"36 Views"
by Naomi Iizuka

I'll say, from the start, that I am a huge fan of Ms. Iizuka. I find her plays poetic and beautiful, strange and mesmerizing. I envy her ability to create a world that doesn't feel like a play, like a theatre. Her plays are almost effortless in their way to provide a sense of reality, one that fades away at will.

This play is my least favorite of her works. I LOVED LovED loved "Polaroid Stories" and really enjoyed "Skin", but this piece didn't have the edge she normally conveys. It felt more mature, less punchy. Perhaps that's good, perhaps I'm a little immature for the world. I want Skinhead boy and contemporized mythology for a world that has lost its sense of the past. A world where Paris Hilton is considered a god and worshiped the way Aprhodite once was. It's a strange place we live in, and I need to stop this rant here...

The best part of this play was the incorporation of non-traditional elements into Occidental style theatre. In this case, it was the appropriation of kabuki techniques into the play, which, in my mind, blew me away. I love the meta-theatricality of the piece, the costume reveals, the scene changes. She does it in a beautifully artistic way, a way I imagine I'll steal in the near future... ;)

This is certainly a play worth reading, and, if you can, seeing.