Sebastian does not ever appear in the show, but he does seem to be the main character. His choices affect the play and his actions have consequences even though he is dead. It is not explicitly said, but it seems like he is gay. It is rare to have a main character who is gay at the time this was written, but it is not a positive portrayal, which kind of burst my bubble. I think I expected a more positive portrayal of a gay man from a gay man, but it seems like even though Williams had relationships with men, he didn't always think being gay was acceptable. It makes me sad to think that somebody wouldn't accept themselves and whenever they decided to go with their instincts they felt dirty for it.
We learn about Sebastian through his mother and his cousin. They both have very different ideas of who he was. Mrs. Venable thinks that he was a perfect mama's boy who charmed everyone and was a virgin. Catherine sees a darker side, which is that he takes advantage of young boys, drinks a lot, and is terrified of poor people. Everyone (except Dr. Sugar, who keeps an open mind) thinks Catherine is crazy, but it also seems like Mrs. Venable is not completely right in the head because she refuses to consider anyone else's opinion and if she doesn't like what somebody says she has violent reactions. She thinks her son is a poet, but he has only written one poem a year. She doesn't understand why no one has discovered him yet, even though he hasn't published his work, which seems delusional. I think it is eerie to consider how the person accusing someone of being crazy might be crazy herself.
Mrs. Venable has many people working for her, directly and indirectly. Miss Foxhill (Jayce Caraballo), Mrs. Venable's secretary, was very quiet throughout the show. She didn't express her opinion, but the entire time she seemed to be thinking. She also seemed to be scared a lot of the time; it made me suspicious about what was going on in the house and what her role in the family was. I think that it is really hard to play a character who is on stage a lot but doesn't say much because you need to still convey the emotions through a quiet character. I think Caraballo did a great job with that; she was very interesting to watch. Sister Felicity (Ayanna Bria Bakari)is not directly employed by Mrs. Venable, but Mrs. Venable pays the asylum she works for. The sister seems to have a mind of her own and will not always obey orders from some woman with more money than her. I think that is a nice contrast between Sister Felicity and Miss Foxhill. Dr. Sugar is someone who has a lot of tolerance for Mrs. Venable's whims because he is hoping she will make a donation to his hospital. But in the end he wants to stand up for what he believes is true. Something that is interesting about the character is that even though he accepts a bribe at the beginning of the show, he seems to be one of the most reasonable and moral characters in the play.
People who would like this show are people who like one-poem-a-year poets, complex characters, and naked baby cannibals (trust me). I think this is a really crazy and interesting show. There are some good performances, and it really makes you think a lot about the meaning behind what you just watched.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
Time and space are very prominent concepts in this show, which they express through dialogue and movement. In the show, they start out in the last moment the play chronologically and move backwards. The first thing you see is also the last thing you see in the play, but when you first see it you have no idea how they got there or if it can be prevented over the course of the play. They didn't say the words or sentences backwards in the first scene, but the lines seem to be in backwards order. They would crawl backwards and walk backwards. It was interesting to think about and try to piece together how they got here. Then they begin with the first chronological scene and go forward. The flow of the play gets disrupted another time in the show when a big event has happened and they go back and show it to you reversed, letting you reconsider the things they are doing. They not only mess with time in some scenes, they also play with our perception of where they are in space. The set is one room, but the play takes place in two rooms. But they use the same set at the same time for two scenes in different rooms. It is very interesting to see these two households living their lives not paying attention to each other even when they are sitting on the same couch because they are not really supposed to be in the same space. In the second scene, I kept thinking Steve and Sara were ignoring Sam until I figured out that they were not in the same place. Also, Sam talks about time and space quite a lot and very philosophically. Being a scientist, he does not believe that time and events are determined by God. I think he questions why God would be in charge of time and space if God exists outside of it.
Every character in the show struggles with their belief system and what other people think they should believe in. Steve is very outspoken about his belief in God and the Christian faith. He thinks his faith will save him from anything bad happening to him and he thinks that because he is Christian that if he has faith everything will fall into place and he will become successful and rich. But he puts too much faith in his projects and doesn't take into account the realities of the world: that he might be getting scammed or that his wife might not be happy with the circumstances or their relationship. As his business falls apart he keeps saying he just has to have faith, but it seems like part of him realizes that is not working out anymore. Sam, from the very beginning is very skeptical about the Christian faith and doesn't believe in it. But because he becomes close to Sara, who is Christian, he starts to understand where she is coming from. The show seems to be saying that it is important to have reasonable faith in humanity, whether you believe in God or not. Sara seems to be following her husband in her own beliefs for the beginning of the show. But then she meets someone who doesn't share her same beliefs but believes in something she never thought of before, that not everything has to be controlled by God. She shows us that faith doesn't have to be convincing someone they have to believe in God to be "saved." She can show her faith by being a person to talk to and being a friend. She brings over food and coffee and makes sure Sam feels supported and not judged by his appearance.
The monologue by the exterminator, Karl (Walter Brody) was saying some really emotional things but not in an emotional way. I think that was really effective. (The rest of this paragraph has some spoilers, which you can read here.)
People who would like this show are people who like plays that make you think, couch deception, and supportive coffee. I think that people should go see this show. It brings up a lot of interesting ideas and was well-acted. I really liked it.
Photos: Evan Hanover
I think the movement (directed by Dana Murphy) in this show was very important. It added a lot to the story by showing you the troubles and suffering all the characters go through at some level. There was a scene where the stage was filled with everyone hurting themselves in different ways. They seemed desensitized, like they were doing it without thinking. One student (Danielle Chmielewski) was throwing up and another (Iza Rodriguez) was cutting herself. It was really powerful to see all of these topics tackled through movement. The ensemble interacted with the set (by John Wilson) in a very compelling way. In the scenes in the library in act two, they would take the chairs of the people who were murdered in that scene and place them in the middle of the room, laying them down carefully like they were bodies. Eventually they had a pile of chairs that looked like they had been thrown there randomly (even though they had been put down deliberately) to try to stop something. I've never been so moved by people piling up chairs.
In the first act, the show is mostly about the life of everyone at the school leading up to the big event in the second act. The second act is when you find out Eric and Dylan's names and figure out what they are planning to do. It is really hard to see these characters who were nameless in the first act and mostly seemed unthreatening turn into people who we know made monstrous choices in real life, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. There were these interesting side-by-side scenes of Eric and Dylan each talking with their parents (Joel Ewing and Jyreika Guest). The scenes have identical dialogue, but the parents switch roles. The disciplinary role and the one the kid is more comfortable talking to changes from one household to the other. I think it is really interesting to see both those characters' relationships with their families, how normal they seem and how innocent the parents are about what their kids are going to do. The show also played a video of Dylan and Eric talking to the camera about their plans for the school. They were threatening what they were going to do, but they are drinking sodas and acting like what they are saying is no big deal. They are acting like kids just goofing off and making a YouTube video, and it is absolutely horrifying to see the contrast between what they are going to do and how they act. They seem like kids because they are, but they do something that is absolutely horrible. I think these actors did a great job of making your feelings about these characters really confusing. It really impacted me to see their home lives and school lives and how they are just kids but they are capable of doing awful things.
This play is not just about the people who committed the crime, but also about the people who experienced it and the people around them. I really saw that particularly in three scenes. There was a really beautiful scene where the Eric and a fellow student (Rodriguez) are rehearsing the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. They would break out of the scene to talk to the audience about the potential for a relationship between their scene partner and themselves. This is a moment that shows Eric as a person with real feelings and not always the disconnected and angry person we see in the second act, which is really hard because you see this person has real feelings but they are going to do something completely insane and horrible and stupid. When Rodriguez was speaking her lines, she was making the words Shakespeare had written about Juliet and Romeo also about this specific high school character's real experiences without changing the words, which is really amazing to watch. There was another scene, with a monologue performed by Chmielewski where she was talking about how her boyfriend knocked on her window and she felt obliged to have sex with him. And she was talking about how she wished her mother had saved her. It was really heartbreaking and well performed. It reminds you that this play isn't just about this specific school shooting, it also talks a lot about problems people in high school have that are more universal. There was another scene with a nerd, a jock, and a prep (Meitav Aaron, Victor Musoni, and Colin Huerta) and they are all playing basketball together, but the nerd is scared about not making the shot. It seems like time slows and the nerd starts talking about how he used to know these people so well when they were young and now they are looking like him like they don't know him because he is not good at basketball. And even though his dad has told him that none of this is going to matter in a few years, he realizes it still hurts even if you know that. I thought that that was a really emotional and well-done monologue about a thing a lot of teenagers know but still can't wrap their brains around.
People who would like this show are people who like turning tragedy into art, realistic teen stories, and sobbing your face off. I think this is a really hard and beautiful and relevant show. The show addresses a lot of topics I'm very passionate about, and it handles those topics carefully and well. At the end they give you information about taking action. I think everyone should go and see this. The day that I am writing this review there has been another school shooting, so it has been hard to write. I think it is very important that people go see this show but also that they take action to help prevent any more mass shootings.
Photos: Evan Hanover
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called To Catch a Fish. It was by Brett Neveu and it was directed by Ron OJ Parson. It was about a man named Terry (Geno Walker) who was living with his grandma Brenda (Linda Bright Clay), and he had just started a new job giving out flyers for a "store," run by Dex (Stephen Walker) and his partners Ike (Jay Worthington) and Regina (AnJi White). Terry's cousin Dontre (Al'Jaleel McGhee) and his girlfriend Rochelle (Tiffany Addison) are suspicious about what is really going on at this "store." It is about trying to take charge of your life, injustice, and love in its different forms. I think this is a really beautifully written and really well-acted show.
I thought the sound (David Kelepha Samba), lighting (Mike Durst), and set (Regina García) were all fantastic for this show. I don't always pay attention to those things, but those elements were used for very meaningful moments and helped you pay attention to the characters as well as giving you a sense of the surroundings. At the very beginning of the play there is a blue spotlight on Terry at the center of the stage while there is a sound of water whooshing past. He is looking around in awe, and you learn throughout the play about how much he loves fishing and how that is one of the things that relaxes him and makes him feel at home. You never actually get to see him go fishing, but at this moment you get to see how he feels about fishing and the reflection of the water and it is just a really powerful contrast with the next scene in the play where Ike is talking aggressively to Terry about how he need to date more girls rather than sticking with the one that he has. They are clearly in a crappy lot by the warehouse and Terry seems uncomfortable. The set had so many different components and different locations, but they made it specific enough that you felt like you were there but it wasn't hyperrealistic, which I think is good for this play because it deals with real issues but has poetic elements.
There are several different types of love showcased in this play. The relationship between Terry and his Grandma is very sweet. You can see she is very protective of him and just wants him to be safe because she made a mistake when he was younger and she doesn't want anything like that to happen ever again. But she also comes to understand that he is a grown man even if he has brain damage and he can make decisions for himself. She has to let go the same way as she had to with Dontre, her other grandson. She is a very stern grandma, but everything she does is clearly out of love, which makes her an interesting and lovable character. Dontre and Terry's relationship is hard to explain. They clearly love each other, but Dontre is also infuriated by Terry. They have many scenes together where Dontre asks Terry questions he doesn't understand and Dontre will get angry at Terry as a result, but then he will apologize and try to explain better. It seems like he has good intentions but doesn't handle frustration well. He clearly does want a good relationship with Terry; he just doesn't understand how he can do that. And there is also romantic love between Terry and Rochelle. Rochelle seems to admire him and think that he is beautiful and different. I think a lot of other people don't see past his disability, but this character does and she doesn't try to limit him. And Terry just seems to be truly happy around her, and he just wants to make her happy even when he doesn't fully know how. There is a very big event at the end of act one that I want to talk about because it shows how complicated the relationship is, so if you want to hear my opinion about it, you can read it at Ada Grey Spoils It for You.
I think it is cool how it feels like there are two different worlds in this play. One is the community of people who live there and the other is these outsiders (Dex, Ike, and Regina) who have set up the store. The scenes at the warehouse all sounded different from the rest of the play, and I think it is really interesting to think of those as a different type of writing. It reminded me of American Buffalo because all the talking is aggressive and high stakes even though what they are talking about might be ridiculous. And also the relationships are similar. There is a boss and a hothead and a kid they are taking advantage of. The difference is there is an additional character, Regina, who is trying to keep things together and feels like an outsider--kind of a Bobby-Donny combo. It is really interesting to see Regina show up later in the other world of the community and also to see Dontre and Rochelle come into the warehouse world.
People who would like this show are people who like peaceful fishing, stern and lovable grandmas, and suspicious stores. I think that this is such an intriguing, well-performed, and visually, aurally, and emotionally stunning show. I really enjoyed it.
Photos: Lara Goetsch
I thought that what they did with the witches'look with costumes (Mara Blumenfeld) and makeup (Richard Jarvie) was really cool. They had blood on their mouths and buzzcuts and were very pale with smudges on their cheekbones and black under their eyes dripping down. They wore chainmail and bandages and giant black cloaks. It seems like they are collectively a representation of war and suffering and greed. I liked how the witches were kind of always around; it was creepier to have them go into a scene from watching it from above. I did think the production could have done more with the cauldron scene, since the cauldron is supposed to be full of magic. I was expecting that they would have made it so they used more magic in the scene, since this scene is one of the most supernatural. The witches are doing magic and summoning spirits, and it was kind of predictable because the heads all just appear out of the covering on top of the cauldron. This might have been less obvious from the main floor, but from the balcony I felt like I could see exactly what was happening.
I think that Macbeth, the play, is very largely about emotions and how the world genders them. Macbeth wants to be the man his wife thinks he should be, and that involves being ruthless, power hungry, and violent. Lady Macbeth has a speech near the beginning of the play about unsexing her and taking away her femininity. She wants to be able to be ruthless and feared and heartless and she doesn't see that as being feminine. She doesn't want to be feminine because she thinks that makes her weak. At the beginning of the show, she runs downstairs and takes a baby from a coffin, then puts the baby back in the coffin and slams the lid. I think that is supposed to show us that Lady Macbeth is tired of being a woman. After the thing that she loves and feels soft feelings for is taken away she feels like she wants to tear people to shreds. That is a emotion women have too, but in this play it seems like people don't think it is an emotion a woman should have. At the beginning of the play it seems like Shakespeare thinks there are feminine emotions and masculine emotions and the two don't cross over. But by the end of the play, once you get to MacDuff (Timothy D. Stickney), you see that men should be able to be heartbroken when everything is taken away from them. My favorite exchange is when Malcom (Adam Wesley Brown) says, "Dispute it like a man" and Macduff responds "I shall do so, but I must also feel it as a man." That shows you that Shakespeare is ultimately saying that men should be able to feel loss and express sadness and vulnerable emotions. For MacDuff, the gendering of emotion is stupid, which I agree with. He can feel pain (which Malcom sees as an unmanly thing to do) and still be a man. I thought Stickney did a great job with this scene and it was really moving.
This production made a few choices that I had never seen in Macbeth. The dagger from Macbeth's dagger speech appeared in the mirror, so that means that the audience sees the vision that Macbeth sees before he goes to kill Duncan. I think it is interesting because it makes us as the audience ask "what is reality in this world? Is this is a world in which magic is real?" If so, the witches could be manipulating him to kill Duncan and they could also be manipulating what we see, which would be a really interesting concept. Another interesting moment was in the "Out damn spot" scene. The Gentlewoman (Jennifer Latimore) and the Doctor (Donahue) couldn't see what you could see, that Lady Macbeth actually had blood on her hands and her dress. This is really cool because you couldn't see any blood on her dress when she came on, but then she put her hand on her dress and there was suddenly blood. This is another moment where you are not completely sure what is real and what isn't. This one actually makes you feel insane, though, because there are other people on stage who don't see what you are seeing. Until this point, we are seeing what Macbeth has been seeing, like the dagger and Duncan and the ghost of Banquo. But in this moment you see that you might not just be being manipulated by the witches but that it might have driven you crazy. I thought that was really interesting.
People who would like this show are people who like mirror daggers, manipulative witches, and feeling it like a man. I think this is an aesthetically cool show that made some interesting choices.
Photos: Liz Lauren
The relationship between the penguins Silo and Roy was so adorable. I loved how they played off each other. At the beginning of the play you were just thinking about how much they were penguins because of their stylized movement and because of all the bird puns. I did really enjoy the puns, and the movement was really funny. The ways they would interact with each other were very penguinesque. At the very beginning of the show, Silo flaps onstage and starts shaking his feathers, which was sort of the first sign that, "oh, these are penguins." They also had a mating call, which they bonded over, but instead of being a squawk, for them it is "Defying Gravity" from Wicked, which is perfect for penguins, especially ones that see themselves as rebels. By the end of the show, you see them more like people with relationship troubles, identity crises, and emotions. They are still penguins, but just humanized penguins.
I thought the hawks, Lola and Pale Male, were sometimes infuriating because of Pale Male's unabashed homophobia, but most of the time they were hilarious. Lola had a very strong New York accent, and Pale Male thinks everyone who takes a picture of him is a fan. He thinks he is a superstar basically, and it seems like he is jealous of Roy and Silo because they are also getting a lot of attention. He is toxic masculinity in a hawk. Lola and Pale Male have a sex-based relationship and it is very funny to see two hawks having a torrid love affair. I was really impressed by how quickly and seamlessly the actors switched between characters. Silo is so brooding and Lola is so peppy. Roy is into musical theater and is very expressive and empathetic and Pale Male is hyper-masculine and is not very considerate of other people's feeling. It is really fun to see the actors do both sets of roles.
I really loved the Birder (Ansari) and the Zookeeper (Mashburn) who both had several monologues throughout the show. They both loved watching Pale Male and Lola and Roy and Silo. I loved how the play reveals their similarities throughout the show. I really liked how open they were with the audience and how much we got to know about their personal lives not related to the birds. It helps show you how the birds and the people in this play aren't so different because they both deal with some of the same feelings: loneliness, uncertainty, and fascination with things unlike them.
The ending was really powerful for me, and if you have already seen the show you can read what I thought about it at Ada Grey Spoils It for You.
People who would like this show are people who like toxic masculinity hawks, humanized penguins, and show tune mating calls. I think people should definitely see this show. It is so well-acted, hilarious, and moving. I really loved it.
Photos: Liz Lauren
I feel like this musical didn't have to be a white man's story. I think Quealy did a really great job in the role; my problem was just with the script. I was really interested in Felicia's story and I wanted to learn even more about her. I wanted to know more about life at the club and her relationship with her brother and the people in her church choir. I wanted to see her not just as a talent or with Huey, but navigating the world on her own. I bet she had to do that for a long time before Huey showed up. I was more interested in finding out how a black female singer would try and get on the radio than how a white guy helped a black woman get her songs on the radio. It is an interesting story to see the hate that they get because of their relationship, but I just didn't want it to be more his story. There is a moment where Huey decides that he wants to overthrow many people's racist ideas by kissing Felicia on his TV show. This would have been a great move if he had asked for consent and talked to her about it first because it could end up hurting her career and her life. Combatting racism is important, but doing it in this way--where it involves an act that needs to be consented to and has not been talked through with people who will probably be affected by it the most--is problematic.
Two songs where you get to focus mainly on Felicia's story are "She's My Sister," which is sung by her brother Delray (Lorenzo Rush, Jr.), and "Colored Woman," which she sings about her experiences with prejudice and what her mother warned her about what kinds of choices she has in the world. Both of the songs were so well-acted and amazingly sung. "She's My Sister" is a fight Delray has with Huey about his devotion to his sister and how he realized her talent after their parents died so he decided to open his club. Delray is telling Huey the reasons why Huey should not be able to take this music as his own. He is trying to tell him that he is appropriating, and Huey says, "That's not for you to say," except that it very much is because it is music that was made to express people's feelings that weren't being listened to. And for a white man, even a poor one, to take that and say this is mine because I love it isn't right. It makes sense that he would love and identify with the music. But he shouldn't take it, like Delray says he is. The song "Colored Woman" was so beautifully done and emotionally resonant. I think that actor did an amazing job throughout the show but this song showed all her talent beautifully. It is one of the moments in the show where you get to see her perspective fully. You get to hear about her family life not through her brother and her experiences with being black in the south in the sixties. It shows you that she is capable of telling her own story and despite the prejudice she is talking about she wants to take charge of her own life.
I think this show had an amazing supporting cast and ensemble. They were phenomenal dancers and singers. Bobby (James Earl Jones II) had a song, "Big Love," where he came out of his shell for the first time and sang on live television. It was a really fun and catchy song and was really awesome to see the switch he had between being the janitor at the radio station and this rock star that just came out and was having fun and knew he was killing it. There was a really funny moment I think around the song "Crazy Little Huey" where the dancers on the tv show were told to do the alligator dance. Gator (Gilbert Domally) has this alligator head that he is carrying and chomping on people. LAnd he tried to bite one of the dancers (Jared David Michael Grant) and the dancer made this hilarious overdramatic terrified face and it was absolutely hilarious. They were clearly having so much fun and joking around. Ensemble in musicals are often just in the background, but in this show each of the members had so much personality and were super memorable.
People who would like this show are people who like resonant blues, protective brothers, and overdramatic alligator dances. I think that people should go see this show. It has a great cast and amazing music. I liked it.
Photos: Michael Courier
The main conflict in this show seems to be about how to react to the actions of the government. Carolina was an activist and would go out on marches with The Madres because she hopes if she works to resist hard enough maybe the government will pay attention. But Josefina is hesitant about that life. She thinks good behavior is the way to avoid being hurt, which can be true, but I believe that when times are this desperate you should go out and help the people who need it. The government keeps saying that they are stronger as one unified country, which is why they fight against the resisters in their own country. The Madres are really trying to unify the country too, but against the disappearing of their children. Padre Juan (Ramón Camín) is sort of in the middle. He wants the people in his life to get justice, but he also knows from the inside what the government is capable of and wants the people in his life to be safe from that. Josefina and Carolina keep telling themselves that Belén is actually just in Paris and she'll be back. They don't think it is really true, but they are trying to trick themselves into believing it. Josefina needs to believe this because she wants the world not to be like it is and for her faith and her devotion to be rewarded. She also doesn't have to protest anything if she doesn't believe it is true. But even if you are, like Carolina, protesting and trying to make things better, it is still hard to accept what your life is like in the moment. So, just because Carolina is protesting doesn't mean that she can completely accept what is happening to her daughter.
I really loved Josefina and Carolina. This play drops you into this family's life and you feel like you get to know these people right away. I liked how you got to see Josefina cleaning and singing along to her music at the beginning. She was so loving to the people she was close to and you see that through her food and the way she comforts people and the way she protects people. She wants everyone to feel comfortable in her house, even Diego (Felipe Carrasco) who she hasn't seen since he was a kid. It is really adorable how at the beginning of the play Padre Juan is so excited about the medialuna that Josefina made. And when she gets mad at him, she decides to hold back the food until she gets what she wants. You see that she is not just a sweet and caring person, but will stand up for the things she loves and believes in. You get to see two sides of Carolina. One that is fearless and angry and one that is scared and depressed. She is usually on her guard, and when she lets down her guard, you can tell that something is really wrong. She is worried that the woman who is knitting outside their house is a spy. She comes into the room from a protest and she is pumped and angry and excited, but then she realizes she might be being watched and we see her fear.
The last scene was so powerful and beautiful that I didn't want to spoil it. But if you have already seen the show you can read what I thought about it at Ada Grey Spoils It for You.
People who would like this show are people who like heartbreaking family stories, political plays, and medialuna bribery. I think that people should definitely definitely definitely see this show. It is beautifully acted and an amazing story. I cried a lot and I loved it.
Photos: Joel Maisonet
Bernadette's husband Kip (Tyler Esselman) had recently given up his career as a dentist to become a painter. He would paint only using white because he didn't want to mess up. I was wondering what they were trying to get across with that because it seemed too important to just be comedic. One of my theories is that it meant that if you don't take chances in life (like painting in color) then you won't ever do anything important in society. Your life will be a blank slate. Another theory I had was that when you make art a lot of people won't understand, but there will always be someone who can see what you are getting at. In this case, Hillary (Liz Goodson), who is Sebastian's ex-therapist, understands what Kip is trying to do with his art because of their similar ideas about what makes life beautiful.
This play had a really interesting take on freedom. Sometimes I felt like this show was trying to say that no matter what you do it will never matter and you will always feel like hurting yourself and everything you do is futile. All of the characters are depressed and don't really want to be there, but seem to feel like they are trapped. Ironically, the one character that seems to be kind of happy from the beginning, but in a creepy way, is Dylan Sinclair (Vic Kuligoski), who is in jail, so he can't leave. Kip wants freedom in multiple ways: he wants to go to a country that is more open and free and he wants to be free from the shackles of his marriage. And he wants to be free of the constraints of his job and his baby. He ends up getting all of it. I'm not sure if that is supposed to be a "good for him!" or a "he's a jerk!" I'm just not sure how the play thought I should feel about him. Sebastian and Bernadette both end up wanting to be free of the romantic relationships they thought they wanted and free of normal family constructs. They both discover happiness being responsible for something they can shape; the baby is a blank slate. Everyone wants to start their life over in this play, and if they have this being they can shape, it is like starting over.
I think this play uses a lot of heightened events to get big reactions. One character with extreme behavior takes their eyes out with a screwdriver. Another one stabs someone. Another one sees a ghost. I'm not sure what I think about this technique. I really like watching slices of people's lives. I like dark comedy and farce. But for some reason this play just didn't click with me. I think it might be because the playwright wants to show us that people cannot really make human connections and cannot listen to and understand each other. That is why all their behavior is so extreme. It can be true for people in real life, but I like to see people connecting with each other on stage. There is one relationship where Sebastian feels like he has a connection with someone. But it ends up that that person is not feeling the same way he is. And it seems like the reason they can connect is because they never have to see each other face to face.
People who would like this show are people who like white paintings, extreme plot points, and blank slate babies. I think it is an interesting show, and I think there are a lot of people who enjoy dark theater like this. I'm glad I saw it.
Photos: Lindsay Williams Photography
I found myself really caring about the romances in this show. At first, the relationship between Elizaveta and the Baron seemed a little bit out of nowhere, just as it is in the movie, so I wasn't sure I would care about it as much as some of the other relationships. But I did. I thought they had great chemistry on stage. The way that they meet is problematic, but very dramatic. It is based on a movie from the thirties, which tend to be very melodramatic, so it kind of makes sense that they meet in such a strange way. He has broken into her room to steal something and tries to distract her by pretending he is a fan who is obsessed with her. If someone broke into my room and said, "I'm your biggest fan," I would tell them to get out. And at first I was like that with this relationship. It is kind of creepy. But when you see how they relate to each other and how they actually seem to love each other, your fears go out the window because it is a musical. Also, you see what a more predatory person looks like in Preysing, and the Baron decides to protect the person in danger in that case. Also the Baron is such a sweetheart to Otto and seems to be a caring person. You end up sympathizing with him because he is out of money, comes clean about his crimes, is trying to help a friend, and puts other people's safety before his own. It is weird that the play wants you to sympathize with someone who does something so creepy, and it made me think about how society has changed in such minor ways since the thirties. We feel like we've come a long way, but we still struggle with how much people should be held accountable.
The relationship between Flaemmchen and Kringelein was adorable. It was a good friendship that the play hinted could become something else. They had this very cute song where Otto and Flaemmchen are dancing called "Who Couldn't Dance with You?" Otto at first is really scared but Flaemmchen helps him along and he gains confidence. It was a really cute way to introduce their friendship. They also help each other through grief and hard times. It is a very different relationship than the Baron and Elizaveta have. It is less passion and more genuine connection. But I think that both of the relationships seem to work even though they are very different.
This show gave us several characters that we do not get to see in the original film, but it didn't give them very many characteristics or much of a backstory. I do understand that they didn't want an insanely long show, but I do feel as if it is unsatisfying that they give us a glimpse of what the workers' lives are like at the Grand Hotel without really giving a complex view of their stories. They acknowledge them at the beginning and the end (especially the character of Erik), and they are in the background most of the time, but I really wanted to know more about them. There is a song called "Some Have, Some Have Not," sung by the workers near the beginning of the show about how the people who stay at the hotel are rich and powerful and how the people serving them want that life too. It is a very angry song, which I completely understand, and the tone is threatening. But it presents them as a mass instead of each as individual people, which made me think the show did not care as much about the workers' stories as they tried to present. I think the employees being worked into the story was a good idea, but they just didn't follow through in the script enough.
The new characters that work at the hotel that we get the most information about are the Jimmys (Darren Patin and Travis Austin Wright). I still would have liked to know more about them, but they had my favorite song "Maybe My Baby Loves Me," which was a tap dance number. They danced with Flaemmchen, and we learn they are from America and where they grew up their streets weren't paved. Flaemmchen thinks America will be great. The Jimmys encourage her in her dream to become a movie star, but they warn her that America may not be as great as she thinks it is. I love a good tap dance number, and this one was especially good. They had good technique and were perfectly in sync. Flaemmchen being added into the number was a cool surprise. It was really cool to hear the rhythm of the scat go along with the rhythm of the tap.
People who would like this show are people who like surprisingly sympathetic thieves, unlikely adorable pairings, and scat tap. I think this show has some really great performances,lovely dancing, and some good songs. I liked it.
Photos: Evan Hanover
The relationship between Sue and Bernie was pretty distressing because Sue seems to be scared into loving him. She is so scared that he is going to leave her, that she takes more crap from him than she should. She seems to be fine--she could provide for herself--but she feels like she is not supposed to because of the traditional gender roles at the time. And Bernie even seems to get mad that she makes more money than he does and he doesn't seem to want her to be successful. He also says some very sexist things about women and refers to them as dames, which is one of my least favorite ways to refer to women. It was written in the 60s, so maybe the dame stuff was not as shocking or rude and we are only supposed to start disliking him when he starts being physically abusive. I think this is a very difficult relationship to decide how you feel about because in most shows you are rooting for the romance. Even when you realize that these people shouldn't be together, it is hard not to hope that he changes his ways. The relationship is what she wants, but it is not healthy. So you are torn between the characters having what they think they want and not being hurt.
One of the most interesting but distressing characters was Vince (Joe McCauley) who was an alcoholic who was gay but in the closet and took most of his anger out on his wife Claire (Cassidy Slaughter-Mason). I feel like he was the most troubling character because I wanted him to acknowledge a part of himself that might make him not turn to a substance for happiness. I think he did know he was gay, but he didn’t want to accept it because of the intolerance that was so present at that time. I felt sorry for his wife even though she didn't make the best decision about coping with her husband's substance abuse and his neglect of her needs if they didn't come in a package. Like he understands if she wants a new dress but not if she wants him to understand and love to her. The Christmas scene was especially heartbreaking and convincing. You could see the terror that Claire has. She doesn't really understand her husband's behavior and how "No" doesn't seem to mean "Stop" to him. And the way that alcohol incapacitates him to hear reason is really heartbreaking.
There is an underlying tone of sadness in the entire play. Even when things seem to be going well, something immediately comes along and shuts it down. Like when Donnie comes home from getting new clothes and has gotten a new rock and roll record and starts twisting with his mom, Bernie comes in and tells them it is too loud. Every bit of happiness seems to get degraded slightly so there is never a moment of true hope. It is especially true for Donnie because he was not the product of a planned pregnancy and later on in his life he was left by his mother in an orphanage and was no longer a daily part of her life. Even what feels like a happy reunion has dark undertones because of Donnie's relationship with his mother in the past. It seems like the reason why he hurts other people is because of his mother. He doesn't want to hurt her but he is angry at her, so he takes it out on random strangers. The love that he feels for his mother turns into violence against other people. The mother does this too in another way. She takes out her anger on her son because she feels a duty to her boyfriend that she doesn't feel to her son because he wasn't planned. But she also feels guilt for sending him to the home in the first place, which is really complicated. She takes out stuff on the person she doesn't feel should exist in her life, which is a really sad thing to think about. This was my first Inge play. It was very interesting and it had amazing performances, but it seemed like all the characters had a lot of problems and not a lot of hope. You feel like it is going to end badly from the beginning.
People who would like this show are people who like dark undertones, rock and roll records, and realistic drunks. I think that this is a really well-performed, powerful, and heartbreaking show. I really liked it.
Photos: Scott Dray
