Review by anonymous
June 10, 2016What I liked
Similar to another reviewer, I appreciated the commitment that the actors had to this show and the quality of the acting was, on the whole, very high—particularly the actor who played Jim with wholehearted devotion to a character who could have come off as more comical.
Some of the themes brought up by the play were very interesting.
What I didn't like
The tone of the show seemed to be a serious drama about very serious themes. However, the story was undermined by a series of extreme and unsupported choices on the part of the characters.
Although Charles is kidnapped, we don’t really see him distraught about the kidnapping and we don’t see him trying to escape, aside from a weak plea to his kidnapper who brushes him off. Instead, Charles becomes friends with his kidnapper almost instantly and we’re told that they’ve developed a strong bond throughout the play, but we don’t really get to see that genuinely build from anything outside of the characters telling us that this has happened.
Likewise, the storyline between Charles’ girlfriend and brother is equally extreme and hard to buy, and results in gratuitous sexualization of the girlfriend.
Many moments that seemed to be meant to be serious emotional turns got laughs because the turns were too dramatic for the situation.
The most interesting themes, to me, were underserved by trying to squeeze in lots of dramatic and hard-to-believe turns instead of letting those ideas breath and develop more fully. I would love to really understand Jim and Charles’ bond by seeing how their feelings for each other grow through their interactions, rather than having them just tell us that they have deep yet inexplicable feelings for each other.
My overall impression
It felt like the cast was really bonded over this project and it felt to me that this was the writer/director/star’s personal journey expressed through theater. I appreciated that he had a forum to process this story and collaborative artists to work with and supportive audiences to witness and respond to this piece.
Although I felt the writing was underdeveloped and I laughed at moments that weren’t meant to be funny, the show itself was paced in such a way that I stayed with it.
