What I liked
I thought the blocking was great in taking us in and out of time (I was sitting at the vaum on the edge and those actors were coming so close to me i was scared i was going to accidentally trip them!). Great costumes. And the video work was really additive.
What I didn't like
Not at all a call for improvement, but here are places where I needed clarity.
There were a few gaps for me in story comprehension, this is prob because Crystal had to cut the script down. I had to confer with Jonas after to understand how Jack the Ripper jumped through the time warp to become the black dahlia killer (is that what happened?). But I guess it was a theoretical moment where the professor could have had a chance to stop another killing and the two murderers weren’t related? But for a moment I was like “wait, are they saying jack the ripper immigrated to America, lost his accent and was still killing people 60 years later?”
Also, the actor playing the black dahlia showed a rose tattoo on her thigh which I wasn’t sure if it was part of the plot or actually her real tattoo. I just needed some clarity around this moment and if it was important to the story.
I also got that the professor felt bonded to Penny(?, crystal’s character) and suddenly very close to her but wasn’t clear what moment bonded them together, they chatted in the bar but that didn’t seem like enough to make his stakes in saving her super high.
I did wonder before the Assistant’s monologue to the professor/ detective about not yet being promoted, what it would have looked like if the professor was instead cast as a woman or someone of a marginalized body and how this would have changed the story to see a woman relate to the murder of other women.My overall impression
Excellent acting, accent work, fantastic writing, well researched and a cool take on Jack the Ripper by placing modern characters in the crosshairs of that infamous story. I can’t believe they only had 15 minutes to set up their show because it looked like a resident show! The women characters were really fun to watch. Yay for whores with character arcs!
