Word: play
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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While the rape scene continues, Gibson walks onstage and announces, “Ding! There will now be a short intermission.” Her nonchalant delivery of this tension-displacing line exemplifies her disturbingly humorous performance throughout the play. Her eventual transition between a desperate mistress and a paranoid schizophrenic effectively blurs the play’s reality...
...show’s elaborate set-design and lighting also have a hand in confusing viewer perception. In the first half of the play, the stage is divided into two raised platforms: one containing a deserted island scene and the other, a fully furnished living room. When the lighting switches between platforms, it seems that there is a scene or temporal switch...
...outside world as separate and unconnected realities is shattered. The set’s spatio-temporal malleability works in tandem with other design details: the offstage director’s chair labeled “Hogan” that Bishop frequently occupies, and the disembodied voices that suggest the play might be a product of Bishop’s insane mind...
...engaging its themes, but it does have some notable flaws. Occasionally, Giuliani’s direction crosses the line between dark humor and graphic tastelessness, as in the scene when Bishop eats a dead baby and continually spits chunks of it across the stage. In moments like these, the play is completely inaccessible and repulsive, rather than thought-provoking or funny...
Additionally, Giuliani’s attempt to break the fourth wall fails. Moments where the actors directly interact with the audience are out of place and serve no practical purpose in a play that is already jarring and difficult to comprehend. The debris strewn across the back rows of the theater feels unnecessary, while the moment when Palmer tosses a beach ball into the crowd is awkward and confusing...