(Community Matters) Playwright Aaron Sorkin is most popularly known for writing & producing West Wing as well as his latest film, Charlie Wilson’s War. At the age of 28 (he’s 47, born 6/9/61), he made his Broadway playwrighting debut with A Few Good Men.
The Farnsworth Invention is still in preview, but it was the only weekend we could travel to Houston between now & June 28. David Cromer in from New York to direct. In NYC, he’s working for our friend Manny Azenberg on the revival of Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs.
hmmm, I think it is still in development. The moral choices faced by RCA’s CEO David Sarnoff present the defining tensions. The responsibilty for television and Sarnoff’s realization that it will change the world, our understandings and prejudices – the stewardship of new inventions, of new technologies – are the dilemma for the audience. Found myself wanting to see Philo Farnsworth as protagonist instead of the naïve sterotype Sorkin writes and Cromer stages. The lack thereof lets us off the hook. Even though Sarnoff didn’t always behave most admirably, we trust him more with this world-changing invention. Farnsworth earned our sympathy but not our confidence.
If the core ethical question of this play is would you steal from the underdog for the good of the world, then Sorkin and Cromer could sharpen scenes and make Sarnoff’s dilemma more agonizing.
The acting uniformly strong as we’ve come to expect from the Alley – even if timings still being found during previews. Of course Steven loved the projections and how cinematic the Alley staging. We both enjoyed the play and glad we journeyed to Houston.
Community Matters 