Private Eyes
Mar. 12th, 2004 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night I went to see Private Eyes (by Stephen Dietz) at the Loeb Ex. I'd not heard of it before (nor the playwright), so I had no idea what it would be like.
The show started late; one of the leads was experiencing noticeable back pain. This meant that there was plenty of time to cycle through a number of songs, including Hall and Oates' "Private Eyes", which was a nice touch. Happily, the actor was able to make it through the show after all, and his performance was quite good; I hope it didn't cost him too dearly.
The show was wonderful. It's about a couple where she has an affair... but it's that plot on a couple of levels, since they're also actors in a play about a couple where she has an affair. I love plays that successfully play with levels of reality, and this did a wonderful job of that, suddenly changing which level you thought you were on, with the added twist of what one character wishes happened, as he tells his therapist. This was particularly noticeable as people seemed to shift every so often between layers... and it all worked. There's some wonderful dialogue, careful timing, and some conversational loops that repeat through rehearsals or different layers of reality.
On the technical side, the costumes were regular clothes, and the set purposefully unimpressive (though there was a waitress station that had an amazing variety of stuff hidden in it). The sound was mostly for in-between times, and worked well. The lighting was done well, with spots and low light as needed. I still find the clicking on of certain lights aurally very noticeable, but I think I'm going to have to get used to it (I've been noticing it more recently, and wonder whether it has something to do with the parallel rise in using computers to automate the lighting).
The cast did an excellent job, with the partial exception of Adrian the director, who not only seemed to lack presence, but didn't have much chemistry with the woman he had supposedly seduced. His body language was uncomfortable, all the time. Still, it wasn't a big enough flaw to detract from the other four actors' performances, which rang clearer.
If anyone is interested in going, there may still be tickets available at the ART box office for the other two performances (tonight and Saturday night at 7.30). If you have time, I highly recommend it.
The show started late; one of the leads was experiencing noticeable back pain. This meant that there was plenty of time to cycle through a number of songs, including Hall and Oates' "Private Eyes", which was a nice touch. Happily, the actor was able to make it through the show after all, and his performance was quite good; I hope it didn't cost him too dearly.
The show was wonderful. It's about a couple where she has an affair... but it's that plot on a couple of levels, since they're also actors in a play about a couple where she has an affair. I love plays that successfully play with levels of reality, and this did a wonderful job of that, suddenly changing which level you thought you were on, with the added twist of what one character wishes happened, as he tells his therapist. This was particularly noticeable as people seemed to shift every so often between layers... and it all worked. There's some wonderful dialogue, careful timing, and some conversational loops that repeat through rehearsals or different layers of reality.
On the technical side, the costumes were regular clothes, and the set purposefully unimpressive (though there was a waitress station that had an amazing variety of stuff hidden in it). The sound was mostly for in-between times, and worked well. The lighting was done well, with spots and low light as needed. I still find the clicking on of certain lights aurally very noticeable, but I think I'm going to have to get used to it (I've been noticing it more recently, and wonder whether it has something to do with the parallel rise in using computers to automate the lighting).
The cast did an excellent job, with the partial exception of Adrian the director, who not only seemed to lack presence, but didn't have much chemistry with the woman he had supposedly seduced. His body language was uncomfortable, all the time. Still, it wasn't a big enough flaw to detract from the other four actors' performances, which rang clearer.
If anyone is interested in going, there may still be tickets available at the ART box office for the other two performances (tonight and Saturday night at 7.30). If you have time, I highly recommend it.