Unfortunately I really didn’t connect with these plays. I appreciated what they were trying to do and that the author gave context in the beginning of the book, but they just didn’t hook me or interest me at all.

Oh how I could see these plays live. The first play was so incredible moving I could “see” it perfectly acted out. The playwright knows how to build up to a crescendo of complexity and deep human emotions. I was moved.

Thanks to NetGalley and FSG for firstly publishing more plays and for the chance to read them. As someone proficient in reading plays, the publishers did a great job of publishing this play in a palatable and familiar format. I will say, however, that between the cyclical confusion of I'll Be Seein' Ya's protagonist Allie and the academic loop of language in The Insolvencies, this work may be a bit confusing for non-theatre audiences. Both are great offers for older characters to be at the center of the story, with Allie as a retired Hollywood makeup artist living through COVID in Los Angeles and Peter as an established academic in the art history field. I would be curious to see if these plays resonated more with an audience older than me!

This play about an aging actress just didn't grab me. It's was okay, but nothing about the character was interesting enough that I felt it warranted a play. I didn't read the second play. Thanks to Netgalley for providing an e-copy of the book in return for this review.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this. The synopsis caught my attention (I'm a sucker for anything set in Los Angeles, in any time period). That this was published by FSG also bode well.

However, I struggled to get into it. It's not because it's two scripts (I have no problem enjoying reading scripts - in fact, I used to do it a lot). I thought the characters were annoying (perhaps this was the point), and most of it was predictable. I think I'm just not the intended audience.

There were a few good lines, though, so if you're familiar with the writer's work already, you may enjoy this as well.

Vivid, inventive playwriting from award-winning Jon Robin Baitz. This play had imaginative moments, though the main character Allie wore our my patience pretty quickly.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. The first play is about a woman in Los Angeles, in a family on the edges of show business, who is thrown into a panic as the pandemic and protests on the streets bring her back to the time of caring for her brother. It also brings back the many ways that she may have failed him. Disorientation runs through this story of a woman who is equal parts exasperation and heartbreaking. The second play is a brief study of the after effects of a professor who is let go after perceived inappropriate behavior and his young student who still wants to be taught and to give the professor back his life by sharing his body.

Both the short plays in this volume were produced to be streamed during the Covid pandemic, but were only available for a short time. Such a shame, as the topics are still relevant, and it’s one thing to read a play and quite another to watch it. Only a short trailer can be found on YouTube (Sep 2022). Be that as it may, the plays are enjoyable to read, especially the main one entitled I’ll be Seein Ya. It depicts aging Allie Murchow in her apartment in Los Angeles lost in her memories of her glory days as a Hollywood make-up artist, whilst outside everything seems to be disintegrating, as both Covid rages and the Black Lives Matter protests against the killing of George Floyd are in full swing. Allie can’t come to terms with the present and her life appears to be crumbling under the weight of her memories, regrets and resentments. The play starts off amusingly but soon becomes much darker. It’s an insightful and moving piece.
The second piece is shorter and was written to be performed on Zoom. Two men, one a professor, the other his erstwhile student, recall their relationship after the professor falls foul of the academic authorities.
I’d never heard of playwright Jon Robin Baitz and on the strength of these works I look forward to discovering more.

3.5, rounded down.

I think I've either read and/or seen most of Baitz's work, and, most times I enjoy it, but often come away marginally unsatisfied. These two short works were produced to be streamed during the height of the pandemic, so they suffer from the constraint of being produced for that odd hybrid medium of filmed theatre. As such, I think it behooves one to be forgiving of some aspects that don't QUITE work and lines that can seem clumsy or sitcom-y. The main impediment though is that even 18 months since the premiere, the play seems dated.