* 1/2Live From Planet Earth Productions
(photo courtesy of: DARR Publicity)An engaged couple with little to say to each other looks to television to provide them with guidance, hope and food for thought. Kevin Mandel's absurdist play, where a new TV is played by live person, seeks to address how reliant we as a culture have become on something so unwieldy and tempestuous as the phenomenon of television. This point was clearly made about 30 minutes into this 85 minute play. If there were other points to be made they went in one ear and out the other as I begun to tune out the long, loud speeches delivered by our earnest cast. If director Kevin Kittle's goal was for the audience- stuffed into a very small room- to feel unequivocally bombarded and buffaloed by three relentlessly yelling, intense actors then mission accomplished. I wish I'd had a remote so that I could've pressed stop or at least turned the volume down.
When I used to wear glasses, I always knew that I was in for a long night of theatre when I found myself absent mindedly taking off my glasses so I couldn't see what was going on onstage.
ReplyDeleteNow, thanks to Lasik, there's no escaping loud actors, not listening to each other in a small space.