15th Play - The Velocity of Autumn by Eric Coble

I had no idea at all what this play was about when I picked it up, but thought it was a fascinating and sometimes fierce take on aging and being a parent, and also on dealing with an aging parent.

Summary: “THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN swirls around Alexandra, an 80-year-old artist in a showdown with her family over where she’ll spend her remaining years. In Alexandra’s corner are her wit, her volcanic passion, and the fact that she’s barricaded herself in her Brooklyn brownstone with enough Molotov cocktails to take out the block. But her children have their own secret weapon: estranged son Chris, who returns after 20 years, crawls through Alexandra’s second-floor window and becomes the family’s unlikely mediator. No sooner are the words “Hi, Mom” uttered than the emotional bombs start detonating. THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN is a wickedly funny and wonderfully touching discovery of the fragility and ferocity of life.” Dramatists Play Service

Laura’s thoughts in brief: Truly, I enjoyed reading this play. Two-handers are difficult, so watching may have been less exciting, as I noticed from the reviews. The challenge that the play faces is that apart from the beginning, where Alexandra is threatening to blow herself and the brownstone up, and then Chris awkwardly crawls into the window to stop her, not much really happens. It feels like just a lot of reminiscing, some of which is quite memorable and important, but it’s definitely less active. I will say that as someone dealing with both beginning to age myself and also having an aging parent, there are certainly moments that hit home. And although the missing siblings are painted extremely villainously, we have to remember that they’re being painted by Alexandra, who VIEWS them as villain at that point. It might have been nice to have moments where she remembered things about those two as children or even younger adults where she shows that she truly did care about them or that made them more well-rounded as characters - I think that would have helped us realize that she’s just panicking and seeing them as completely problematic at this point in her life. That could have allowed us to see even more of her humanity that way. The play was also beaten up a for being a bit on the nose with metaphors. (Whew, the vulture.com review is ROUGH.) Yeah, I don’t completely disagree. But for the most part, I thought it was a pretty interesting read. Would it be a great evening of theatre? Even some of the regional reviews said it wasn’t that great. Some of them LOVED it … Honestly, I think it would be a great community theatre show outside of major metropolitan markets. I don’t think it would do well in Chicago, and the Milwaukee review was pretty rough too. But it made me want to read more of Cleveland playwright Eric Coble’s work. I thought it was a well-made play, but it wasn’t ultimately very exciting. And we need excitement! (Or at least a little more action.)

READ MORE! Here’s what others had to say about productions:

https://mdtheatreguide.com/2013/09/theatre-review-velocity-of-autumn-at-arena-stage/

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/theater/estelle-parsons-with-explosives-in-velocity-of-autumn.html

https://www.vulture.com/2014/04/theater-review-the-velocity-of-autumn.html

https://www.leagueofcincytheatres.info/review-big-heart-and-big-laughs-the-velocity-of-autumn/

https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/the-velocity-of-autumn-review