In the first scene of Idris Goodwin’s new play, Idle Threats, Zodiac, an experimental filmmaker, is interviewed by Crit, a film critic who admires her work. When Zodiac dismisses the interview as a waste of her time, however, the critic turns on her and writes a bad review of her most recent film, which he hasn’t seen. In retaliation, Zodiac hires a friend to kidnap Crit and force him to watch her student films for a week. The kidnapper brings along his cousin, who’s fresh out of prison, and from there things go a little haywire.
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After his first play, Braising, got a glowing review in the Reader in September 2001, Goodwin started thinking about criticism and “how much the pendulum can swing.” Although he appreciated the praise, he was unnerved by how easily the few short paragraphs could have been scathing. For Goodwin, Idle Threats is about the power of words. “I’ve never been the type of person that thinks that actions speak louder than words,” he says. “I think words are pretty powerful. They carry a lot of weight and they can make people do some pretty crazy things.”
“I always look at hip-hop as sort of like the voice of the proletariat, the antithesis to ‘litteratoor,’” he says. “That’s what I like and all my characters sort of represent that.”
