Dr. Joy Browne's Movie and Theatre Review  
 
Brack's Last Bachelor Party
     
 

Synopsis of
Brack's Last Bachelor Party

As the three men from Hedda Gabler battle it out at a bachelor party, camaraderie and good-hearted competition devolve into drunkenness and debauchery as they confront a dark vision of the future. Is there any way to avert the coming disaster, or are we all doomed?

 
     
 
Dr. Joy Browne's Comments
 
 
Audio and Video Recordings
 
 
 

 Brack's Last Bachelor Party is at 59 East 59th, and is again one of those revisionist plays. I've seen a couple in the last couple of weeks. Blind was looking at the story of Oedipus Rex and what happened with him and Jocasta after they got married. This looks at Hedda Gabler at the bachelor party before all hell breaks loose. So again, it's kind of an interesting concept. I mean, I didn't hate this, but you have to know a lot about Hedda Gabler and the play to really have this make much sense. The problem is that the cat -- it goes between being sort of modern and the 1800's, and I don't think that works very successfully that way. They would have done better to stay in one period or the other, and we get the parallels, we're not a stupid audience, but I think this just didn't quite work for them or for the audience-- it was sort of too cute by half. We know that the original Ibsen play place starts with Hedda returning from her honeymoon, and she's not crazy about her husband. What we see is that the husband is a little concerned about the marriage as well. So again, if you don't know Hedda Gabler I don't think this play is going to make much sense. If you do know it, this play may irritate you a bit. I give it some points for being creative and ingenious, but the actors sort of move uncomfortably between then and now-- some of them are a bit uneven; and I think setting it both currently and historically was a major mistake. So, two stars.

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