Vision Disturbance
Description
Two lost souls in Reading, Pennsylvania converge: Mondo, a Greek immigrant whose eyesight suffers from a grueling divorce, and Dr. Hull, the retina specialist who treats her.
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 85 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
Press Quotes
“… Christina Masciotti’s marvelously strange and humane two-hander … When an eye-patch-wearing Mondo complains to Dr Hull that everything appears flat and undifferentiated, she’s talking about more than depth perception. As an immigrant going through a vicious divorce from her traditional Greek husband in a foreign country, Mondo is unfixed. Not only is she unable to judge the distance between objects, she can’t even locate herself in the world. Her sessions with Hull might help things come into focus — emotionally, culturally and otherwise … Masciotti’s language is beautifully wrought: a keen interplay of the boring and the weirdly poetic, evoking both silliness and pathos in Mondo’s pidgin syntax and Hull’s repressed small talk. And even though romance enters the picture, VISION DISTURBANCE is more than a simplistic tale of illness and recovery. In allowing the characters to remain opaque, the creators embrace obscurity.” —David Cote, Time Out New York
“The eyes are the window not just to the soul but to the psyche in VISION DISTURBANCE, Christina Masciotti’s deceptively disarming play about two damaged people who are thrown together when one is called upon to heal the other. But which one? On the surface, VISION DISTURBANCE rides a quirky, offbeat charm, but there are mysteries and riddles under the surface … There’s nothing orthodox about these characters or the touching bond that grows between them … Masciotti is a writer of promise, not least because she understands that there is no single way of seeing.” —Don Aucoin, Boston Globe
“Inspired and inventive … shows Ms Masciotti’s particular talent … lyrical … winning verbal originality … a lovely, resourceful and unexpected coup de theatre that suggests that, yes, flat lives may sometimes achieve that longed-for third dimension.” —The New York Times
“The language transforms a distant and hidden corner of Pennsylvania into a comedic metaphor for existence … an amazing author who builds a new language.” —Gazzeta di Modena
“The story flows relentlessly with sparkling dialogue … the sense of seeing is the nerve center: visions disturbed by the vicissitudes of life … the fragility of the retina…the truth behind appearances.” —Controscene
“Masciotti pays unusual attention to the particulars of language … opening a gulf between the characters’ extravagant emotions and their thrifty means of expressing them … marvelous.” —The Village Voice
“The most interesting and original performance of the VIE Festival.” —Rumor(s)cena
“Beautiful characters … Sublime.” —Le Clou dans la Planche
“Talented playwright Christina Masciotti excels at … the meaning between words, finding eloquence even in the most mundane exchanges and language blunders.” —Le Figaro
Author
Christina MasciottiChristina Masciotti has been described as a playwright with a "distinctive gift" by Ben Brantley of The New York Times. In New York, her work has been presented by The Bushwick Starr, New York City Players, Abrons Arts Center, New York Theatre Workshop, The Chocolate Factory Theater, The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival, and CUNY's Prelude Festival. Domestic and international presentations include: Arts Emerson's T N T Festival (Boston); Circle X Theatre (Los Angeles); LaStarria 90's Desorientacion Series (Santiago, Chile); Theater Bonn (Bonn, Germany); the VIE Scena Contemporanea Festival (Modena, Italy); the International Theatre Institute (Athens, Greece); and, as part of PS 122's New York Express Tour, Theater Garonne (Toulouse, France), T2G (Genevilliers, France), Le Maillon (Strasbourg, France), and ZKM (Zagreb, Croatia). VISION DISTURBANCE was cited as one of the Best Plays of 2010 by Time Out New York, and monologues from her later play ADULT have been anthologized in Smith and Kraus' The Best Women's Stage Monologues of 2014, and Applause Theater and Cinema Books' Best Contemporary Monologues for Women. The original scripts for both VISION DISTURBANCE and ADULT have been selected for preservation in the permanent archives of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 3/12/2015 |
| Pages | 52 |
| ISBN | 9780881456301 |
Special Notes
Premiered in New York at Abrons Arts Center in 2010
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com