You Never Can Tell
Nov. 13th, 2006 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night I went to the HRDC production of You Never Can Tell (George Bernard Shaw) in the Loeb Ex. It's a fun Biritsh comedy, touching on the greater issues of women's roles, relationships and whether to bend oneself in them, and how families should be.
It's a bit of a farce, with plot twists and complications, not unlike a P. G. Wodehouse novel, with people falling in and out of love, people having teeth removed, people reunited, and so on. An engagement is formed, and a marriage perhaps revived, while a waiter has the joy of seeing his lawyer son in action.
I liked how they used the space, with the dentist's office just in front of the chairs, a diagonal curtain hiding the hotel space for the other three scenes. The hotel space was also mutable, keeping only a raised circular area and a huge stylized white parasol top hanging at an angle from the ceiling constant between them. My favorite part was when all the Chinese lanterns were dropped from the grid above the set (making me think of Rhinocerous' red umbrellas), their differing heights and gentle glow making the space much more intimate.
The actors did a good job of things, with Dolly and Phil impressively inquisitive, Valentine pleased with his prettiness, the waiter completely affable, Finch quite earnest (and wonderful in his tartan kilt; I don't know the last time I saw a guy in a kilt that wasn't a Utilikilt), and so on. The only character I wasn't sure about was Bohun (pronounced "Boon"): the lawyer was obviously supposed to be quite authoritative, but all the magician stuff seemed a bit out of place.
There was an amazing amount of food in this play (making two Loeb Ex plays in a row with actual food on the set). Some was prosaic (dinner, drinks), but there was also a very drippy pie (pink with white topping that plip-plopped to the floor throughout its time onstage (current theory: strawberry Fluff with a cream topping)). The set and the costumes got messy (I noticed thanks given in the program to a 24-hour dry cleaning place.). Oh, and one character got drenched, as well, so there was noticeable amounts of clean-up as well as set-changing between scenes.
There are performances this Thursday through Saturday nights, and tickets are free for the asking at the box office.
Note: anyone with dental squicks should not see the play, which involves dental tools and sounds.
It's a bit of a farce, with plot twists and complications, not unlike a P. G. Wodehouse novel, with people falling in and out of love, people having teeth removed, people reunited, and so on. An engagement is formed, and a marriage perhaps revived, while a waiter has the joy of seeing his lawyer son in action.
I liked how they used the space, with the dentist's office just in front of the chairs, a diagonal curtain hiding the hotel space for the other three scenes. The hotel space was also mutable, keeping only a raised circular area and a huge stylized white parasol top hanging at an angle from the ceiling constant between them. My favorite part was when all the Chinese lanterns were dropped from the grid above the set (making me think of Rhinocerous' red umbrellas), their differing heights and gentle glow making the space much more intimate.
The actors did a good job of things, with Dolly and Phil impressively inquisitive, Valentine pleased with his prettiness, the waiter completely affable, Finch quite earnest (and wonderful in his tartan kilt; I don't know the last time I saw a guy in a kilt that wasn't a Utilikilt), and so on. The only character I wasn't sure about was Bohun (pronounced "Boon"): the lawyer was obviously supposed to be quite authoritative, but all the magician stuff seemed a bit out of place.
There was an amazing amount of food in this play (making two Loeb Ex plays in a row with actual food on the set). Some was prosaic (dinner, drinks), but there was also a very drippy pie (pink with white topping that plip-plopped to the floor throughout its time onstage (current theory: strawberry Fluff with a cream topping)). The set and the costumes got messy (I noticed thanks given in the program to a 24-hour dry cleaning place.). Oh, and one character got drenched, as well, so there was noticeable amounts of clean-up as well as set-changing between scenes.
There are performances this Thursday through Saturday nights, and tickets are free for the asking at the box office.
Note: anyone with dental squicks should not see the play, which involves dental tools and sounds.