The Angel is refreshingly unromantic and avoids cliche…the words work better when considered as a twilight reverie, without insisting on coherence. Musically, it’s an easily overlooked gem.
Month: October 2015
I’ve watched the new trailers as they’ve been released, and my physiological reaction to John Williams’ music is probably similar to every other 40-something sometime geek’s: increased heart rate, loss of peripheral vision (starry eyes), flood of cerebral endorphins… I feel young again.
Louise Maske stretches to see the King pass during a parade, and her bloomers fall to her feet. Her husband Theo, a low-level government functionary, is appalled when he learns what happened (he thinks he’ll be fired), while Louise’s upstairs neighbor is thrilled for the excitement. Soon, men are vying to rent a room in the Maskes’ apartment.
I waited in vain over 500 minutes for a twist that might align the show with something beyond its paranoid, easy target fantasies… The show never questions whether the hackers might be wrong – the group is unambiguously set up as virtuous, despite the implication of their name, fsociety. They love society!
The student company worked extremely well together…they paid attention, which allowed them to pull off some good sound effects, and kept the production hurtling along – the pacing was superb.
Your writing puts me inside your head; unfortunately, your head is up your ass.
What I really want out of a review is “I saw this, I felt this, and THIS IS WHY.” Criticism needs to be more than reporting, more than a PR opportunity for the theater group, more than pap for the incurious masses.
I’m a comics aficionado. My personal library includes the bound complete works of The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, a significant number of Doonesbury volumes, as well as Bloom County… Yesterday, NPR’s Fresh Air broadcast a new interview with Breathed. I was pleasantly surprised: Breathed spoke well and frankly, elevating my opinion of him in the process.
If there’s a given in stage work, it’s that performers and directors get most of the attention (and the credit). Many of my theatergoing friends say, “I don’t really think about lighting.” Well, I’ve been thinking about lighting, a LOT.
Hana Meyers gave the best performance I’ve yet seen from her… Sweet, self-effacing; powerful vocals. I’d recommend seeing this production just for her, but I wish she had a better showcase.
mossislandsounds.com 