.