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Thats Romans, chapter 7, verses 18 and 19, King James Version.
As sources for titles go, its a pretty weighty one.
Our no-nonsense heroine is Agata (Kellie Overbey), who runs a tailor shop in Queens.
Shes a master of her craft, but appreciation for her kind of painstakingly won expertise is fading.
Everybody knows dying profession, she huffs to her sweet-natured assistant, Janice (Carmen Zilles).
Its dying because its hard way to learn and you have to be creative.
People doesnt wanna learn…. Now hit internet, make a lot of money.
With this you cant just click, you have to work a hundred years.
Agatas terse, unsentimental rhythms come from Masciottis own Russian tailor in Astoria.
Her immediate response was, I always knew this would happen.
She pulled up a stool, and I spent six months by her side.
And Masciotti has the ear for it.
I sometimes found myself thinking of Alex, the criminally charming translator who narrates Jonathan Safran FoersEverything Is Illuminated.
Agata would no doubt class Alex as she does taller menmore stupid.
Certain amount proud of themself.
Fornothing.but her own particular idiom is likewise the bedrock and the delight of her authors story.
Its easy to understand why Masciotti was eager to spend six months listening.
No Good Thingscatches Agata at a contemplative moment.
So if shes so vivid, why does the play sink?
The problem is mostly an inflated and aesthetically fuzzy sense of its own seriousness.
Sometimes this atmosphere even bleeds into the start of scenes a gesture that feels more muddy than potent.
Time, time, and time and time.
Sometimes, weighty implication can feel more heavy-handed than just stating the thing straight out.
This is the side effect writing teachers dont mention when they preach show, dont tell.
From tagline on down, McGregor and Masciotti seem committed to cranking up the existential heft of their tale.
(And then theres that title: Really?Nogood things?
I mean, were not in a Cormac McCarthy novel here.)
Crucially, this added solemnity doesnt actually raise the stakes.
Why does Agata need to be facing the end of her life for us to care about her?
In three month my lease is up, I have to decide what to do with this place.
For a long time, she seems to be, as Agata notes wryly, No bad words.
Everything pinky for you.
Work so it’s possible for you to breathe.
No Good Things Dwell in the Fleshis at A.R.T.
