Results tagged “joeyhood”

Disasters and diseases suck. They kill people, they inspire (with the aid of fearmongers) exorbitant amounts of anxiety, and they provoke playwrights to scribe trite, mawkish, pontificating tripe. Generally. In certain cases, when their implications regarding human relations are looked at from a philosophical, conversational point of view, they've a better chance at being successful (see: Neil LaBute's The Mercy Seat). Sick is not one of those cases.

The Collection, a play written by Harold Pinter and currently showing at Hyde Park Theatre, is purposefully ambiguous and, at times, flat out intentionally confusing. That said, the truly puzzling thing about the performance, which is directed by (and also features) Austin’s own gift-to-the-stage, Ken Webster, is this: In this town where the standing ovation is de rigeur, to the point that a gaggle of pre-schoolers toddling across the street can merit wild vertical applause, Webster and company did not receive a sustained, leap-to-their feet round of deafening clapping from the near full house in attendance last Friday night. Which is not to say the crowd was unappreciative. Oh no. From the laughter that punctuated the evening at all the right moments, it was clear folks got what was going on— as much as one could get it. Maybe, then, everyone was just stunned into ass-stuck-in-seat mode at the end. Or perhaps they stayed down in hopes that the cast would come back out and run through the entire 73 minutes a second time. That would’ve been just fine.

Let us begin this review of bombs in your mouth by lifting a definition for dark matter from Wikipedia: In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is hypothetical matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. And now, let us consider Hyde Park Theatre director Ken Webster has a thing for dark matter. You can pretty much count on his productions to evoke laughter and cringing, often simultaneously, as the plays he selects always leave room for plenty of between-the-lines interpretation. Webster is en garde! personified, keeping his audience on their toes as he continues to advance, advance, advance, refusing to retreat or even shy away from pushing them to think thoughts they might want to pretend aren’t there, but really, they are.