I don’t even know how to formulate into words what I just saw, but let me take Gary’s advice and start and bottom and work my way back to the top...
I was so moved by the curtain call when Nathan thanked Julie and Kristine and both of them broke down in tears; Kristine was full on sobbing and I quite frankly I don’t know how she memorized this in a week. Some of the dialogue is blank verse, but some of it is rhyming couplet iambic pentameter and there’s no faking that. Knowing she only had one week to nail down the script AND put together this caliber performance, well it is time to bow down and worship this woman. Brava!
As for the rest, well it’s impossible to discuss the play/production/performances without spoilers, so stop reading if you want to be surprised
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The play opens with the curtain down and Julie White’s character coming out to give us the standard Shakespeare prologue. A few couplets in and blood starts spurting out of the right side of her neck. She plugs the hole and attempts to continue until blood starts spurting of the left side of her neck too. Now drenched in blood, White becomes dizzy from the loss and starts staggering around the stage, but with a determination to finish the prologue.
This sets the tone for this wacky evening that involves farting corpses, bloody appendages galore, cloth penises, blood, guts and every juice that can you find in a body. There is a spectacular spectacular that is one of the weirdest things I’ve EVER seen on stage.
As Gary remarks in one of the many meta moments, this could be a thinking man’a comedy or it could be a real knee-slapper. Sometimes I was hysterically laughing, but often in absolute shock at what I was witnessing on stage.
Ultimately Mac’s message is rather muddled, but it’s an interesting ride to take. The performances are wonderful. Lane is having a ball as a clown promoted to a maid who dreams of one day becoming a fool. Nielsen is a more practical maid and Julie White is absolutely RIOTOUS as a midwife.
The play leans heavily on knowledge of Titus Andronicus, so read the Wikipedia synopsis ahead of time if you don’t know the play.
In a season that has been largely gutless, it is ironically the show that features the most gutless corpses that has the balls to stand out from the crowd.
Love it or hate it, but you won’t soon forget it
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!