What I liked
Stand-out performances by the cast of Jen Tries Vacation. Crisp, clear, heightened behavior and dialogue with enough symbolism for an academic to unpack for days.
What I didn't like
Jen Tries Vacation prepared me to unpack symbolism in the second piece, Locomotive Repair in Three Easy Steps, so I may have been seeking some where there was none. I thought the locomotive was a metaphor for the current election…and the characters were perhaps candidates, but if that’s true, I pieced it together far too late to understand why the opening with the samovar was relevant.
The behavior of the laborer also seemed to shift dramatically without sufficient justification. I understood the logic, as written, but the arc was so abrupt, I thought the character of the laborer lost some of his dimensionality, rather than gaining layers.
My overall impression
Definitely appeals to academically-minded theatre artists. Love the absurdity and the rules of the world in Jen Tries Vacation. Jon Gentry, Brian Wallace, and Allison Youngberg deliver crisp performances in Jen Tries Vacation that allow the meaning of the symbols to stand out, and offer plenty of laughs to keep minds open and engaged in order to unpack some consequences of benevolent racism and benevolent sexism.
