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If in thinking about this year’s war, you have found yourself weary
of the loose flapping of Fox lips and their exhortations to stand
behind the latest motivational aphorism emanating from the Dog–-er,
I mean, White House, then get thee to the Music Box for David Hare’s
The Vertical Hour where a far more considered discourse on
the increasingly fraught state of the world can be found. As much
about family dynamics and personal morality as it is about the Iraq
war, The Vertical Hour succeeds best when its primary
character, a former war correspondent turned academic, is engaged in
thoughtful, and polemical, dialogue with her boyfriend’s father. As
played by Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, and representing America
and Britain, these two characters afford insight into the history of
empire and its ever-increasing costs. Whether seated at a grand
picnic table or stalking a Welsh country lawn (made manifest by an
evocative set by Scott Pask), the two characters reveal the numerous
ways in which we are all culpable when nations are at war.
Alas, there’s a
dreadfully weak fifth and final scene in which the audience is
dragged back to the stultifying confines of the ivory tower (as if
to imply we are always students—or that we never learn?), and the
intensity of the preceding conversations and the play’s momentum is
immediately dissipated—into near nothingness.
Prior to that scene, however, there’s something to chew on and much
to consider. And, let’s face it, at this juncture, it behooves all
of us to be more contemplative about what’s to be done.
Best always,
Mark and Robert
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