Critiques

Basis of the paper

Introduction to play -

The Assembled Parties is a comedy-drama written by Richard Greenberg. It was published in 2013, and it premiered on Broadway by the Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on March 21st, 2013. The plot of the play focuses on a Jewish family called the Bascov’s during the early 80’s and the early 00’s. The first time period they have a house-guest, one of Scotty’s friends named Jeff, who insinuates himself into family drama. The second time period, the "perfect" family's lives are about to crumble.

Use of Language - Richard Greenberg uses short, choppy dialogue going at a fast pace a majority of the time. While some of the choppy dialogue is long that can make the play boring, like Jeff's monologue on page 38; but the play is dependent on the short and choppy dialogue to advance the plot and character development even further. The dialogue that Greenberg use is realistic, and the punctuation is a lot different than what plays use. Normally, plays use slashes and em dashes to indicate when a character is being interrupted. While the play has those, Richard Greenberg left some punctuation out to indicate that the character is going to be interrupted after they say that word. Some of the transitions from one story to the next is awkward, like Jeff and Faye talking about how Scotty died to Jeff's parents to a tree (page 70).

Success of Playwright achieving theme - The theme of the play is the complexity of family. Richard Greenberg has done a successful job at making the theme clear. From page 29 to 34 Faye says to her sister-in-law Julie that she doesn't love her husband anymore and she shows that she didn't care about her daughter. It is interesting to read that part as you get to see the other side of Faye, but it shows that her family was struggling to stay together. Even the awkward conversation that Jeff and Shelley share, Shelley complains about her family for obnoxious things, such as her dad saying that she's stupid. Later on in act two, Shelley loathes her family when her family calls her to wish her a Merry Christmas (page 66-67).

First Act - The first act introduces the characters and they develop overtime. This act makes the theme very clear. There are plenty of interesting conversations that take place, such as an angry conversation between Mort and Ben; the awkward conversation between Shelley and Jeff; the bitter conversation where Faye breaks down, and the sweet conversation between Scotty and Tim. These conversations develop the characters and it shows the relationship between each other that affects Act Two. The only thing that could make the reader confused is when Ben and Mort are talking, and Ben says a line that Jeff heard earlier when Ben wasn't in the same room. (page 29 and page 35). It indicates that the Ben and Mort's conversation, Shelley and Jeff's awkward conversation, and Julie and Faye's conversation happened at the same time. While the conversations are interesting, the time that Greenberg chose doesn't fit, since it could be confusing reading it the first time.

Second Act - The second act is a great transition from the first act. Setting the place 20 years later, the plot focuses on the family crumbling down and then picking up pieces. There's more drama than comedy, and the five characters that reappear (Julie, Faye, Jeff, Timothy, and Shelley) are different than what they were from the first act. Julie is more of a mother figure than what she was in the first act; Faye is more of the comic relief; Jeff is much more of a father figure than what Ben was; Timothy's backstory is he got a girl pregnant by not using a condom one time, and Shelley completely loathes her family and doesn't want any part with them. The transition of these characters is the good part of the second act. Another pro is the ruby necklace story that Aunt Faye tells. It provides comic relief and an interesting story. The only thing that didn't really work out was Hector. Hector is filler with his couple of lines, and he had no part to be in this play. Even though Tim can be a jerk, his "mistake" actually picks up the pieces of the torn family.

Characters - Each character, minus Hector, makes the play interesting to read. Each character has their own background story and secrets that help the plot keep flowing. The background story also show a lot of the relationships between each character.

Finale - The Assembled Parties focuses on the Bascov's during the 80's and early 2000's when Jeff visits. The author has done a great job explaining the theme of the complexity in a family through secrets and stories behind the family.

Introduction, Use of Language, Specific Examples, Success of Playing it -

https://newyorktheater.me/2013/04/17/the-assembled-parties-review/