Dichotomy...

Last night I went to a play with my cousin Sarah. She works for the Round House Theatre's education department, so she got free tickets for press night of their new play: Tabletop. I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. It was at the smaller Round House Silver Spring, so maybe there's seating for 50-100 people there. And there were only 6 people in the cast. And you sit so close that it's like you're actually involved in the play, so it was a lot of fun. The play was about shooting a commercial for a smoothie and the various dynamics involved between the director, crew, camera man, prop guy, etc. The lone woman in the cast I was not impressed with, her role just seemed very forced. But the director and camera man were great, and the lowly production assistant was amazing, he stole the show (and his amazingly perfect shaving cream smoothie). I think there was something everyone could identify with in the play and I really enjoyed it. One point of caution however ("won't someone please think of the children?"), there was a lot of swearing, so much so that it even made me feel uncomfortable at times. But I think the playwrite was trying to do a Holden Caulfield sort of thing with the director character to show how hollow he was and how he tried to make up for his lack of self confidence by filling the void with the F word. Overall though, the play was very good and it had a perfect mix of humor and wit and artistic monologues pointing out the foibles and drudgery of working class people. If it didn't cost $30-$35 a ticket, I'd strongly suggest you go check it out. I still suggest you check it out anyway if you can. You'll enjoy it, I promise.

Posted by Rev. Adam on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 at 12:14 PM | Permalink