My overall impression
This show definitely had tons of potential. I suppose we should have started to doubt things when we went to the address on the postcard (619 Formosa) and realized it was a residential area and the actual location was 916 Formosa. Fortunately we had left plenty of time so the location was just a minor hiccup but something to be aware of for other patrons. Being it was a preview performance I can overlook the technical issues of miscued lights, sound cues coming in too loud and the rather loud whispering coming from the tech booth. As the play started I quickly realized it was going to fall very short of it’s promised sultry potential. It was a hybrid of modern day and ancient times that opened with a somewhat shaky and under rehearsed tango. From there we were thrown into dialogue that was lacking diction, making it incredibly hard to understand. Combine muffled speech with what seemed like a lack of understand of the words themselves and you have what unfolded over the next hour. The space itself does not lend itself to shouting yet that happened quite a bit throughout the play. I found myself really wanting them to embrace the idea of power in stillness.
I get the sense that there may have been a very ambitious vision that just lacked the follow through. The modern day character that weaves in and out of the story breaks into a guitar version of “Call Me Maybe” that seems jarringly out of place. The somewhat sultry dances lacked passion and confidence. There are bits and pieces of a vision fluttering in and out of the play, unfortunately none of them come together and so we are left with awkward dialogue and staging that never truly form one cohesive show.
I think this project had a lot of potential but suffered in the execution. Definitely a young company who really show a lot of ambition by attempting a text as difficult as this one. I definitely commend them for trying it and look forward to seeing them grow in the coming years.
