Priscilla continued

A few more thoughts on Priscilla Dreams the Answer. First, the name of the director was Melanie Garber, I guess that's kind of an addendum. My other additional musings have to do with the script. I'd thought not too long ago, "I wonder if there is such a thing as a play that is too short?" Everybody has been to plays have been too long, far too often in fact this is a major problem with plays in general. I guess part of this is our the ADD addled go go nature of our society, and that we have limited attention spans, all that stuff, but also don't make sit still in one place for a really long period of time because that's uncomfortable, you know what I mean? Anyway as a rule I believe less is more, shorter is better. And Priscilla Dreams the Answer is a pretty short play, it's about an hour long, which I admire and enjoyed about the play. But... I almost wonder if this is a case of a play being too short by even five or ten minutes, during which time I would have liked more backstory or more of a sense of character behind the second lead character/romantic interest James (I think his character was named James? Right? Let's go with that). I found that his character was introduced, Priscilla follows him on the game shows she quirkily enjoys and which he bounces around and then he enters Priscilla's life and you know everything that happens in the play happens. He's an interesting character, but where we have a strong sense of who Priscilla is, and even her boss and the aliens all have motivations which I felt I had a grasp on, but James was... I hate to say it, a little two dimensional? He has this quirk that when he goes through this process of internal searching he can answer any question and the play doesn't explain how or why that is and I actually appreciated that about the text and he takes his greatest comfort in empty TV sound stages, sounds good. But I don't know, other then a desire for companionship and his quirky love of bubble wrap, what is it about Priscilla that he connects to? I'm not really sure.

Overall I felt the play to be a collection of components all very artfully put together with strong characterizations, well written dialogue, I mean everything is good. But it didn't feel original, it felt like a pastiche of quirkiness and existential crises. And today, I figured it out, KURT VONNEGUT! Science fiction? Check. Humanism in the face of absurdisty? Check. Quirky characters? Check. It's like a very artfully adapted and staged but lost Kurt Vonnegut short story. This isn't really a criticism, but an observation. However I do feel that the most lasting pieces of drama are essentially original in some way, but I what do I really know.

Losing my Factory Virginity

Can you believe that before tonight's performance of Fresh Ink Theatre's "Priscilla Dreams the Answer" I had never seen a full production at the Factory Theatre? It's bizarre to think I still haven't done a show there, since it's where so many of the fringe groups in Boston regularly perform and I am at this point a member of the fringe theatre community, so what's up with that? One excuse is that I'm yet to be cast in a show at the Factory, but that doesn't explain why I've never seen a show there. Oh well, that's just because I'm lazy. But I'm working on that!

So anyway, I thought maybe it would be nice to see Priscilla Dreams the Answer, it would fulfill my weekly play quota and I'd be supporting a new company. It wasn't really cinched though until I saw it had a write up in the review throughly applauding the production at which point I was like "shit well fine I'll buy tickets for Saturday" which I did and subsequently, this evening, I lost my factory virginity. Mind you I've been in the space once or twice before, and I'd always kind of wondered "how do you stage something in here?" The answer, like that, and I didn't even have to dream it!

BUT SERIOUSLY FOLKS, what did I think of the play? I liked it a lot. One thing which annoyed me was my own fault which was choice of seating, directly parallel with the couch where a bunch of the action took place, particularly a few key scenes, left me cut from the actors but that's just an issue of the cramped space and not anybody's fault. Overall I thought the real hero of the piece was the direction, which was very strong throughout. The director, who's name escapes me and because I'm not a professional reviewer I don't feel obligated to look it up, really nailed the pacing and tone of the script so that interconnectedness of the characters and the absurdity and universality of their situations shone through beautifully. Various moments, in particular the various dream sequences, were also just beautifully staged. The acting likewise was top notch, the ensemble really came together, even if at first the guy with the beard's wacky hobby shop owner didn't convince me at first by the end I was fucking sold. And oh man, that ending. Given the content of the script, which to me was fun and insightful and quirky and everything, but not really new or a revelation, shouldn't have gone off that successfully. But man, something about that ending just punched me right in the gut, just that last moment with the two of them asleep, something about that moment just brought a little tear towards my eye but not all the way out. Making my way through the piece, I was thinking "this is really funny and interesting, am I going to get some of that heavy duty you-only-get-this-in-theatre catharsis we're always looking for? Yeah I did, I have to say. I did. And for that the production receives my applause.