The Glory of Living

Growing up in a dingy Southern home, Lisa, played by Academy-award winning Anna Paquin, learns early that life just isn’t worth living. At 15 she meets Clint, a guest who asks, "your mother always do that stuff with you right in the same room?"

Rebecca Gilman’s THE GLORY OF LIVING, a tale of sexual abuse and murder, follows Lisa’s unsentimental journey to death row. And while her journey is overly predictable, Gilman’s fast-paced quick cut scenes deliver the intrigue one finds in a TV cop story.

Still, the drama offers a kind of depth we rarely see. In Anna Paquin’s deadpan portrayal neither innocence nor guilt prevail. Hers is an ambiguous realm, a life without meaning or pleasure. Jeffrey Donovan’s Clint, on the other hand, is brutal, narcissistic and demoniaical.

The production in the hands of director, Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers psychological intrigue colorfully, revealing the pathology of heredity and behavior, reminiscent of Zola’s peoplescapes. And David Van Tiegheim’s eerie sounding jazz segways, one of the evening’s highlights, become more melodic as the play’s action quickens, underlying Lisa’s eventual discovery about THE GLORY OF LIVING.

That’s This Week Off-Broadway. I’m Isa Goldberg.