Review of Under the Rug Theatre Company's Ride

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Ride. It was by Neil Connelly and it was directed by John Ross Wilson. It was about this person named Quill (Rose Freeman) and Quill's friend and business partner has just died in a biking accident. They had owned a bike shop together and Quill started running it without him. But his brother Danny (Todd Wojcik) and sister Molly (Annie Prichard) think they have inherited it and think they can sell it. But Quill thinks she still owns it. It is about friendship, letting people go, and rights. I thought this was a really interesting show. It made me think a lot about losing people and how you can feel like they put you in a bad position even though they couldn't have done anything about it.

I thought the set (by Wilson) was very interesting and cool. It looked like a real bike shop. The seating was arranged really cool because some of the seats were right on the set, so you could feel like you were in the show. Another thing I really liked about the set was how they left the messes which showed you a lot about Quill, that she doesn't really clean up and she doesn't care if she leaves a clementine on the floor for days. I thought that was a cool touch to the entire feel of the set.

Riley (Alex Dauphin) and Quill were my favorite characters. You could see a big connection between them and you could see a lot about the relationship, like how Riley felt responsible for Quill, even though Quill had taken care of herself for a long time. Quill didn't really know how much Riley cared about her. Even though Quill didn't like fruits and vegetables, Riley would still bring them, but Quill didn't know Riley was doing it for Quill's own good. She knew she didn't like it and thought Riley might just be doing it to torture her or something. Riley is a person who tries to have it all together and tries to help with other people's lives. Quill doesn't really care what people think. She doesn't care about cleanliness and she would much rather eat Twinkies all day than eat one baby carrot. Riley was mad at herself because she felt like it was all her fault that her boyfriend died. And Quill is mad at herself because she feels like she can't keep her best friend's and her dream of owning a bike shop alive.

The people who worked at the bike shop and lived around it were very different from Molly and Danny. You could really tell because one of the siblings changes to be more like the people that work in the bike shop and actually starts to work in the bike shop. How much he changes really shows you the differences in the cultures. Dell (Abe Elmourabit) neither worked in the bike shop nor was rich. He was a friend of everyone in the bike shop, but he didn't have a home. He sold different things that people had thrown away. He seemed like a really nice person, but all Molly and Danny see at first is a homeless person. The bike shop people interact with him like a friend, not like he is gross. I think the play thinks bike shop culture is better than rich people culture because they make one of the rich people mean the entire time, kind of like the villain. And the other person is turned into a bike shop person. I think it is saying "This is my culture, this is what I believe in." But it is not saying that rich people are always bad.

People who would like this show are people who like bikes, Twinkies, and learning about different cultures. I think people should go see this show. I thought it was very compelling, and it was especially good for a brand new theater company.

Photos: Carlos Rodolfo Chincilla El Cid