ghosttown

What I liked

Ghosttown has a great arc for the character Nessa as she reflects on her life and the people in it. The lead actress is tremendous, active, expressive. The life she brings this character is essential to the success of this production.

The script is incredibly well written, with memorable dialogue and a beautiful ability to paint a poetic image of Nessa’s inner life. The writer has a lot of talent and that is clear. It’s the type of writing that immediately makes you want to read the next thing the author wrote.

What I didn't like

There is a lack of direction in this production regarding performances and blocking.

In terms of the blocking and creative stage imagery, you will repeatedly see the characters sitting in a row, or parking and barking a monologue for 90% of the play. This is not an exaggeration. You will have seen video podcasts where the hosts have more interesting behavior and movement than most of the characters in this play. It reeks of freshman year theatre school and is only occasionally redeemed by the scarce moments the lead actress is allowed to roam the stage to add any new visual dynamic to what the audience is viewing. Only one character is allowed to use the balcony of this stage and when they do they walk to the exact same place and stand. Three times, same spot, no additional blocking. It feels like the audience is constantly offered the bare minimum of an interesting visual choice and this under cuts the wonderful language this play offers.

There also seems to be a clear lack of direction regarding the character arcs of most of the supporting cast, where actors lack a clear point of view and often feel like they are simply waiting on stage for their next line to come up while playing a broad version of sad emotionality. Who are these people? How do they feel? You aren’t gonna get many answers outside of a generic sad mixed with one other defining behavior choice (the Mom is judgmental, the Husband is confused etc). Shout out to the Dad who brings some real active listening and life to the stage. On the negative side, The Mother and Husband character’s especially pick one emotional note and play it for the entirety of the performance. As characters who clearly hold a lot of weight for Nessa, some kind of specificity in their emotional journey should be articulated and brought to light by the director.

There is an ending scene that the audience is asked to assume is a time jump that undercuts a very dramatic and significant moment for Nessa that should be the climax of the show. This ending scene adds no humor or levity to the story and I heard multiple people confused leaving the audience as to why it was necessary.

The last monologue by the lead character is beautiful and impactful, but the pace at which the poetry comes makes one wonder if there’s an edit that could be made to make the moment more impactful. Less is more when the poetry is coming out of a fire hose.

My overall impression

Beautiful script with creative language and a wonderful leading performance.