What I liked
I just really enjoyed seeing Balagia and Stine play off each other. This play, and these characters, felt really lived-in, which says a lot given the absurdity of the proceedings.
What I didn't like
Great show all around!
My overall impression
MY SIDES!! This show was hilarious! Both Luke Balagia and Mack Stine were fantastic, but as the zanier and more physically kinetic character of the pair, Stine was a force of nature, making full use of his expressive eyes, mouth, and body with all the explosive verve of a Tex Avery cartoon character. You can’t take your eyes off of him. I love productions like these that lean heavily into the absurd, with its lead characters creating a language from the very beginning that is too ridiculous for even the world’s most juvenile pair of men, and then sticking with that for the entirety of the production. This allows for an insane “anything could happen here” vibe that the play takes full advantage of, and under Balagia and Stine’s control, one is excited and eager to stay on their journey to its conclusion. Props to Ben Paddon as well as the titular bear, who serves as both narrator and audience stand-in, observing Balagia and Stine’s frenetic lunacy with a hilariously zen demeanor.
