My overall impression
The LA based theatre company, The Vagrancy, known for its socially relevant work, is the daring force behind this powerful rendering of The Conduct Of Life, the Obie-winning play by the celebrated Cuban-American playwright Maria Irene Fornes whose work often focuses on poverty and feminism. The Conduct Of Life explores the dark side of human interaction in an unspecified Latin American police state where sexuality meets violence, the personal meets the political and the wife meets the mistress. Actually, the long-suffering tortured wife meets her husband’s raped and beaten prisoner. Everybody serves somebody in this chilling world, which bears too striking a resemblance to what lurks beneath our own, thanks to director Sabina Ptasznik’s laser-focused rendering of it. Her evocative direction magnifies what’s already on the page with masterful understatement.
