Review by anonymous
June 20, 2024 certified reviewerWhat I liked
The band was good, and the music was decent, but I would have much preferred to just listen to it as an album. I appreciate Chris’s bravery, desire, and drive to process difficulty in his life through art.
What I didn't like
Technically a mess across the board – Mics feedbacking, so quiet you can’t understand anything, or so loud you needed to cover your ears. The “silhouette” effect didn’t work at all, it was just kinda loose blurry shapes.
About the script – It’s clear Chris is still really going through a lot of these experiences, and it felt a lot a bit unfiltered in a very uncomfortable way. There are several scenes where the main character “James” consults paper-doll flat characters only to trauma dump to them/us unsolicitedly… and then the character would leave and never be mentioned again. I would call these paper-dolls audience surrogates. The character of Scarlett was also very flat, which made it hard to feel anything for the central relationship of the story. Unless the dad was the central relationship? Honestly the mini-scenes between songs gave me so little that it was hard to tell the shape of the narrative.
To give you a taste of the interesting directorial choices across the show, there was a song/scene where I believe the main character was wrestling with falling back into alcoholism, and the way they decided to show this visually was to have him inspecting a bottle of liquor in his hand for the entire song. Just kind of look at it.
The performances of the actors, across the board, would not have been impressive even if the script had given them something to work with. The dancing seemed unrehearsed, maybe? It wasn’t very in-sync.
This show could use some more time in the oven, which might come best after the artist has had some distance from the true events of the story. If I hadn’t been trapped in the middle of a row, I would have left and spared myself a very angry evening. I am honestly in disbelief.
My overall impression
This show was painful in all of the worst ways. First of all I have to say the show ran 50+ minutes over. Yes. You read that correctly. At Fringe. It was advertised as an hour and ran 1:50. Almost double the length. I want to say that it would’ve been worth it if it had been good… but that’s unforgivable. And it was not good. I extend that frustration to the venue for not cutting the show off like they would at the Broadwater or most other Fringe venues. I hope no one had other shows to get to!
AUDIENCES BEWARE: check the time on your phone and leave when you need to.
I think they might say “men need therapy” so that they don’t dump it all on unsuspecting audiences. It felt mad disrespectful and… emotionally reckless across the board. The show should remain as an album for the time being.
