My overall impression
I dislike that the only 3 options for rating Fringe shows is loved it, liked it, or not my thing because unfortunately, none of these really hit the mark for what this show was for me. I’m going to go with Liked it because it’s the half way mark and it wasn’t all bad. But I didn’t really ‘like it’ in truth. It was okay. I think that this show really had the potential to be an amazing piece of theater. The script is great, the cast has a notable body of work behind them, and the stakes are high. Unfortunately, I don’t think the actors or director entirely met the complexity of what was really going on, head on. Everything was done correct on the surface but I didn’t feel like the actors were really listening or connecting to each other. And I didn’t think the direction was brave enough to really get at the heart of the issues. This is a play about sickness and dying, and why a couple with a 40 year gap in age would choose to be together. It explores some really heavy, real issues that don’t often get explored and I wanted to see the underbelly of these issues. He pisses himself. He shoots her in the arm. They have sex. These things happen on stage but they just weren’t given the gravity I felt they deserved. It’s not an entirely bad production: the actors have talent and the play is well staged. It just didn’t fully commit and go there the way a play of its complexity deserves.
