What I liked
The script and performances most of all.
What I didn't like
Hmmmm…my guess is a little more rehearsal time in the space, maybe.
My overall impression
The High Captain feels not unlike a blend of Waiting for Godot and Gilligan’s Island. And maybe a fairly political version of Alice in Wonderland. Maybe. Actually there’s also more than a dash of Monty Python as well. The survivors of a tanker ship crashing onto a desert island somewhere in the Caribbean try to live out their lives. Not easy under the best of circumstances it is all made better and worse by the fact enough barrels of gas that send people high as a kite survived the crash to…well, keep everyone high as a kite. The result is a surreal comedy with more than a few piercing bits of commentary about our own lives and society. In fact, as tensions rise and lead to a bizarre election process the world of this island becomes weirdly familiar. Most denizens remain apathetic, easy to persuade but also pretty stupid when you think about it. A minority of total crazies end up in charge by a fluke, who literally pay for their own overthrow via delusion and greed. When the real world finally visits, it doesn’t really feel much more sane. All of which works in no small part because the cast does a uniformly fine job of making the madness real rather than a punchline. Which of course gives the punchlines far more punch.
