Starting off this blog with a bang- I meant to post this Saturday. Ah, well. That's how it goes.
Nevertheless, I wanted to make sure I reviewed this excellent show. I took my elder son to see it Friday evening. It was Mommy-Buddy date night and did we have a great time- especially him, as he was out two and a half hours past his bedtime. Plus he got a candy bar. I was also out past my bedtime; but I didn't get a candy bar. Suddenly, this doesn't seem quite fair. Anyway. The show was a high school production, put on by high schoolers at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre here in Illinois; which, it turns out, is the same thing (essentially) as the high school auditorium. So, high school high school high school. It was: amazing. I've seen one or two of the kids in other local productions, so there were a few initial minutes of "Awww, look how much they've grown!", then I settled in and started noting away. And there was a lot of great. This show had a lot of fantastic (well, for high school, anyway) technical aspects, so it was decently impressive that way; it certainly served the show well in setting itself apart from the typical high school production. The sets involved myriad television monitors, on which were shown both live and taped sections of the show; asides, monologues, and dialogues with the actors. Other than the monitors, they were fairly minimalist, composed mainly of platforms and such for the actors to walk on and move about when necessary. As there were a lot of different scenes in different places, this worked quite well; the monitors also did some work here, showing public domain photos to place us in certain locations. I remember my days acting (if you could call it that) in high school productions. Badly painted flats, actors with (for the most part) more enthusiasm than talent (if you were in my high school productions and are reading this, you were definitely one of the ones with talent); we were lucky if we could afford rented costumes. We didn't even have microphones. So: wow. The plot was also fascinating, if a bit far-fetched. Based on the Cory Doctorow novel, a group of teens becomes caught up in a terrorist attack on San Francisco. They are captured by the Dept. of Homeland Security, imprisoned, and questioned (i.e., tortured) for days on end. The lead, Marcus Yallow, is released on the caution that any future toe out of line- even to telling anyone, including his parents, what really happened to him- will result in his again being captured and, this time, never being released. Though shaken, he decides to fight back and gets his fellow teens to join him in creating an underground online resistance. Perhaps I am naïve in believing it far-fetched in this day and age; perhaps it really could happen. Well, I mean, it has happened; we've all seen the news (we have seen the news, haven't we?). Terror suspects have been captured, questioned... tortured. It's a horrible, brutal, real thing. What I find far-fetched is the idea of it happening to teens. To kids. This I find unreal. In our government; in our society; I just can't believe we'd go that far. Hopefully, I'm right. The other thing I have an issue with, and this is purely a personal thing is the idea of not trusting anyone over the age of 25. Damn. 25?? Really? Okay, this is just an idea expressed by the characters, so I'll let this one go. I remember being a teenager; oh, how well I remember. 25 seems so far away. Seems like you'll never get there; then one day you blink and here you are on quite the far side of 25. When did that happen? And where's my senior discount? My cardigan collection? My walker with the flames painted on the sides? Oh, and get off my lawn. The sets were great and the story interesting. The main thing I must rave about, however, was the acting. It was really, quite very, GOOD. These kids obviously believed in the story they were telling, and had worked incredibly hard to put it out in the best way they could. The hard work showed, in the best way possible. Special mention must be made of Johnny Hohman, who played Marcus. Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly- there may have been a scene or two I don't remember- but as far as I recall, he was onstage the entire time. This was roughly a two hour show; and his concentration didn't lapse once. By the second act, the whole audience (barring the two clueless people who, of course, were sitting right next to me, and who were talking through the whole thing) had been sucked into that concentration and were watching with rapt attention. An impressive feat. But I must also make mention of the entire cast. Many if not all of the kids played several parts, and so they didn't get much of a break either. I've been in several shows, and, while I enjoy being onstage, it must be admitted I like my lazy break time chilling backstage as well. Not so for these kids. Lesson taught. This production is done. Being a high school show, it only ran for two nights, more's the pity, but then it would be quite a bit much for these kids to put forth so much crazy wonderful effort into both this and their schoolwork. I heartily recommend this show, if only on the strength of this production; if it plays in your area, give it a go. It should be mentioned that, although I brought my son, it's not a kid's show. It's rated PG-13 I think, and he's nine. I hemmed and hawed over whether to bring him, but I felt awkward seeing a high school show on my own (I know one of the kid's mothers, but still). So I asked, and he was interested, so I took the chance, and he really really enjoyed it. It sparked some discussion on the way home, which is what a show like this is all about. I believe he was just at the edge where he was able to deal with what he saw, even if some of it went over his head (at least, I hope some of it went over his head), but that's an individual case for each parent to decide. Congratulations to the cast and crew for their hard work, and to Dominic Cattero for helming this excellent production. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
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Rebecca FrohlingWriter, dancer, actress, mother, me. Archives
February 2019
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