No drinking, no wryness, no gothic Southernness in this one. Instead, a reviewlet from our correspondent Jennifer Mendenhall:
Thursday, March 1
I just saw the opening of The Unseen, by Craig Wright, last night. It made me laugh, and it made me think, which is about the best recommendation for a play that I can make.
Plot-wise, two men are in a prison where they have been for ten years. They don't know why they're there. Periodically they are tortured. They have never seen each other, but they can talk to each other, and they talk to the guard who brings them food when he's not torturing them. The guard is not happy in his line of work.
The rest is questions, of the big kind, posed in an elegant and subtle way that pleasingly tickles the brain. I love it when I'm watching a play, immersed in the reality of the world onstage, and then all of a sudden I'm launched into a larger universe, where I can see the questions I have about my own life being parsed onstage. It makes me believe in the possibility of connection and the power of communication. It gives me hope for the human race, and it makes me laugh at myself, which is always a relief.
The other interesting thing about this play is that it could be done anywhere. Theater Alliance, Woolly, or Arena Stage - it would be at home on any size or shape of stage, with a tiny or a large audience. It should definitely be done in a prison some day.
The actors, Richard Bekins, Gregor Paslawsky and Richard Furlong, were so very good. They made it look easy. The direction and design were good too; it's being performed in the Bingham theatre, which is a smallish black box with arena staging. The show runs through April 1st.
Gotta go: 12 hour tech rehearsal today.
-- Jen
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