Austinist Theatre Review: Have You Ever Been Assassinated?

Célébrez la performance! Entertain, or die.

The mutli-faceted, loosely-connected, intellectually-rigorous fare that’s common from the Rude Mechs is again on display in Have You Ever Been Assassinated?. The boisterous-while-intricate, convention-bending staging by director Carlos Treviño coupled with the sharp dialogue and big-ideas-in-small-packages text by playwright Rebecca Beegle is often exceptionally witty and delightfully clever. So clever, in fact, that even though we hardly cared about the characters—a circumstance that’s generally a one-way road to boredom city—we still managed to enjoy ourselves. Sometimes a lot.

Upon arrival, we found ourselves at an old-fashioned vaudeville show, sans mystique (in a good way). The audience is allowed to see through the back of stage and into the dressing room as the actors chat amongst themselves and prepare for the show. Immediately we’re introduced to the idea of the actor as a performer—it’s just a show; they’re here to entertain us. From this opening image the production moves into a series of purposefully sloppy, kitschy, vaudeville routines that had us erupting with laughter. Finally, after nearly 10 minutes, the characters move “backstage”, and the dialogue begins.

A quick break for a plot overview—just in case you care—and then back to the criticism (after the jump): A close-nit family of vaudeville performers is losing their audience. The Redhead, a big-draw outsider whose reputation proceeds him, is performing with the troupe tonight. A bunch of weird shit ensues, including dance numbers, fights, death, Abe Lincoln, and the “multi-cultural machine”. It doesn’t happen quite in that order, and there’re other, smaller, equally as interesting ideas to fill in the gaps.