Please Don't Cry

What I liked

I loved the open-book nature of the show. Dione let’s the inside-out and does it in a way that you are always rooting for her, but can’t believe that all of this is real (but it is). Attending on Father’s Day meant a lot of the material was a little extra real. There were some pauses in the show, but for me, that only lead to the authenticity of her emotions. While it’s easy to mask emotions with a bit, the reality is this is a woman who has had to navigate huge life events that are usually spaced apart. Having to talk about this on Father’s Day meant that it would be harder for her to cloak herself with a “tight 5,” but to her credit, she didn’t. Her willingness to share that (and her acting ability to do so) makes this show something that can relate to even the most foreign of aliens (you’ll have to see the show to understand)!

What I didn't like

I think to take this from an “A” to an “A+,” you can emphasize the timelines of when events happened (and the time that elapsed between certain events). For example, there is a line that said her Dad had 2 weeks to live, but as the rest of the story is told, I don’t know how long he was around after the diagnosis. How much longer after her Mom passed did her Dad get his diagnosis. Also, where did the now ex- take off to? Why wasn’t he around? Some geographical markers may help as well.

My overall impression

A show about Death, Depression, and Divorce, and you’re asking me to “Please Don’t Cry?” How are they going to pull this off? You’ll need to check it out for yourself to see. Dione Kuraoka’s one-woman show zig-zags through topics that most would find hard to talk about to another person, let alone a room full of strangers; but this is where the charm lives. While some of the settings in the story may not resonate (and yes, they are all real events), the emotions that are tied with them are universal.