House of Gold

Tonight I saw the second play of the season at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, House of Gold. This play was pretty avant garde, loosely inspired by the JonBenet Ramsey case. As Andi described it, it was very “Woolly”. While the overall inspiration was troubling, and in questionable taste, the production was fairly interesting. Scenes were performed in one of four levels of a fixed set, and in one case there was a very interesting used of video of the scene imposed on top of the scene itself (which was taking place somewhat obscured in the basement set). I can’t say that I enjoyed the play, that seemed to be a meditation on exploitation of a child from various quarters, but it was an interesting (brief, 90 min) play that was cleverly staged. This was certainly something that was new for me in comparison to the traditional and Shakespeare plays I’m so used to seeing.