Ingenious Nature’s Final Weekend

NY Times Publishes a Review and Video

Ingenious Nature moves into its final weekend tonight, with only three shows left in our run, and things have really picked up, with crowds of sixty or more every night, and a good chance to extend the run through the Spring. But I’d better not get ahead of myself.

The New York Times finally gave us some love, not in the form of a positive review, but via a video segment feature for their “In Performance” Arts series. The Times did publish a review of the show, but it was uniformly sourpuss and virtually unquotable, like several others we received.

There has been an interesting and not-entirely-unpredictable trend in the reviews, a trend that fits very well with the show’s “sex differences in psychology” theme. Most of the reviews from men have been admiring and positive, and most of the reviews from women have been indignant and negative. The male exception is this curmudgeonly review from an older man, and the female exception is this friendly interview/feature from an NYU science journalism masters student. If you want to see all of the reviews in round-up, they are available via my website’s theatre page.

Several post-show discussions with the staff and friends have centred around this trend, and the question of whether the negative reaction from some women is due to actual misogyny in the script, or due to subtleties of tone, or due to the obvious fact that some people just can’t take a joke (because they feel a moral responsibility to enforce taboos). There most certainly is misogyny in the script; the subject is explicitly addressed, along with some speculation about its possible biological origins (ie the male fear of cuckolding). It’s probably a mix of all three, but rest assured the whole process has led to some soul-searching, and has caused the show (and hopefully the playwright) to evolve.

I’d like to think the middling reviews are mostly due to the common fallacy that plagues evolutionary psychology, ie confusing explanation with exculpation. But this is theatre not science journalism, so I take the feedback about tone and timing seriously. The NY Times review calls the show a “rant” which is very far from my intention. Hence, I am now endeavouring to fine-tune the degree to which I tell the story of sex differences in psychology with a brighter twinkle in my eye and a smoother tongue in my cheek.

If you’re in NYC, come see one of the final three shows and decide for yourself whether I’ve crossed the line. Tonight my guest on stage will be Christopher Chabris, co-author of The Invisible Gorilla, one of the books that most influenced the writing of the show.

Happy New Year to all, and stay tuned for the wrap-up!