Review Lost in ‘Eden’

I suspect it’s uncouth for playwrights to respond to reviews of their work, but Robert Koehler’s stab at “This Is Eden” is so inaccurate and desperately cynical that I can’t resist (“ ‘This Is Eden’ Aims High but Gets Lost in Space,” March 23).

I can overlook Koehler’s revisionist prejudices against religion that motivated each and every word, because as a Christian playwright, I’m used to such secular bullying (an example: “(Rachel) is happy, which means she has not gotten to the grim sections of Genesis.”)

What bothers me is that he “directly quoted” something from my script that simply isn’t there (and which alters the message): “Life is a bridge beyond reason and judgment.” The misquoted line goes: “Life is just a bridge, Rachel--creation on one side, judgment the other.”

Also, he called me a student of Concordia University, which I’m not. Further, the play’s ending (which Koehler sloppily reveals) seems to have impressed him as happy-go-lucky--an oversight of its allegorical melancholy. Heaven knows what else he misconstrued.

I’ve seen this too many times--reviewers so numbed to innovation that little beyond acting is of consequence. It’s not every day that science-fiction drama with strong multimedia production values--and current issues like viral devastation and Internet-like relationships--happens on a live stage. Koehler’s shrugs seem insecure at best, malignant at worst.

It’s too bad The Times dispatched such a pedantic reviewer. Its readership deserves better.

H. PAUL MOON

Newport Beach

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