My overall impression
A really terrific, and terrifically performed show, Making Love Over There is a great, frenetic, if sometimes mildly head-spinning piece of theater. Patrick Riley and Zoe Chao fall in and out of love at a faster pace than most of us can manage to strike up a conversation, and it’s almost always spot-on.
From the very start, with the two freezing cold, screaming strangers tearing off their clothes and, just as quickly, breaking apart, we get a sense of the mad rush that we’re in for, and that love can, of course, provide.
Most of the show continues on as such, particular highlights being the couple speaking a gibberish version of an Eastern European language as a couple meets at a train station, a gorgeous languid moment when Riley watches Chao revel in the sun beside a flower that he’s planted for her as The Voice provides a funny bit of narrative, and a sweet and sad meeting at a small cafe more than make up for the few stumbles.
As far as those stumbles go, the strange sketch in which a modern version of lord and lady MacBeth go to take grisly action on the family MacDuff, while a great idea, felt somewhat off when I saw the show, and the original song that followed that sequence, while nice, didn’t really add much to the show lyrically or emotionally. As mentioned in a previous review, another pair of actors added to the cast could potentially eliminate the lengthy stretches of time when no-one is onstage, but it’s an issue that’s mostly well handled by the clever costuming and staging that Lonesome No More! manages to balance throughout the show.
Finally, the last sketch, featuring a frustrated American trying to get his hair cut in a “joyless” foreign country is fantastic. Probably my favorite moment of the show, I could easily have watched an entire show about the two characters, both of whom were portrayed pitch-perfect by Riley and Chao. If the ultimate trick is to wow em’ in the finish, consider this show a blazing success.
Hell, consider it a success anyway. It’s a great show. See it.
