Thanks to the good people at londonist we were tipped off two months ago to Theater of the New Ear, a one-night production of two plays (written by the coens and charlie kaufman) set to music by Carter Burwell. There's a review here, (very decent backgrounder) here and a meryl-orientated review over here.

To give you an idea of the setup, these plays were presented as radio plays, the actors were stationary on stage and performed some incredible voicework, the Foley Artist performed behind the actors, and the orchestra behind him. Me and Renee were seated third row from the front, with a pretty awesome view

The Coen Brothers : Sawbones
This went for 35-40 minutes, and featured John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John Slattery, Marcia Gay Harden, Brook Smith.

This was centered around a cheesy western television soap "Sawbones" (about a vetinarian in the wild west) and married couple who regularly watch it. It was very, very funny and had some very clever use of overlaping dialouge. The music here was quite fantastic and played a big part in the drama.

Charlie Kaufman : Hope leaves the theater
Featuring Hope Davis (American Splendour) Peter Dinklidge (the Station Agent), Meryl Street (a boatload of films) and this went for just over an hour. The reference to this play in the program guide didnt in any way represent what happened onstage, just somone having a laugh I suppose.

So its another complete Kaufman mindfuck, quite difficult to explain, but like a play performed outside of a play. It's written in a very self-insulating fasion, (the closest example of this would be the movie adaptation) centered around Hope Davis's character (louise), playing a member of the audience, and her inner monolouge as she is about to start watching the play, and then an alternate version of the play unfolding on stage (about a couple in an elevator - for some reason i was reminded of vanilla sky), with the actors occasionally playing themselves (during a very amusing moment where Meryl streep abuses a member of the audience [Louise], for having her mobile phone interupting this play, performed in honour of the recent suicide of Charlie Kaufman). Anyway, at this point Louise (Hope) leaves the theater, and we follow her on the bus back home, talking dirty to an internet lover via IM, on the phone to her mother, and then losing her mobile, calling it, and finding it with the man she sat next to who he she was idolising over, the man who concluded the play by reviewing it with his daughter louise.

So, thats the best I can explain it, and even here i've missed a few of the sub stories.

The actual effect for was like being in the audience but having to look in every direction as the play unfolded around me like being in some sort of alternate/parrallel universe. I'm not sure what it is about his writing but I seem to fall into a different mindset after any exposure to it.

Other notes:
As they play ended the audience clapped, the Actors from the second play came out for the final curtain call but the actors from the first play did not (for whatever reason) even as Meryl and Hope were motioning for them to do so.

Secondly, I'm sure there were a few celebrities in the audience but we only recognised Paul and Heather Mcartney who were seated a few rows behind us conspiciously being wisked to and from the VIP area during interval.

"I'd pay to watch Phillip Seymour Hoffman read the phonebook"

Twas quite an amazing evening. Sirus Satellite Radio have taped a perfomance for a later broadcast. (update : i've just seen plenty of other reviews and comments on this fine website and also something on aint it cool news & ny daily news)