brilliant! I loved the audience participation and rapid change of mood. One moment I was laughing my ass off, then enjoying a beautiful song, next, a thought-provoking expression of raw emotion. the slow-motion sequence was very well done. bravo.

I rebuke the “emperor’s new clothes” ad hominem attacks, i.e., if I say that I don’t find the underlying dark comedy brilliant (and brilliantly executed), then I’m too stupid and provincial to “get it”. Malkovich has been doing the whole Unterweger stage opera thing since 2008 under various titles, so he could have ironed out the issues causing audience boredom by now. There are other dark plays and films that arguably do not have the same issues (Pinter’s The Homecoming, films: Dogtooth, Man Bites Dog, Nekromantik (1 & 2), Der Todesking, etc.). There is an old provincial saying “If it smells like ass, then it is probably ass”.

The idea was a good one in concept but lacking in execution. I have no problem with the f-bomb since it illustrated Underweger’s growing frustration with the incompetency of the production.

Pacing, repetition, and lack of character depth was an issue. People do get bored when there is a one-sentence poorly-translated supertitle (that has been previously shown numerous times) that goes on for several minutes. Why not show another facet to the characters and move on?

The truth about serial killers involves their huge egos and their perceived entitlement to abuse women (so I have no problem with the depiction of this). The best scene in the play epitomizes this with Underweger humping across the stage on his back while strangling a woman while droning on about himself.

The performance also brings to light the sad part about the women who degrade themselves by involving themselves with these proven abusers as well as the do-gooders who think that serial killers can be reformed through art and then paroled. Colin Pitchfork (yes, he is a real guy and that is his real name) is another example and his art entitled ‘Bringing Music to Life’ is a slap in the face to everyone. Bring the victims back to life, then we can talk about your parole.