My overall impression
What a gorgeous play. Such a unique and intriguing story! The costumes are beautiful. The sound design is haunting. I love the scaffolding on wheels; it makes the scene transitions all the more active. The movement work of the mermaids is absolutely gorgeous to watch and successfully put us in another world.
Anthony Backman’s performance is absolutely riveting. I enjoyed watching his strong willed and decisive politician character slowly descend into madness. Several other strong actors here. The main lab assistant was delightfully awkward and it was fun to see him squirm. The pregnant lady’s dualistic nature of victim to strong woman was great to watch.
I only have a few suggestions for this play. No doubt it will continue in development and I eagerly await to watch each installation!
1. Tell the audience in the beginning that this play is part of a series. A cliff hanger is acceptable, but as it is now it’s too abrupt of an ending. I would swap the scenes around to end the play with an exclamation point or maybe add another scene to give us the sense that there’s more to come.
2. The mermaids were sometimes too distracting; mainly when the main action was high on the scaffolding. Do ALL the mermaids need to be on ALL the time?
3. This may be because of safety, but if possible I’d tighten up the scene transitions. It should go dark and the scaffolding should roll, boom boom. No need to wait 60 seconds before and after the lights change.
4. The female lab character: it’s a great character and she’s well written. There’s a lot to play with here; a socially awkward geek/zealot who will do anything, anything to get close to her obsession. And then by some miracle she’s promoted! The pride she must feel! The excitement! But unfortunately I didn’t get much of that from the performance. All the character’s wants and needs are there in the script. I encourage the actor playing this wonderfully dynamic part to explore a little more. WANT IT. NEED IT. Put it in your body.
