Bradbury and Beyond
Dec. 4th, 2006 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidMotza'i Shabbat I went to the HRDC production of Bradbury and Beyond at the Loeb Ex, which was not really a show unto itself, but two separate pieces, two short stories adapted for the stage.
The first (longer) one was The Veldt, about a dysfunctional family (of course) where the parents install the ultimate playroom that interacts based on human commands. Of course, the children use it in a way unintended by the parents. The whole play seemed very much a future imagined by someone living in the 50s, and the misuse of the playroom was obviously intentional, but in a way that now seems curiously innocent. The play version was ok, but the set (well, costume) changes took too long, and the actors were merely ok.
The other one-act was To the Chicago Abyss, which had a less defined kind of plot, but the actors were more focused. It worked a lot better than the first. It was a different set, all gritty and grimy and such (a long intermission* to put it together, even though it was in front of the other set). The story follows a post-apocalyptic rememberer of things past who's being hunted by the fascist police for inspiring memories of all sorts of consumer goods now unavailable. He's trying to make sure the memories don't die; once they do, no one will try to make the world recover what it had lost.
* Well, they said it was long, but it didn't seem long. Must've been the company :-)
The first (longer) one was The Veldt, about a dysfunctional family (of course) where the parents install the ultimate playroom that interacts based on human commands. Of course, the children use it in a way unintended by the parents. The whole play seemed very much a future imagined by someone living in the 50s, and the misuse of the playroom was obviously intentional, but in a way that now seems curiously innocent. The play version was ok, but the set (well, costume) changes took too long, and the actors were merely ok.
The other one-act was To the Chicago Abyss, which had a less defined kind of plot, but the actors were more focused. It worked a lot better than the first. It was a different set, all gritty and grimy and such (a long intermission* to put it together, even though it was in front of the other set). The story follows a post-apocalyptic rememberer of things past who's being hunted by the fascist police for inspiring memories of all sorts of consumer goods now unavailable. He's trying to make sure the memories don't die; once they do, no one will try to make the world recover what it had lost.
* Well, they said it was long, but it didn't seem long. Must've been the company :-)