My overall impression
MUD is a great play, and one I’ve had the privilege of seeing done before, so I was excited to see another interpretation at this years Fringe. Unfortunately, this production left me feeling a little underwhelmed.
The cast is fully committed to their characters, so props to them for giving it their all. They had some great physical moments that, although left me questioning the decision behind them, impressed.
Here’s where the show suffers though – each scene begins to look, sound, and feel like a broken record and there’s almost no evidence of any direction throughout the process. Scene changes are FAR TOO LONG and a song plays VIOLENTLY on repeat throughout the entirety of the show. The actors feel more than comfortable stage right for the majority of the play, and stage left hardly ever gets used – making me question why they picked the “other space” at The Actor’s Company to mount this production. A smaller, more intimate space with more comfortable seating would have been a much better choice.
Overall, Mud is Muddy – not much is very clear to the actors, despite them being fully comitted to the roles they are playing. A beautiful script by Maria Irene Fornes gets wrongfully ignored – leaving no time or space to let beats and physical activities happen on stage where they actually need to.
