What if a crime was committed to create a work of art? What if the creating of the art was a crime? Or, what if the actual displaying of a work of art creates a crime? Is art above the rule of law or the abiding of common decency and ethical standards?
These are some of the challenging questions a stimulating and provocative off-off Broadway play, Transgressions, asks its audience about art, sex, love, marriage, and legacy.
The drama opens up in 2010, when a recently-widowed woman discovers never-before-seen images of a beautiful young woman that were snapped by her husband, a famous photographer, in 1970. Euphoria over discovering magnificent artwork that had not yet been published quickly turns to dread and disgust when she discovers the images came about through her husband’s repeated statutory rape of a 15-year-old high-schooler. The wife, played admirably by Jane Ives, then learns the images were taken without the consent of the girl, who was 20 years younger than her lover.
From that point onward, new secrets reveal
themselves as the main characters seek to unpack what was right and wrong, both
by the standards of the free-love 1970s and the more modern viewpoints of 2010,
albeit, before the #MeToo movement has sought to permanently reshape moral
attitudes on the treatment of women.
We see the play alternatively through the eyes of:
*The subject of the art — both as a 1970s
teenager and a 2010 middle-aged woman
*The artist
*Those closest to the artist, including his
wife and curator
*Society at large
Along the way come soliloquies on marriage, love, power dynamics, art, sex, youthful transgressions, and the lies we tell ourselves.
The play opens up at New York City's HERE Arts Center (www.here.org) n July 18 and runs through August 2. This is exactly how theatre is best experienced — in an intimate space with a basic, single-set stage and lots of witty dialogue feeding us plenty to unpack.
Many perspectives are prosecuted on the moral complexities surrounding the making, preservation and disseminating of controversial art, forcing us to examine what is art — and how high a price is paid to create it.
The beautiful Ivy Rose shines in her role as the underaged subject of the photographer’s sexual and creative desires. She moves across the stage with remarkable confidence and ease, seemingly so comfortable in exposing her perky, sculptured breasts. We can see why she is the forbidden fruit that maddens his desire for her. She is completely in her natural habitat when she is separated from her clothes and seeks to out-manipulate a man who always determinedly pursued what he wanted and needed — no matter the risks or consequences at stake.
The actors in this play are mere pawns, there to recite the talky but ethically-questioning script by playwright Terry Curtis Fox, who started out as a story editor on the Emmy-winning police drama, Hill Street Blues. They do a fine job in conveying various viewpoints and leave you questioning not only What is art? but also, Art, at what price?
Do You Need Book Marketing Help?
Brian
Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page
views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors like you to promote
your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of
experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him
be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!
About Brian Feinblum
This award-winning blog has generated over
4.5 million pageviews. With 5,300+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named
one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021
and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” Copyright 2025.
For
the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He
formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the
head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the
director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many
first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with
best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen,
Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard,
Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C.
Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.
His
writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s
The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).
He
hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and
has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah
Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association,
Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and
Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the
2024 IBPA Book Awards.
His
letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester)
and The Washington Post. His first published book was The
Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook. It
was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.
Born
and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids,
and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.