MovieChat Forums > Greater Tuna Discussion > One naysayer

One naysayer

posted 18 years ago by MarbleIndex01
8 replies | jump to latest

I saw a production of the play last night. I walked in just knowing to expect a satire of small-town America. I found it too snarky and off-the-mark to warrant all the raves.

I'm by no means a Bible-thumping Baptist, but I was annoyed at some of the cheap shots at small-town religious folk. For example, the church was supposedly having a record-burning party, including Brenda Lee among the devil's music to be burned. Huh? When has anybody ever burned a Brenda Lee record?

If you have to keep explaining that it's satire, maybe it's not very good satire.

[–] guessmyname1 17 years ago

I agree, I LOVE BRENDA LEE!!!

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If a someone said to you, "everything I say is a lie," is he telling the truth?

[–] simpletons 17 years ago

No -- Maybe you just don't understand the meaning of the word satire. Or, maybe you are just one of those people that don't have the sense of humor that is required to appreciate Greater Tuna. I do have to wonder -- are ya a Southerner? Southerner's tend to get it.

[–] coxm-1 17 years ago

What I don't understand is why there is restriction on this play - you can't perform it within 150 of Atlanta.

[–] simpletons 17 years ago

I wasn't aware of a restriction. It was performed in Atlanta about 10 or so years ago.

[–] padget24 16 years ago

I know nothing of a restriction either. It was performed in Vergennes Vermont in 95 or 96. I found it to be very funny, and I got the satire.

[–] dadoo4050 15 years ago

The restriction may simply have been because an Atlanta-based theatre company may have paid for the Atlanta-area performance rights for a given time-period. This is common practice by publishers of plays to keep competing performance companies from over-saturating an area and lessening the value of its product. It problably has nothing to do with censorship of any kind.

"And me? I go on to become a big star in Italian Westerns."

[–] MedioSiglo 14 years ago

I'm not southern but I loved all of these performances, and I definitely got the satire. Perhaps being a minority myself made it clearer for me.

Why ain't you at the garden party you heathen?

[–] GoUSN 7 years ago

If you saw it with its original cast and had that reaction, I have no explanation. They do it marvelously.

However, I saw it performed a few summers ago at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival (!?!?) by other actors. It was awful. Same lines, same play, but terrible. They couldn't deliver the lines well and it sounded indeed like snark. Awful.