The Realistic Joneses

The Realistic Joneses is playing at the Lyceum Theatre located at 144 West 45th Street. It plays one hour thirty with no intermission. It closes July 6, 2014.

The play premiere at the Yale Reparatory Theatre in New Haven, Ct on April 2012.

Will Eno is the playwright. He was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for “Thom Pain (based on nothing).

David Zinn is the scenic designer. He was nominated for a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for “In the Next Room” (2009).

Toni Collette received an Academy Award nomination in 1999 for “The Sixth Sense”. She won a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe Award for “United States for Tara” (2010).

Michael C. Hall is known for his television roles in “Six Feet Under” and “Dexter”. He won a Golden Globe Award (2010) and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010 for “Dexter”. He made his Broadway debut in “Cabaret” (1999).

Tracey Letts won a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2008 “August Osage County”. The play also won a Tony Award in Drama and a Drama Desk Award in the same year. Tracey won a Tony Award for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (2013). In 2004 he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Drama for “Man From Nebraska”.

Marisa Tomei was last seen off Broadway in 2011 “Marie and Bruce”. She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in “My Cousin Vinnie” (1992).

The setting is “a smallish town not far from some mountain’s”, the time the present.

Jennifer Jones (Toni Colette) and her husband (Tracey Letts) are in their backyard talking. Bob is sick and Jennifer has taken off time from work to take care of him.

Their new neighbors come to visit then bringing a bottle of wine. John Jones (Michael C. Hall) and his wife Pony (Marisa Tomei) are eager to be friends.

John has the same illness as Bob. That’s why they moved to this town. They have the same doctor. Both are dealing with their illness as best they can.

Pony is a little ditsy, she can’t face reality. Jennifer is more level headed.

The left side of the stage is the outside of Jennifer & Bob’s house. To the right is the kitchen of John & Pony. There is a sliding screen to the back.

The dialogue is chopped up; there is no continuity to the story. The light goes out and when it comes on again the characters have different clothes so we know it’s a different day.

There are some scenes that were funny. There were times when I could not hear one of the actors.

I would like to see it again, it has a great cast. Maybe it went over my head. But as it is, I did not like it.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

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