Paradise Park

Description
When Charles Mee is in top form, he is among the most exciting playwrights in the country. But woe is Mee when he is merely diddling with his bag of tricks, as in the enervating Paradise Park, a frankly purgatorial theatrical experience that exhausts an already tired trope: the dilapidated theme park and carnival midway as metaphor for American escapism and anomie. To his credit, Mee aspires beyond easy satire: He means to examine the nature of love, and nearly all of the actors find moments to transcend the general banality. But most of the time, they are stuck standing in for America, and united in stating the obvious. (The fantastically low $20 ticket price is made possible by sponsorship from Time Warner and other corporate angels.)—AF