My overall impression
The Lounge Theatre hosted the world premiere of Padua Playwrights Productions The Fool and the Red Queen, an absurdist story involving an auditioning actor finding himself in the midst of a play within a play. In the clinically white temporary space of The Lounge, Gary Bean (John Diehl) is an older man struggling with his script while the director and producer engage him in a cryptic conversation regarding the story and such off-handed subjects as the Greeks. During Act I (also titled “Gary’s Strange Callback”), Chauncey (Jack Kehler) and Rondell (Gray Palmer) rifle through their lines like a couple of LA casting directors talking over each other and offering about as much guidance as you could expect from a David Lynch movie. The two men project crisp, yet obscure foreshadowing of classical archetypes onto the walls and monitor hanging from the ceiling above them with the click of a button, as well as live feed of the production. We ponder the well-produced Bergmanesque cinematography, while voice-overs sneak in from Gary’s mind …
Please read the rest of the review at Cinesnatch.
