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dreamsharkAttended the play last night, and I thought it was excellent. An interesting, thoughtful play, brilliantly staged and performed. The not-quite-in-the-round performance space is appropriately intimate for a play that pulls you inside the head of the main character. There's a large turntable in the middle of the space containing a desk, a chair and a quantity of paper-based kipple. Large bookshelves overflowing with books and more stacks of books in front of the stage complete the decor. Amusingly, a lot of audience members checked out the book titles (yes, they were all S.F. or fantasy, although not all by Dick). And the sheets of paper strewn all over the place were covered with incoherent hand-scrawled quotes from PKD's work, which was a nice touch.
The play itself is a bit hard to follow initially, what with all the visions and flashbacks and talking animals, but it pretty much unsnarls itself by the end. The acting is uniformly superb. Luverne Seifert, who plays Dick, is onstage all the time and delivers an electrifying performance - managing to combine off-puttingly insane with a kind of easy-going leering charm. Amazingly enough, he still had enough energy left to mingle with the audience and engage in spirited conversation for at least an hour at the post-performance lobby party. Also onstage throughout was Kimberly Richardson as Sasha the Cat, who has a lot more lines than you might expect from a cat. Kimberly plays the role with a very nicely realized cat puppet, but also acts out the role herself with an exuberant physicality that makes it hard to decide if you want to focus on the puppet or the puppet-master. Ultimately I think I gave up looking at the puppet and just watched the actress (who is also a dancer - it shows). The other actors play multiple roles, which they slip into and out of with ease. I was especially struck by the actor who alternated between Secret Agent Scruggs and Stanislaw Lem. He somehow managed to change his persona so dramatically when he switched characters that I didn't recognize him as the same actor until the playwright decided to have a little fun with it by playing the hat game (hat on - Scruggs, hat off - Stan, hat on...). And when he is suddenly and mysteriously transformed into a robot, trudging around and around the perimeter of the stage muttering to himself, guess what he's saying? He is reciting the Book of Job! Quite a memorization feat for a bit of throwaway stage business.
I could babble on about the other actors, all of whom are superb, but I can't seem to find their names on the website anyway, so let's just say they were good. One more thing - the lighting was superb. Light and shadow play a big part in this play: there's a whole scene played entirely in the dark, the pure white light at the end, and in between the astonishing first appearance of Agent Scruggs, looking like a panel from a true crime comic.
All in all, this is an ambitious and well-realized play at a bargain price ($15, or less if you feel like paying less). Don't miss it.
The play itself is a bit hard to follow initially, what with all the visions and flashbacks and talking animals, but it pretty much unsnarls itself by the end. The acting is uniformly superb. Luverne Seifert, who plays Dick, is onstage all the time and delivers an electrifying performance - managing to combine off-puttingly insane with a kind of easy-going leering charm. Amazingly enough, he still had enough energy left to mingle with the audience and engage in spirited conversation for at least an hour at the post-performance lobby party. Also onstage throughout was Kimberly Richardson as Sasha the Cat, who has a lot more lines than you might expect from a cat. Kimberly plays the role with a very nicely realized cat puppet, but also acts out the role herself with an exuberant physicality that makes it hard to decide if you want to focus on the puppet or the puppet-master. Ultimately I think I gave up looking at the puppet and just watched the actress (who is also a dancer - it shows). The other actors play multiple roles, which they slip into and out of with ease. I was especially struck by the actor who alternated between Secret Agent Scruggs and Stanislaw Lem. He somehow managed to change his persona so dramatically when he switched characters that I didn't recognize him as the same actor until the playwright decided to have a little fun with it by playing the hat game (hat on - Scruggs, hat off - Stan, hat on...). And when he is suddenly and mysteriously transformed into a robot, trudging around and around the perimeter of the stage muttering to himself, guess what he's saying? He is reciting the Book of Job! Quite a memorization feat for a bit of throwaway stage business.
I could babble on about the other actors, all of whom are superb, but I can't seem to find their names on the website anyway, so let's just say they were good. One more thing - the lighting was superb. Light and shadow play a big part in this play: there's a whole scene played entirely in the dark, the pure white light at the end, and in between the astonishing first appearance of Agent Scruggs, looking like a panel from a true crime comic.
All in all, this is an ambitious and well-realized play at a bargain price ($15, or less if you feel like paying less). Don't miss it.
