Every week, I compose listings on the week's new plays for Metromix NY. I'm often disappointed by the titles that playwrights choose for their work, so I'm reviewing their titles now. Not the shows (I haven't seen them yet) just the titles. To read about the content of each show, click through its link to my listings on Metromix NY.
THE ANNIHILATION POINT
Sounds like a sci-fi story―and wouldn't you know, it is! 'Annihilation' is actually one of my favorite words, with its root 'nihil' or 'nothing'. And 'Point' has a Newtonian specificity. I imagine the term to be analogous to 'event horizon'. My point is, it inspires a little imagination if you're inclined to faux-science terminology.
BEIRUT
The location of America's first modern encounter with suicide bombers, Beirut might be the prototypical “war-torn Middle Eastern city” for Americans. Savvy historians will also recall the city was once the Paris of the Middle East. So whether the play is actually set in the titular city or not, the word evokes a concrete image. Better than many cities that could be used in titles.
FREEDOM CLUB
I'm not sure about this one. It sounds like a term George W. Bush would've come up with (“Iraq is now part of the Freedom Club, a coalition of freedom-loving nations.”) or, more likely, a right-wing thinktank. And ironically, it also sounds like the policy they'd come up with: beat our enemies with a freedom club.
GREEN EYES
A generic title that tells us nothing whatsoever about the show. Nor is it specific enough to evoke an image or sensation.
GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES
The implication of children getting hurt, and badly, has to be quite a turnoff for ticketbuyers―I admire the playwright's willingness to alienate before the show's even started! Sonically, it's pretty good but not great. The 'g' & 'j' sounds echo one another well, & so does the proximity of the 'r' & 'oo' sounds in 'grue-' and '-jur-'. But it lacks syncopation.
HONEY BROWN EYES
A clear improvement on Green Eyes. 'Honey blue eyes' is more standard (though it makes less sense to me), which adds a small cognitive hook to the title. And there's something smart about honoring the most prosaic eye color with poetry.
THE INTERMINABLE SUICIDE OF GREGORY CHURCH
I like this. Like Gruesome Playground Injuries, it dares its audience to see it. It also takes a classic titling structure―“the (adjective) key action of the character”―and adds dark humor. And paradox too: note that the root of 'interminable' is 'terminate', so it's an ending that never ends!
JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN
Our first 'title = protagonist' of 2011. Ibsen (for he wrote this one) includes the character's middle name. It's an allusion to the Archangel who served as God's messenger (& would blow the trumpet at the Last Judgment). And 'bork' is Norwegian for, uh, 'bark', as of a tree. What's that signify? I dunno.
MEN GO DOWN
This phrase is almost stubbornly ambiguous. Which men? All men? Go down where? To their death, to the seaport, on other men, or what? If it's a quote, it's too obscure to catalog.
THE MILK TRAIN DOESN”T STOP HERE ANYMORE
I'm fond of full-sentence titles. This one implies isolation and decline. A milk train stopped at every podunk station to pick up milk & deliver into the city; obviously, if the milk train no longer stops 'here', it's been abandoned by the outside world.
NEARLY LEAR
A rarity: a clear yet elegant title. This show adapts Shakespeare's Lear, apparently. The triplicate long 'e' leaves no syllable unstressed, while the 'r' & 'l' swap positions from one word to another.
THE NEW YORK IDEA
In the late 19C, the New York Idea referred to the notion that Gotham is the most modern, sophisticated place on Earth. (I believe, but can't prove, that it was actually a term of reverse snobbery by non-NYers.) In circa 1906, Langdon Mitchell took it as the title to his prototypical screwball comedy, which sees rich divorcees celebrating that they can marry for love.
PANTS ON FIRE'S METAMORPHOSIS
Not to be confused with Ovid's Metamorphosis, presumably. Actually, I don't take issue with that distinction. It's the company's name, Pants on Fire, that sinks the title. It's very contempo British theater: past zany to outright inane.
2011 COIL FESTIVAL
I'm not sure what the curators of the Coil Festival intend by the name. 'Coil' isn't an acronym, and it's has no meaning in a theatrical context. I guess it's distinctive & therefore kind of memorable. But mostly it does nothing for me.
2011 CULTUREMART
THE ANNIHILATION POINT
Sounds like a sci-fi story―and wouldn't you know, it is! 'Annihilation' is actually one of my favorite words, with its root 'nihil' or 'nothing'. And 'Point' has a Newtonian specificity. I imagine the term to be analogous to 'event horizon'. My point is, it inspires a little imagination if you're inclined to faux-science terminology.
BEIRUT
The location of America's first modern encounter with suicide bombers, Beirut might be the prototypical “war-torn Middle Eastern city” for Americans. Savvy historians will also recall the city was once the Paris of the Middle East. So whether the play is actually set in the titular city or not, the word evokes a concrete image. Better than many cities that could be used in titles.
FREEDOM CLUB
I'm not sure about this one. It sounds like a term George W. Bush would've come up with (“Iraq is now part of the Freedom Club, a coalition of freedom-loving nations.”) or, more likely, a right-wing thinktank. And ironically, it also sounds like the policy they'd come up with: beat our enemies with a freedom club.
GREEN EYES
A generic title that tells us nothing whatsoever about the show. Nor is it specific enough to evoke an image or sensation.
GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES
The implication of children getting hurt, and badly, has to be quite a turnoff for ticketbuyers―I admire the playwright's willingness to alienate before the show's even started! Sonically, it's pretty good but not great. The 'g' & 'j' sounds echo one another well, & so does the proximity of the 'r' & 'oo' sounds in 'grue-' and '-jur-'. But it lacks syncopation.
HONEY BROWN EYES
A clear improvement on Green Eyes. 'Honey blue eyes' is more standard (though it makes less sense to me), which adds a small cognitive hook to the title. And there's something smart about honoring the most prosaic eye color with poetry.
THE INTERMINABLE SUICIDE OF GREGORY CHURCH
I like this. Like Gruesome Playground Injuries, it dares its audience to see it. It also takes a classic titling structure―“the (adjective) key action of the character”―and adds dark humor. And paradox too: note that the root of 'interminable' is 'terminate', so it's an ending that never ends!
JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN
Our first 'title = protagonist' of 2011. Ibsen (for he wrote this one) includes the character's middle name. It's an allusion to the Archangel who served as God's messenger (& would blow the trumpet at the Last Judgment). And 'bork' is Norwegian for, uh, 'bark', as of a tree. What's that signify? I dunno.
MEN GO DOWN
This phrase is almost stubbornly ambiguous. Which men? All men? Go down where? To their death, to the seaport, on other men, or what? If it's a quote, it's too obscure to catalog.
THE MILK TRAIN DOESN”T STOP HERE ANYMORE
I'm fond of full-sentence titles. This one implies isolation and decline. A milk train stopped at every podunk station to pick up milk & deliver into the city; obviously, if the milk train no longer stops 'here', it's been abandoned by the outside world.
NEARLY LEAR
A rarity: a clear yet elegant title. This show adapts Shakespeare's Lear, apparently. The triplicate long 'e' leaves no syllable unstressed, while the 'r' & 'l' swap positions from one word to another.
THE NEW YORK IDEA
In the late 19C, the New York Idea referred to the notion that Gotham is the most modern, sophisticated place on Earth. (I believe, but can't prove, that it was actually a term of reverse snobbery by non-NYers.) In circa 1906, Langdon Mitchell took it as the title to his prototypical screwball comedy, which sees rich divorcees celebrating that they can marry for love.
PANTS ON FIRE'S METAMORPHOSIS
Not to be confused with Ovid's Metamorphosis, presumably. Actually, I don't take issue with that distinction. It's the company's name, Pants on Fire, that sinks the title. It's very contempo British theater: past zany to outright inane.
2011 COIL FESTIVAL
I'm not sure what the curators of the Coil Festival intend by the name. 'Coil' isn't an acronym, and it's has no meaning in a theatrical context. I guess it's distinctive & therefore kind of memorable. But mostly it does nothing for me.
2011 CULTUREMART
Culturemart, on the other hand, has a nice ring to it. It implies that it's a one-stop shop for arts culture. But there's a tongue-in-cheek tone that's hard to pinpoint, suggesting that the curators don't support the commodification of art after all.
2011 UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL
From experience, I can tell you that this showcase offers more imagination than its title implies. 'Under the radar' is such a cliché that it comes across as crass, clumsy marketing. The curators would do well to consider changing it.
2011 UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL
From experience, I can tell you that this showcase offers more imagination than its title implies. 'Under the radar' is such a cliché that it comes across as crass, clumsy marketing. The curators would do well to consider changing it.
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