Friday, September 21, 2007
Severely overdue but here it is anyway.
Caught (there I was thinking why there isn't a word 'catched') a play with Rebecca the not-so-other-day. Like, last-last sunday. Anyway, it was for one of Beck's papers. And to help her out, here's a critique from a not-so-critic critic. Just my 2 cents and lots of salt from your part.
Attempts On Her Life is about well, "Her" she is known as Anne/Annie and a few other names all of which start with 'A' and all of which I can't remember. She starts off having a affair with some guy, with members of the ensemble narrating as if telling a story, or rather, writing a story about her. In the course of the play, we eventually learns that She is also a terrorist, a world traveller who carries a big, red bag that's filled with stones, a little girl, prostitute, physicist, self-mutilating "artist" etc. Heck, there even comes a point where She's a vehicle, specifically which kind, I'm not so sure cause it sounded like either a plane or a car to me while to Becks, it was a ship of sorts.
Throughout the 17, yes you read right, 17, scenarios, all of which are seemingly unrelated though a few of them actually make sense if you put them together, She seldom appears and on the occasions that She does, She is portrayed by different cast members. Perhaps to make it even the more obvious that "she could be any one of us", as one of the characters narrates. The ensemble of international actors/actresses and dialogues in their respective mother tongues serves only to amplify the fact that She could refer to any of us and opens a gigantic umbrella that covers EVERYONE be you Korean, Indian, Chinese, English, American or whatnot.
Come to think of it, the title of the play's kinda like a pun. Literally, attempts to on Her life or how they're trying to "write" Her. Okay, I'm not making any sense.
What else was interesting was the use of live video feeds in the play itself, which is new to me cause one wouldn't expect a theatrical play to adopt the use of cinematic elements. Also, it being an informal play of sorts kept things interesting. There was also a particular scenario in which there were periodical blast from a horn, followed by " SILENCE" being flashed on the wall. What proceeded next was quite disturbing, with four of the casts reading simultaneously that effectively peeled off my skin with the quad-tonal result that they were going for. Think dual-tone, times 2. Duh. But i think it was really cool. What else was interesting was the use of an international cast and their respective mother tongues like I mentioned before.
Much to my surprise, there wasn't an intermission which wasn't so much of a surprise when the play eventually started. Yes, go ahead, cut the irony with a knife. Whatever. I kinda liked the play though it didn't really make sense at the end of it all and what I think is that not many people will like plays like this, which brings me back to the point of there being no intermission. The way I see it, if there were, a third of the say 20 would have left. That's what I think anyway. Either that or an intermission would just anti-climax-size the whole thing.
In any case, I think it was money well spent. Was a new experience for me.
Okay fine, as it appears, it really isn't a critique and I'm not as much of a critic as I would like myself to be. More of like a review. Okay, not. More of like a terrible shot at something. Hoho. Oh well.
Sorry Becks! This is like the best I can do. Pray it helps. =x
9:17 pm