Review of The Good Soul of Szechuan at Strawdog Theatre Company

Once upon a time I went to a play and it was called Good Soul of Szechuan. It was about this girl and her name was Shen Te. And she was in love with a pilot and she had a friend who was a water seller. And she was very kind to everyone. And she owned a tobacco shop, and she thought it was a present from the gods. The gods were actually her friends and so was the water seller. She almost got married to the pilot but he got mad at her at the wedding because the cousin wouldn’t come. She was actually the cousin! They both have black hair and looked the same—other people couldn’t tell because her hair was kind of put up because then everyone wouldn’t know who she was. She told the water seller that she was pregnant. She was very excited.

My dad in one of the scenes was very crumpled and dirty and torn. That’s because he was very poor. His song was about pigs and I really liked it because I thought it was funny and cool. And it went like this: “Pigs will fly! Pigs will fly! Oh yeah. Oh yeah yeah yeah.” I loved everything my dad did. An example of something that I liked was the dramatic talking when he had torn clothes—I thought that was cool. I thought that a scene with a rope was kind of scary because he was going to hang himself.

One of my favorite songs was with Shen Te. She got interrupted—that’s why it was so short—I thought that it was pretty hilarious. Her character was pretty funny too. Michaela is one of my friends. Shen Te and the cousin had different voices. I think that was a good decision because then she didn’t sound like she was a girl really. When she sounded like a girl she was a girl and when she sounded like the boy she was the boy. When she was pregnant and a boy she looked like she was pregnant. When she was a boy she walked more coolly. When she was a girl she walked more fancy. She was good because she helped everyone. She let people stay overnight. Shen Te liked it in the rain and then she is out of the scene. She sounded really cool.

Mrs. Shin--she was played by Shannon. Mrs. Shin, Shannon, those kind of sound the same, don’t they? She was the girl who interrupted the song which I was talking about. I thought she was really funny in that.

Shu fu wanted to marry Shen Te but that was not the man that she loved. Well, he walked with his hands kind of funny just so the play would be funnier.

I really liked the part where the family stays with Shen Te. I thought they were funny. They weren’t very good guests, but the actors were good. They teased and also one other thing—she got from the wife and the husband some poison. And Shen Te was like, “Poison!?”

Mrs. Yang—she was kind of funny, as well. About everyone in this play was funny sometime. And she was also at the wedding and she watched for the cousin. She didn’t exactly say funny things but she did stuff funny. Like looking out the window for the longest amount of time. And then she was like slam and then everyone was like—what??!

The gods were also very funny. When he said, “one good soul will be enough,” he yelled and it was like a big gigantic speech. The gods were there for to find a person who didn’t turn bad. They got dirtier and dirtier and at the end they were the dirtiest of dirty. And they gave her a crown and the scepter. I have no idea why they did that. Just to be funny I think.

The water seller didn’t get paid. Because nobody wants the water because nobody thought that water was very healthy for you in Szechuan. I thought that he was sometimes pretty funny and sometimes pretty hilarious—which both mean the same thing. If all of you know that, that’s pretty good. If you don’t, that’s ok. You can learn it from me, Ada Grey!

I thought how they did the trial scene was very dramatic. It was still my favorite scene even though I don’t talk about it very much in my review.

And there is parts with lights in it and they blink blue and red and pink. Michael did like the lights blinking. He is also a stage manager. Michael let me kind of help—I snuck into one of the scenes in a rehearsal. I put pieces of tape under some chairs and benches.

There wasn’t really a set. It was just props that they used for scenes. I thought that it was cool. The costumes made me think certain things about the characters—like that they were very poor. The shawl was very beautiful and it was blue and had flowers on it. The gods’ costumes made me think of flags--because they are gods and gods are like presidents. I think Aly made the gods’ costumes look like flags on purpose.

I though it was really fun to have a band. If I was in a band I would want to play the guitar. I thought the guy who played the guitar was kind of funny. I thought that he kind of was funny because when it was intermission he strummed the guitar and said it and the lights went out. And I thought it was going to be a song!

The directing I thought was funny and cool. A particular scene that I liked was the end scene. What I liked about it was that they shook their fingers and then they looked like tigers. Well the director just made the play not as sad so the teenagers would like it. Teenagers might like it more than littler kids. If it wasn’t funny, then the teenagers might be kind of scared. If it was sad then they would be sad and they would cry a little. And if they cried a little and they liked to cry that would be okay. And if they didn’t want to cry then they wouldn’t have to because it would be funny enough.

Grownups, teenagers, kids would like it. (But not little ones—I think they would be a little scared because some parts are scarier than they would think. If the parents did tell them about the scary parts then it wouldn’t be as scary for them.) The people who would like it are people who are funny and smart and good to other people.

The end.

Photo: Chris Ocken

Review of Uncle Vanya at Strawdog Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Uncle Vanya by Chekhov. It was at Strawdog. Finding your seats is very easy. People tell you where to sit. I have a seat that has my name on it. I like the seats because they are comfortable. Before the show starts there were some people who I knew, and I talked to them at the intermission. If anyone gets hungry in the middle of the show, wait until the intermission.

Uncle Vanya is an uncle who is drunk. He is kind of mean sometimes. He adores a girl named Sonya. Why, do you ask? Because he loves his niece. Vanya really likes Yelena because he really just follows her around a lot because I think he loves her. I think he likes Astrov, but he doesn’t love him. When Astrov and Yelena kiss, Uncle Vanya drops the roses and is like “I guess that’s the end.” I think it is kind of funny how he says, “that is done, I guess I’d like to go,” and just leaves. There’s a scene where Vanya is insulting the professor and Sonya stops him. Then he says “I’m guilty, I’m guilty, I’m guilty.” I thought that was funny. I was kind of surprised that Uncle Vanya used the gun. I thought he was just going to pull it out and be about to, and someone would stop him. Or that there wasn’t going to be any sound. He didn’t like the professor. Vanya was kind of angry and sometimes kind of funny. I thought that he did a really good job at doing both of those things. Sometimes both at the same time!

I thought that Sonya was really smart because she stops someone from getting more drunk. I think she really liked Astrov. I think he liked her too, but she is sad because he doesn’t come there to see her. He comes to see Yelena. When she was sad I felt sorry for her. I knew she was sad because she was crying. I thought Michaela’s performance was really good.

I thought Astrov was really hilarious. Why, do you ask? Because he was drunk. I don’t know why he was drunk—he had a lot of alcohol. He liked to drink so much that he drank alcohol so much. Kyle was not drunk. He just tried to act drunk—he did a very good job.

Yelena—I thought that she was very nice and very cute. I though that she was nice a lot of the time, but she was angry some of the time. She talked in a very stern language. She was angry because her husband was acting kind of weird in one of the scenes. Sonya, she got along with. Astrov she didn’t get along with—neither with Uncle Vanya. I understand her position—she wants people to do things which she wants them to do. When they don’t, she feels really angry. I think she did a really good job pretending to be angry.

The funniest scene was one where Astrov, he was with Sonya, and she says no more drinking and he asks: “May I? Can I drink it?” and then she says “No!”

It always took place in a house. It reminded me of my grammy and grandpa’s house because it was very fancy like my grammy and grandpa’s house. They had a window and they had flowers on it. You could see through some parts of it. It was supposed to look like Joseph Cornell boxes, and I thought that was cool because usually people don’t have Cornell boxes in their houses. It was a bright and dark play.

The costumes looked a lot like they were from sometime which wasn’t very long ago. I think it took place in New York or in Paris because one of them had a parasol. And one of them had an outfit that looked like it was from Paris. Yelena’s dress was my favorite. It was really fancy. They looked very fancy—all of them.

The music was sometimes very dramatic and sometimes very cheerful. And in one scene there was a boy named Waffles who was singing a song and they were like “Holy Moly. What? Is? Happening?” And that was the end of the play. It was hilarious. It was not sad because the guy Yelena married didn’t die.

People who like to be surprised would like this show. People who have a very good taste for entertainment would like this play. I think younger kids could see it as long as someone reminds them that someone gets out a gun and uses it. I think the age would be 4 and up.

(Photo by Chris Ocken)

Review of the Parts of Strawdog Theatre's St. Crispin's Day that Ada's Parents Would Let Her See

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called St. Crispin's Day. I didn't really see the whole show because it was a little bit scary.

There was a bird that one of the villains played by Tom liked to hold but it wasn't actually real. I thought that was hilarious. I didn't see all of the characters because it was too scary. Carm was hilarious. They said if you are Irish then do a jig. Then they did a jig. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

And they chased Kyle but not for real and they threw rocks and mud. The rock one was even scarier than the mud. Make sure with your kids that they already know they are just pretending.

They wanted to kidnap my dad but not really. It was a really stupid plan—well it wasn't stupid but it wouldn't work.

Part of their costumes were supposed to be chain mail. It was really just yarn. I liked how it felt. The costumes were very cool. But I didn't get to see all of them. One of them looked like a guy from a church. And he was the guy who played Yepihodov.

There was a scene where the girls throwed flowers and carried a flag when the king was coming through which was my dad. He didn't have a very big part. It was daytime and they switched to day and nighttime. I don't know how they did that but I think they just did something like up and down and then it will go night and day.

The music that they played when it was about to start it sounded like—I can't really describe it to you guys. A little bit of horn but a little bit softer and drums. Boom ba boom boom boom. A-unh.

In one scene, dad was in disguise as just a Englishman. But they didn't realize it was the king and they got taken away to jail. Kyle, he mostly talked to Dad and listened very carefully. And that was all that scene was almost about—listening. The villains were saying that Kyle wasn't good (but just for pretend). They were selfish (but just for pretend).

Any grown-up can go see St. Crispin's Day. Well maybe a 5-yr-old could see parts of it. Good-bye, guys. See you some other time!

Review of Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov at Strawdog Theatre

There was this show that I went to and it was good. It was called the Cherry Orchard. Maybe I should start at the beginning. There were some funny parts. Yepihodav was my very favorite. Well he wasn't my favorite actor. Shannon was my favorite actor because there was lots and lots of kissing. There was some very funny parts. And when Yepihodov was coming some people said "Here comes trouble."

Jenny was awesome. It was just very good and better. She seemed different than she was offstage. Tom was pretty funny. He was just giving a speech about something that he had—a wardrobe or a bookshelf, I don't know. There was one sad part: they had to move. At the end don't you remember what Lopakin said? That he bought the whole entire house. And then he was laughing because he said that and they cut down the cherry orchard. Dad was my favorite actor because he was always great but he did kiss another woman but they were falling in love. But he was really in love with my mom. Because he really was. I thought that there was funny stuff that he did.

The costumes were cool. The good dress that I liked was Shannon's. I thought Anya's dress was awesome. And Anya was my favorite actor and Dad and Shannon were all my favorite actors. The music was awesome. It was very groovy. The dancing was great because it was very good and groovy and just great. I thought that Michaela was very funny. I thought that dropping the keys was hilarious. Pischick was going like he fell asleep and then someone said like "WELL" and he was like "Huh? Huh?" I thought that was good because it was hilarious. The directing was good. It was just funny. Other people thought the crying when the cherry orchard was cut down was funny but I didn't. But I didn't want anyone there to laugh because they thought they were doing the play wrong because they weren't.

Cherry Orchard is for everybody.

(Photo credits: Chris Ocken)