Review by James Wilkinson

‘Deal Me Out’ – Written by MJ Halberstadt. Directed by Shana Gozansky. Scenic Design: Jillian Tone. Lighting Design: Qian Chengyuan. Sound Design: David Wilson. Costume Design: Talia Adler. Properties Design: Sally Tomasetti. Produced by and at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave., Boston through March 1, 2020.

To understand this review, you have to understand the mentality of a critic. I’ve seen, (and read), a number of spiritual siblings to Deal Me Out, the new play at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre. Plays that look to directly speak about the moment we’re living in (however you may define ‘the moment’. Pick your poison.). A collection of characters is assembled, meant to stand-in for the surrounding society, and then they have at it. Trapped in the playing space of a stage, the characters bash into each other, releasing the tensions that the playwright tells the audience are all around us, (usually while they wag a finger at us). Grievances are read, vendettas have out and we’re all expected to go home moaning, “Oh, what a world! What a wretched world we live in!” Granted, the description of “two characters walk into a room and have an interaction” applies to pretty much every play, but I think that there’s something particularly insidious when the playwright tries to say us, “this is us, today.” Telling us what’s what without the aid of hindsight and perspective tends to lead to something we slog through rather than are exhilarated by. In pursuit of the present, playwrights oversimplify, they condescend and I end the evening going, “Yeah, I’m not buying this.”

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