Review of Sideshow Theatre's Chalk

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Chalk. It was by Walt McGough and it was directed by Megan A. Smith. It was about this woman Maggie (Kathleen Akerley) who was in the apocalypse and she thought her daughter Cora (Nina O'Keefe) was dead, but then the entire world has been basically taken over by demons. She is still alive because of this chalk circle she has. The chalk circle was basically this circle of chalk, not the kind of chalk you draw with but before it is molded. That reminded me of Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht because both plays were about chalk and trying to save your children. It was about mother-daughter relationships and protecting someone you love. I thought this play was really really cool and bittersweet and I found it really interesting.

I thought that it was a pretty realistic mother and daughter relationship because the thing is even though mothers and daughters fight they will always still love each other. One of the most realistic moments was at the very end when the mother had been telling the demon version of her daughter all about some of the times she felt like a mother. And those times are like when there is a little car and her daughter was in there and was getting very close to these steps and she thought she was going to die or hurt herself. But then she just got off. And the mother threw out the car because she didn't want to see her daughter get hurt. This story was in there because it was a moment that made her feel like an actual mother and it was not too sweet. The thing is that this part was a motherly moment because she was just trying to help out her daughter but she was so distracted and scared about her daughter that she didn't realize the solution to the problem. But then the thing is the daughter was alright. She got off the car and went and played somewhere else. Her mother realized that she didn't need her help as much anymore which is something that is hard for mothers to deal with.

The actress playing Cora did a great job because I think it must have been hard for her because she had to change characters so quick and the characters were so different. That was so crazy because the thing is they looked like an actual transformation of body and brain. She just twitches for a moment and when she wakes up her voice is changed and that's so cool. I thought that it really showed the character when she started eating from the cans and she ate in like a crazy bloodthirsty way. But then when she is eating so crazily you think, "This must not be an actual person." And then she also opened the cans by breaking them in half, and I thought "That's very very inhuman." I think the daughter is a demon in this play because sometimes you think when your daughter changes so much you might think she is the same person in the same body but with a different brain. I liked Cora better than the demon because she seemed like a better person and was definitely nicer to her mother. I kind of felt some sympathy for the demon though because it seemed like it was just a baby and didn't really know what it was doing, and that is why it made such terrible decisions. The demon is very scary but you also kind of have sympathy for it.

Maggie seemed to be going through some difficult times even before the apocalypse happened because she didn't have a husband anymore and she had had to raise a young girl and be a single mother, but they didn't get along very well because the thing was it must have been hard on Cora not to have a father and she thought her mother couldn't help her enough. I think this actress also did a great job. You felt sorry for her but then you also saw how powerful she was and that she wouldn't stop until she had saved her daughter. I thought that that was really cool. I thought this was an amazing character to follow around because you felt so intrigued to hear about this woman's life that used to be pretty normal but now the apocalypse happened and now it is insane. I thought the fights (by Faith Noelle Hurley) were really cool and they really contributed to the story. They made the story so exciting. And they showed that the mother would do anything to help her daughter and how smart she was because she had such smart tactics.

People who would like this show are people who like parenting, apocalypse stories, and ripping open canned foods. I think people should definitely go see this show. It is heartbreaking and scary but beautiful and I loved it.


Photos: Jonathan L. Green