What I liked
Over a whirlwind fifty minutes that feels like twenty, Covarrubias and co pack in plenty of ways to laugh while challenging us to explore how we’d feel in this intense, confusing situation. The play does not dismiss or disrespect the dark subject matter. Instead, it chooses to find the humor in a world where everything can get messy despite everyone involved behaving sensibly from their own perspective. We see the real world through the performance, and we are reminded that we are designed to find fascination with the dark and joy in the absurd for reasons that persist long after we leave the theater.
To underline this, some of my favorite bits were the ones that poked holes in the illusion of the performance itself. You can see that they had a lot of fun making the performance they wanted to see instead of trying to play to expectations, and I find that to be a hallmark of the best art.
Finally, each cast member deserves their own specific write up. Every last one of them occupied their character to the fullest and drew their fair share of laughs from the audience. Each line felt very natural and specific to their attitudes and personalities. You find you miss them all when it’s over.
What I didn't like
NA
My overall impression
Alps Adieu is daring by its very nature, spinning a web of laughs around its morbid core situation. Every single character rolls in with their own fully charged personality to bounce around the walls of this Swiss hospital, and ultimately against the mortality that it represents.
