We saw last night what is either the worst play in American theater history, or perhaps one that is tied for last. "The Beautiful Child" is its name, and it played at a small black box theater near the new Washington convention center. We went because the daughter of a friend of my wife's was involved in its production.
The staging was fine. The acting ranged from OK to abominable. And the text is horrific, generally involving a tragic spoof (if there wasn't such a genre before, this is it!) on a pedophile school teacher who confesses to his parents his love for an 8 year old student (with whom he has developed a physical relationship) and their decision to save him by hiding him out, but also to cut out his eyes so he can never see another child. Meanwhile, his parents are engaged in a 24-7 spat, his father has impregnated his secretary, and a deus ex machina (as opposed to deus sax machina--see recent posting) psychiatrist (who is sometimes called a psychologist) hangs around talking about her own problems.
The play was compounded by our return home, and happened to turn on the Dateline show about the MSNBC sting in Fairfax County to catch real pedophiles, who had met fake 13 year olds on on-line chats, and arranged to meet the kids when they were "home alone". No spoof here. Pure tragedy.
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