What I liked
The specificity – names of patients/clients, descriptions of places and people we needed to hear, smell, see, taste with our ears – as they were described to us. The stage was pretty…sanitary…clean and blank – no distractions, just a canvas for the talent to monologue unto. Great lighting ques, GREAT music. Soft humor that balanced out this ice cold topic. So good.
What I didn't like
Would love to see this production as a multi character, bigger moment on a bigger stage with more runtime. If the writer/lead can be this gripping for 45 minutes…cant imagine what would happen with a proper budget and a load of theatrical resources.
My overall impression
What an incredible story. PDFO is a banner for how great art can take a hyper specific and nuanced POV (thr journey of a 28 year old female mortician) – and weave it into a much larger, universal, highly relatable conversation around death and everyones experience with it. Everyone you know experiences death, but nobody you know is a 28 year old female mortician. Really really cool. Straightforward, somehow ice cold and warm all at once. Sydney delivers a sharp, bite sized performance that gives a hint of resolution, but leaves enough on the table for you to be forced to draw some of your own damn conclusions on life, death, and the time youve still got. Jeeze. You can lead a camel to water…
