- This production was pretty brilliant. It certainly displays the ingenuity and innovative directorial abilities of my friend and colleague, Gretchen Van Lente. Gretchen has directed several of my own pieces before, however, I have never seen something of hers with this scale of physical interpretation. The set was a giant platform (which late in the play excellently replicates an ice rink). On the set were a pile of boxes that could be rearranged and reorganized into configurations to relay different locations. Certain boxes contained costumes, props, and makeup. These boxes also came with lights and a mirror so the actors could apply or remove makeup directly in front of the audience. Amazing.
- While I found the multitude of drastic shifts between the characters' ages and physical impairments brilliant in concept, it floundered a bit by the restrictions of the young actors. Of course, this was a student production, and all the MFAs were taken for SUBURBAN MOTEL (which I wrote about in October). So, the pool was limited to the undergraduates... which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I never believed these two when they were meant to be adult versions of the characters. There is even a scene when they are meant to be younger versions of themselves in college, which loses all meta-theatricality because they are actually college-aged. Maybe it could have been more meta because of that, but the play sets that scene in the 90s, so... I don't buy it. Those kids were babies then and it removes me from the device a bit. I also feel some of the moments were... limited by the range of one of the actors, Ana Bell. I have seen her in other productions, and I haven't really seen any variety between them. All of her characters have been played the same, and that is so dangerous in this play because this character changes during the play in very drastic ways, not just a regular character arc, but in age, experience, an emotional break... I mean it's a lot for an inexperienced student actor... There was a moment in the play, a long monologue, and... she didn't land it. She didn't hold my focus, and she had to be able to. I thought the scenes about self-injury were good, but again, it was all played on one note. I think what made any of the scenes good were the rebounding reactions from her scene partner, whose name I don't have (I'm still catching up on blogs, and I don't have the program in front of me, or any notes on this one. I'm doing this one all recall.) So, yeah the guy was very good, and he was able to do different readings on lines. He would do different line readings during scenes! The "I'm going to kill him" moment is a great example of this. He repeated the line in different ways, and it did feel fresh and natural, not an acting exercise.
- Set, lights, costumes, and sound were all pretty amazing as usual. I liked the platform and it was a perfect ice rink, but I don't know why it was so high up. Everyone had to look up. It was a little strange and uncomfortable. I think it would have been nicer to see the set rearrangements and the costume changes more clearly on an eye-level, but this didn't really reduce the experience of the play for me.
- So, yeah. I liked it.
Comments are closed.
|
Cole
Trans man, Playwright, Dramaturg, and Theatre & Dance Historian Archives
August 2014
CategoriesAll images and content copyright © Joshua Bastian Cole 2020. All Rights Reserved.
|