Asking a gentleman sharing our elevator to the garage on our way out, what he thought of the play, he responded that he was uncertain and planned to Google it for reviews. We understood the sentiment.
(Spoilers) We discussed our impressions with each other and found those of Carol differed slightly. We agreed she was at fault, but unlike Don who saw anger in her throughout the entire play, I thought her character flaws were based on frustration at feeling stupid and insecure, and I thought I saw her transition from fearful frustration to angered empowerment. I suspected her "group" had influenced her into seeing the professor not as a friend interested in helping her, but as a self motivated enemy.
When we read the summary online of the movie starring William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon, (who had also starred in the play which had been directed by the playwrite himself, and perhaps written with Pidgeon in mind as Carol) describing the professor as smug, pompous and insufferable, we decided we needed to see that version, because Bill's John didn't seem like any of those things. We found the DVD at Chapman University, checked it out and went home to watch. In the Pidgeon-Macy version there were a couple of differences--primarily Macy portrayed the smugness we'd not seen in Bill's John. I noticed all the illusions in the first act to Carol's anger that I'd not observed, or had overlooked with Julia's Carol. We both feel we understand the characters more having seen both versions, but now I'm of a mind that Mamet did not give me enough of Carol for me to understand or accept her foibles as genuine.
(Spoilers) We discussed our impressions with each other and found those of Carol differed slightly. We agreed she was at fault, but unlike Don who saw anger in her throughout the entire play, I thought her character flaws were based on frustration at feeling stupid and insecure, and I thought I saw her transition from fearful frustration to angered empowerment. I suspected her "group" had influenced her into seeing the professor not as a friend interested in helping her, but as a self motivated enemy.
When we read the summary online of the movie starring William H. Macy and Rebecca Pidgeon, (who had also starred in the play which had been directed by the playwrite himself, and perhaps written with Pidgeon in mind as Carol) describing the professor as smug, pompous and insufferable, we decided we needed to see that version, because Bill's John didn't seem like any of those things. We found the DVD at Chapman University, checked it out and went home to watch. In the Pidgeon-Macy version there were a couple of differences--primarily Macy portrayed the smugness we'd not seen in Bill's John. I noticed all the illusions in the first act to Carol's anger that I'd not observed, or had overlooked with Julia's Carol. We both feel we understand the characters more having seen both versions, but now I'm of a mind that Mamet did not give me enough of Carol for me to understand or accept her foibles as genuine.
