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The more I lean into who that person was, the more the play becomes beautiful to me.
This is a shame, becauseDaddydoes in fact have deep surreality in its bones.
It shouldnt be palatable, and it shouldnt be an intellectual exercise.
It wants to be a wilder creature than that.
When theyre not having sex, theyre debating about art.
Dont you find that a bit gauche?
Franklin fires off after seeing Andres room full of Basquiats.
He continues, The pieces in that room are essentially in conversations with each other.
Which is so boring.
A Basquiat cant be in conversation with itself.
It has to be … like … like, Basquiat is such a big personality.
There can only ever really be, like, one of him in a room at a time.
Otherwise the space gets overwhelmed.
Thats my problem with her!
Franklin yelps, almost breathless.
You get to miss her subtlety.
But I share it … Thats what scares me about what I do.
The playwright spent time in L.A.s art scene and grew up with a single mother in Martinsville, Virginia.
Taymor is often getting size out of her actors without necessarily achieving intense emotional depth.
Thats a lost opportunity for a sudden flash of perception in the hedonistic haze.
Meanwhile, Peet has an extraordinarily tough job, because his character dwindles over the course of the play.
Cummings Andre has a much easier time of it.
Daddy,says Harris in his stage directions, should move from melodramas dream to melodramas nightmare.
Spoiler alert: All of Franklins turmoil boils down to real daddy issues.
It turns exploration into explanation.
And it leaves us, like Andre, not so much sharing in a nightmare as witnessing one.
Daddyis at the Signature Centers Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre through March 31.
