Vice

What I liked

Sound design. Production design. Lighting design. Projector work.

What I didn't like

-Casting, actor chemistry, acting beats/motivations/emotions
-story, plot, length
-signature of the director, style

This was unfortunately a perfect storm of a mixture of different aspects that didn’t quite come together. The writing was not great, but perhaps better acting/directing choices could have brought the writing to life more, and made it a bit more comprehensible. The ideas were there, but the execution was very poor. And with a genre like Science Fiction, you run a very high risk of cliched, cringe-y, and “on-the-nose” performances.

There were scenes where the writing made interesting choices, (the banter of the two boys comes to mind), but still had no comprehension or frame of reference. The majority of the piece felt slow and transition heavy simply because so much of the story and main ideas never came across.

Perhaps in future iterations of the run, these issues can be addressed and the play can be improved somewhat. I can suggest perhaps a shorter length, or perhaps more grounded direction on acting beats and chemistry. Even simple fixes like this would help the play start the process of being engaging.

My overall impression

In a play heavily focused on technology and its implications, the writing, acting, and directing choices, unfortunately, seemed to take a back seat. Chemistry between actors was off, line delivery felt stale, and overall plot was muddled. And though, the technical and production aspects of the show, sound, lighting, were superb; it was not was enough to carry the show’s message.