Interesting how...

... going to improvisation classes gives me a different take on watching an unsatisfying play. Two concepts that I've learned from @tomsalinsky on his courses at the Spontaneity Shop came to mind while I was watching "Dying City."  in a London production (http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/plays/view/6067).

First was "Trouble Salad".  The idea is you can't make a story more interesting simply by heaping on more and more different kinds of trouble that are unrelated.  If the troubles get worse and they are related then you have a story (like the Murdoch issues that are circulating at the moment).  Kelly's husband doesn't love her, and he's being unfaithful to her, and he's in Iraq and then he shoots himself.  Are these things connected?  If they are, it would be nice to know how.  It's doesn't have to be spelled out, but it would be nice to be given some clue.  Otherwise it just feels like one damn thing after another.

Second was the idea of moral choice.  The hero of the piece. This is part of the problem. The hero of "Dying City" should have been Kelly but the playwright couldn't quite decide.  The hero of the piece needs to make a decision that either extricates her from the danger she's in (adventure, comedy) or causes the trouble to totally engulf her (tragedy).  Kelly didn't get to do either.  There were a few moral choices drifting around that nearly got made.  She could have really thrown Peter out (in fact he didn't leave, he just slept on the sofa).  She could have decided to have a baby with him (creepy but at least definitive). Mmph.  As I said.  Unsatisfying.  But I think at least going to improvisation classes has given me and idea of why and how.

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