Category: Theatre

REVIEW: Bonnets: How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder

Ella Larsen Leave a comment

8:00pm • Friday, February 17, 2023 • Lydia Mendelssohn Theater

I had a fun evening attending Bonnets last Friday, although I was more impressed by the acting and production than the writing itself. My cast shout-outs go to God, played by Sophia Lane, Prudence, played by Kaylin Gines, and Valerie, played by Olivia Sinnott: partially because they were just my favorite characters, but also because the three actors filled their roles with particular verve. One thing I appreciated about the script was that each actor had their time to shine. Each character developed a type that, once placed in a scene with another, created surprising and entertaining dynamics, especially once the timelines became crossed.

The set, designed by Lance Vance (depicted in the image above), lent itself to the plot, with the overlapping frames above the three settings visualizing the colliding timelines. While unchanging, it remained dynamic by virtue of the way the actors interacted with it in many dimensions. The costumes, designed by Mallory Edgell, were similarly ingenious. Each character wore a period gown rendered in pale neutral fabric, save for a panel or two which were patterned in esoteric characters reflecting the playful sci-fi elements of the plot. I liked how the uniformity of the costumes, all of which used roughly the same fabric, unified the women’s narratives while the cut distinguished each character by period and class. The costume change in the end was also clever, evoking the punk movement of the 1990s and recentering the story in the present, where women continue to be “corseted” in contemporary ways.

This brings me to an element brought up in the panel discussion after the play which I found interesting. A question was posed to the panelists about how the play breaks barriers of representation, and two of the panelists answered frankly that they didn’t believe it did. I’m inclined to agree; the feminism of the play didn’t feel particularly radical. Perhaps the embrace of violence as a means of resistance was meant to be the element of surprise in the play, but it leaned a little too deeply into comedy for me to take it seriously. Overall, I wasn’t enamored with the particular brand of camp written into the script. I felt like, considering its themes, the play could have afforded to take itself a little more seriously, and ultimately the campiness came across more as a product of a rushed storyline.

Of course, none of this is to criticize the impressive cast and production staff who brought this performance together. Regardless of whatever issues I had with the script, I enjoyed the play immensely, congratulate the student actors who will be graduating shortly, and look forward to seeing the others again in future performances.

PREVIEW: The Importance of Being Earnest

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**Photo from the Ann Arbor District Library blog

What: Oscar Wilde’s classic “trivial comedy for serious people,” performed by students in the Department of Musical Theatre

When: 

  • February 17, 2023 8:00PM
  • February 18, 2023 8:00PM
  • February 19, 2023 2:00PM

Where: Arthur Miller Theater (map)

Tickets: $13 for students, $23.50 regular

I love The Importance of Being Earnest, a comedy of manners by Oscar Wilde. One of my favorite memories from high school involved myself and my classmates, many of whom were friends from drama club, reading the play in turns during English. I struggled to describe the story in a nutshell myself, so I’ll quote a fan-blog from 2015 which describes it as “the story of two bachelors, John ‘Jack’ Worthing and Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff, who create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest” (source). I am super excited to see the work interpreted by the Department of Musical Theatre (although the play is decidedly not a musical, so I’m curious what the reasoning was there), and how they have shaped it to fit the in-the-round style of the Arthur Miller Theater. On a more serious note, laughter can be a strong form of self-care, and after this long and sad week, I highly recommend this show to anyone who feels it might help them recover.

REVIEW: Are we not drawn onward to new erA

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**featured image from Ontroerend Goed

8:00pm • Saturday, January 20, 2023 • Power Center

Are we not drawn onward to new erA was a unique experience, although perhaps not one I would be interesting in reliving. The performance, by Belgian arts collective Ontroerend Goed, took place over the course of 75 minutes, with no intermission, and the pace was slow. The story began with a woman waking up, accompanied on the stage by a live tree, with a solitary apple glued to one branch. Soon she was joined by a man, who spoke the first word of the play. For context, the whole first half of the play was narrated in gibberish that was actually backwards-English. Despite this technical fact, the first word sounded like “Eros,” a reference I’m certain was intentional. The man plucked and offered the apple to the woman.

From there, the other four actors were gradually introduced and began to tear the tree limb from limb. I heard several sighs and groans rise from the audience-members around me. That destruction complete, the cast set about littering the stage with technicolor plastic bags, erecting a monumental bronze statue of a man, and pumping the set full of fog, at which point the curtains closed. Against the closed curtains, one of the cast members appeared, speaking backwards for interminable minutes, finally repeating, “?olleH” She imitated a rewinding recording until the syllables were ordered in a way we understood: “Hello?”

Speaking forwards, she gave the audience a speech about how the world has been littered and polluted by the actions of humans, and how it might be impossible to reverse the damage we have done… But then in a moment evoking The Lorax‘s famous “Unless,” the curtains opened again to a projection of the stage on a sheer screen. From there, the audience watched as, minute by painstaking minute, a video played the whole performance in reverse and the cast cleaned up the mess they had created. Literally and figuratively, they dismantled the statue/status of Man onstage.

I was surprised by the notes of Voluntary Human Extinction brought out in the ending of the play. At one point, the actors even pantomime holding guns to one another’s heads. Eventually, all of the actors disappear voluntarily into the darkness of the wings, leaving the woman who started the play to linger, alone, returning to sleep beside the tree to be absorbed as the stage lights lower. This felt meaningful, because her character was both the one who ate the apple in the first scene, symbolizing the “leap” humanity made towards corruption, and the one who advocated most fervently against cleaning up the stage or leaving Earth entirely. I feel that she strove to make the point that there is beauty in living, despite the harmful side-effects of human existence.

Overall, I would say that I enjoyed the performance, but it was so long. On the plus side, I had an extended built-in opportunity to ruminate on the meaning of the play’s palindrome structure. Is it realistic to compare the reversal of centuries worth of environmental degradation to a physics-defying rewinded video? Perhaps this was part of the goal of the work: to force the audience to take a break from their daily lives long enough to engage deeply with the climate crisis.

REVIEW: The Plastic Bag Store

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I had no idea what to expect when going into the Plastic Bag Store. Literally. After seeing marketing for it, I had been asked to go and said yes to see what it was all about; I can very honestly say that it was not at all what I expected. The installation that is the Plastic Bag Store is a mix of art installation and immersive puppet play – unlike anything I had seen before. 

The installation, a grocery store filled with foods made entirely of plastic, was surreal to step into. The resemblance to any other grocery store was striking, and at first glance you wouldn’t think twice that that is exactly what it was. However, upon further inspection you will start to notice… the spinach is made of green plastic bags from Earthbag Farm. What you may have thought was a box of Lucky Charms cereal was actually Yucky Shards cereal with the mascot of a sea turtle holding a six-pack plastic soda ring. Right before you start getting used to it all is when the next phase of the event begins and you are asked to take your seat on the cardboard boxes that have been placed in the center of the store. Cue the puppet show.

Artist Robin Frohardt specializes in her puppeteering art form and the medium shines in The Plastic Bag Store. A stunning and interactive story unfolds from the beginning of single use vases in Act I, to the modern day plastic bag in Act II. Act III of the play is held through the doors of the frozen food aisle and plastic snow is rained on you from above. The third and final part of the play takes place in the far off future and centers around a scientist finding relics of the past in all kinds of plastic held under the sea: plastic bags, tooth brushes, bottles, and straws. I won’t spoil the ending, but it is unnerving to say the least; to return to your world and realize that the grocery store full of plastic was not a far off recreation of our own world is eye-opening. 

While the art and storytelling was undoubtedly phenomenal, I found the message of the piece to be a bit lacking and even misinformed. There was little to no actual discussion on the harmful effect of plastic remains, just the plastic was to seemingly last forever on Earth and that was a bad thing (even coming to that conclusion feels like a stretch). The reality of the plastic issue is far more complex than this and I personally would’ve loved to see this expanded beyond the simplicity of plastic being bad. In a Q&A following the event, Frohardt mentioned that she intentionally did not want to sway the piece to say anything specific about the environmental issue, but instead wanted the piece to simply make the audience think and reflect on the consumerist world we live in today. I think in that sense, the exhibit is a success. 

REVIEW: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

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8:00pm • Friday, January 13, 2023 • Arthur Miller Theater • SPOILER ALERT

Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was a painful but moving exploration of self-discovery, neurodivergency, abuse, and family. The small troupe of 8 actors and actresses did an excellent job of maneuvering between, according to the program, 15 locations, 20 characters, and 49 scenes. Their acting felt tender and genuine, their expressions and voices never played out of proportion, so it felt like I was looking in on a few moments from the characters’ lives.

I also appreciated the way the organization took care to prepare for the play’s portrayal of a protagonist on the autism spectrum appropriately: seeking actors with neurodivergencies to cast in the role of Christopher, forming a relationship with the Autism Alliance of Michigan and creating a dedicated role in their production staff for an ASD Ally/Advocate. Drew Shaw, who played Chris, the protagonist, brought the character to life with authenticity and enthusiasm.

That said, the play was also much darker than I expected, with several upsetting scenes depicting emotional and physical abuse. Mr. Boone lies to Chris about Mrs. Boone’s death; in many scenes, he swears at his son, in one instance hitting him; ultimately, he describes his abusive behavior as an accident and coerces Chris’s forgiveness by buying him a puppy. Chris’s mother, who was in an affair with a neighbor and left the family two years before the play, writes to Chris in a letter that she left because dealing with his autism put too much of a strain on her relationship with her husband and her own personal liberty. I found few redeemable qualities in either of Chris’s parents, so when the ending of the play treated their burgeoning reconciliation as a happy ending, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.

The path Chris took to courage and independence was, for me, the only truly uplifting part of his play. As he untangles the mystery of his neighbor’s murdered dog, he also unearths family secrets which eventually motivate him to travel alone across the country, a daunting mission for any 15-year-old. The play ends with Chris facing the audience, surrounded by the rest of the cast, in wonder of all he has accomplished, asking “Does this mean I can do anything?” We as the audience were left to answer that question, torn between the reality of his difficult home situation and his heart-warming optimism.

PREVIEW: Indecent

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What: a historical, semi-nonfiction play produced by the student theater company Rude Mechanicals

When: 

  • Friday, December 9, 8:00pm
  • Saturday, December 10, 8:00pm
  • Sunday, December 11, 2:00pm

Where: Arthur Miller Theater (North Campus, map)

Tickets: $6 for students, $12 for adults, available online, at the MUTO ticket office, by phone at (734) 763-8587), or at the box office 1 hr before the performance. Additional fees may apply.

Indecent follows the tumultuous story of another play, God of Vengeance, which was written by the Polish-Jewish playwright Sholem Asch in 1906. The story is grand in scope, sweeping from the origins of God of Vengeance in 1906, to its production in Europe, to the devastating effects of xenophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, and censorship during its attempted production in the United States, and finally detailing the lingering effects of the play on its actors and authors during the Holocaust and into the 1950s. The Rude Mechanicals are a student theater company emphasizing creative innovation on classic plays, where students take charge in the entire production process. I am excited to see how they interpret this play with its richly layered themes which feel increasingly salient today.