don’t feed the bear

What I liked

I liked the lighting. I thought the performer was very polished and well rehearsed. It felt like we covered a lot of ground in the subject matter.

The most interesting this for me was how they explicitly say upfront that audience participation isn’t allowed and then practically dare you to break that rule for the rest of the show. It made me wonder several times what would happen if I obeyed the performers later commands and whether they were prepared for that possibility or if it would have rudely destroyed their show. I think that this internal conflict demanded of every audience member by itself makes this piece worthy of artistic merit and discussion.

What I didn't like

I know the speaker often acknowledges that they’re just messing around, but I often did feel like a lot of the script was really reaching to fill a runtime. We spent a lot of time on material that would immediately be revealed to be meaningless (thus giving it meaning?). A lot of “lol I’m so random and crazy and messed up” energy that just seemed a bit disingenuous. I wanted a little more variety in the mood and energy/tone too (that dark room makes it easy for an unengaged audience member’s mind to wander away from the material).

My overall impression

Cerebral, occasionally thought provoking, but often meandering and in need of a bit more substance.