The play was a series of short acts, and was capped off by F. Murray Abraham portraying "A Judging God" in a debate against "A Loving God." Each God was spot-on in his portrayal of the differing views of God's nature, but, naturally, the Judging God was much, much funnier. Every sentence peppered with obscenities (Sorry, Mom), the Judging God, dressed Moses-like in a flowing white robe, berated the audience for not only following the Ten Commandments ("These are commandments, not suggestions, people!") but also for "new screw ups" like "whining" and complaining about parking. His message of "suck it up and do right" was jarring and witty. A grand performance.
In a particularly novel part, after the debate, the next scene turned the stage around so that I was facing the back of the actors, and looked into a first row (but the first row was on stage, and full of other actors, not audience members). One actor in the "on stage" audience turns to the other one and says "what was that play about?" (which is what I was thinking at about that point). The audience actors then proceed to go to dinner, still trying to make sense of the play, and F. Murray Abraham (as himself) comes into the restaurant. He gets angry (in "real" life) and ends up breaking a lot of God's rules which he had just covered as The Judging God. Oh, the irony. A great play.
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Google news today: If you use iGoogle (a personalized home page that you set up through your gmail/Google account), then check out the new artist themes for your homepage available here. Google rolled out over 70 artist themes for your homepage, created by some of the world's top artists, including Michael Graves (image above), Diane Von Furstenberg, Dolce & Gabbana, and more. Google is taking over the Meatpacking District here in New York for a three-night art show and festival to display the iGoogle artwork. Pretty cool.
