“We came up with the concept that this piece was a dare between two narcissists to see if an intellectual crowd could be fooled or proved to be pseudo.”

Oh now that’s original. And cynical.

I think Americans have lost the ability to know what black humor is. If you don’t like it, fine. But you shouldn’t turn around and use the stereotypical tactic of dumping on the “intellectual crowd.” What a tired gesture, blaming it on those intellectuals. There also is no such thing as an inappropriate laugh. It’s appropriate to someone, at a moment they deem appropriate. Black humor is a slippery beast that some get, and some don’t. It was clear to me that the creators were using Unterweger to explore that grey area between funny and not, true and false, refined and vulgar, structured and unstructured, scripted and improvised. If you look carefully, all the contrasts are in place.

I also believe that anyone who walks out of a performance forfeits the ability to critique the work as a whole.

I’m tired of these subscribers who want to be satisfied with “safe” fare. Gimme a break. You want traditional, then go to the DSO. I’ve had enough of the traditional in the Detroit area, and have given up on hoping that the DSO pushes into any new territory. I for one am very glad UMS is taking some real chances this season with bold programming like they used to. You keep up the “traditional,” and you are not pushing the envelope, experimenting, evolving and building new bridges, as art should. Thought it was gross? Do you not research or read about what you are going to see? What do you expect a chamber drama/black comedy about a womanizing serial killer to be? It shouldn’t be polite. It shouldn’t be refined. It should implicate an audience by making it uneasy. I for one, thought it was very refreshing. In this age and time, I’m not looking to be mollified by tradition. The three act structure was great: charm the audience, then shock the audience, then implicate the audience. I will agree that the staging was clumsy– whoever was on the lighting, performed terribly. The subtitles were problematic as well. The use of stage space was clumsy. Otherwise, the fine balance of funny/not funny, was more than appropriate. I heard more than a few blue-haired types in the audience grumbling from not being able to digest their pre-concert meals during this one. Good!

More traditional? Gimme a break. You want traditional, then go to the DSO. I’ve had enough of the traditional, and I for one am very glad UMS is taking some real chances this season with bold programming like they used to. You keep up the “traditional,” and you are not pushing the envelope, experimenting, evolving and building new bridges, as art should. Thought it was gross? Do you not research or read about what you are going to see? What do you expect a chamber drama/black comedy about a serial killer to be? It shouldn’t be polite. It shouldn’t be refined. It should implicate an audience by making it uneasy. I for one, thought it was very refreshing. In this age and time, I’m not looking to be mollified by tradition.