File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9801, message 620


Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 15:38:21 -0500
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: M-TH: Mike Leigh's "Goose-Pimples"


After seeing "Goose-Pimples" at NYC's INTAR theater, I finally understand
what makes a Mike Leigh play or movie tick. He uses Edward Albee's "Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" as a model, but makes an important adjustment:
there is no catharsis at the conclusion. With Albee, you get several hours
of acrimony that produce fifteen minutes of climactic self-awareness and
reconciliation. With Leigh, there's acrimony until the curtain drops on the
cast and you suspect even after the curtain falls. The calm at the end of
the play is because the characters are too exhausted to continue. Except
for his recent "Secrets and Lies", we understand that after a good night's
sleep his characters will make the same blind and foolish mistakes the next
day and for the rest of their lives. What drives Leigh to these bleak
conclusions is a belief that there is no possibility of personal growth in
a society driven by the profit motive.

In the first act of "Goose-Pimples", we meet Irving (Max Baker) and his
room-mate Jackie (Caroline Seymour). He sells cars and she is a croupier.
While the conversation reveals two characters who are obsessed with upward
mobility, neither has the means to rent or own their own dwelling. Economic
frustration and envy is the theme of this black comedy, set in 1981 in
Dollis Hill, a London suburb.

After Jackie goes off to work, Irving is joined by dinner guests Vernon
(Sam Rockwell), who sells cars with Irving, and his wife Frankie (Gillian
Foss). Sipping wine and munching on snack food, they discuss the
difficulties they face trying to sell English cars. They blame the labor
unions on the poor quality of the cars, but console each other with the
knowledge that at least the cars are "hand made." The only other subject
that interests the two men is sex, which is always a matter of smutty,
locker-room innuendoes rather than frank, sophisticated adult conversation.
Irving is supposed to be some kind of stud and to drive that point home, he
plays Rod Stewart's "Do You Think I'm Sexy" nonstop on his stereo during
the entire first act.

Frankie, like the members of the audience, sits there with a pained
expression on her face while the two men guffaw at each other's juvenile
tits-and-ass humor. Meanwhile, the only subject that interests her is
whether Irving's trappings of success rate higher than her husband's. She
tells Irving that his place is a bit on the small size and that the hallway
has a peculiar odor. That odor, Irving tells her, comes from the powerful
disinfectant used by building management to make sure that everything
remains hygienic. That's the way the all the tip-top buildings are kept.

These unpleasant, grubbing characters have absolutely no redeeming
features. Leigh confronts our aesthetic sensibilities by saying, in effect,
that he is giving you exactly what society turns out. Most artists try to
transform the mundane into something sublime. Leigh will have nothing of
this. What keeps you riveted to the action of his plays or movies is the
certain knowledge that sooner or later these characters will be at each
other's throats. Then the pleasure becomes something akin to watching a
traffic accident.

In the second act, Frankie returns to the apartment with Mohammed (Adam
Alexi-Malle), a Saudi Arabian businessman whom she has met at work and who
speaks hardly any English at all. (Irving, Vernon and Jackie have gone out
for dinner because the steaks that Irving bought turn out to be spoiled.
Jackie gets in a dig that all the "better" meat is sold at the butcher
shop. What did he expect shopping with the proles?)

Frankie views Mohammed as a symbol of wealth and power. She is not exactly
sure what he has in mind now that the two are together alone, but sex is
not on her mind. His overweight, homely, balding appearance is in vivid
contrast to her own blond, svelte good looks. He is under the impression
that he has come there for sex, but doesn't know enough English to even ask
her how much it costs. He keeps waving money in her face and she keeps
pushing it away, saying "What's that for now? Go on with ya'" in a
working-class accent. She probably doesn't even know herself why she has
invited the Saudi home with her, except to bask in what she sees as his
wealth and success. Attempts at conversation lead nowhere. When she holds
up her drink and offers "Cheers", he pats the furniture and says,
"Chairs...yes, of course."

When Irving, Vernon and Jackie return, the play goes into high gear. The
living room becomes a battlefield as four of the five cast members--the
English contingent--drink themselves into a rage, first at the Arab and
then at themselves. Mohammed drinks along with them, but is blithely
insensitive to the mounting tension. The two men race bait the Arab who
understands not a word. The more he misunderstands them, the deeper grows
their rage. The two women begin to quarrel with each other as well. They
vie for the attention of the powerful and wealthy Arab, but he regards them
as nothing but prostitutes. He keeps thrusting money at them which they
eventually begin to stick it in their purses. Interpreting this as a signal
to begin sex, he haughtily instructs the men, "You go now" while pawing at
the women. His sexual advances to the women and his cavalier treatment of
the two men finally brings the play to a boiling conclusion. As Mohammed
throws one of the women over his shoulders, like a caveman hauling a
conquest home, the two men throw him to the floor and beat and kick him. In
their drunken stupor, most of the blows seems to have no effect. Mohammed
falls asleep on the living-room floor and begins to snore loudly. Thus ends
the comedy.

"Goose-Pimples" is not for everybody's taste. For the Mike Leigh fan, it is
a must. It is a production of the Group Theater, which staged Leigh's
"Ecstasy" to critical acclaim in 1995. The director is Scott Elliot, and
Kevin Price's set and Tom Cochan's original music are first-rate.
Performances are uniformly excellent, most especially Alexi-Malle's who was
the subject of a lengthy NY Times profile. It noted that he was
extraordinarily capable of expressing a wide range of emotions despite the
fact that his character was not allowed to speak English. For ticket
information, call 212-279-4200.

Louis Proyect




     --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005