Genius

Kim and I thought we would go out on a wing and see a performance at the University of La Verne. Students currently working towards a theatre major there had came to our class a while back to do exercises with us. It was a play we had never heard of before: Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You In the Closet And I'm Feelin' So Sad. It is sure a mouthful, but the performance was pure genius. From the time we entered the theatre, we could tell it was an absurdist performance. Windows, doors, everything was just askew and unproportional. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I realized that there was a person onstage dressed in all black laying on the ground facing upstage. It was completely bizarre. It all made sense though once the performance began and the actress turned around to be plants. If plants have an active role in the performance, you know you're in for absurdist.

It started out a bit slow. I know that Kim fell asleep for probably the first portion. What I was really intrigued by was the set. Everything worked so perfectly and completely complemented the actors onstage. The actor that played Edward was absolutely fantastic. His character was so believeable and showed such a great contrast from the beginning to the end. The climax of his performance of course comes when he suffocates Melody. The ending, I might say, was a bit provocative but it contributed to the mounting emotions.

I am just at a loss for words. My favorite characters in the performance by far were Albert and Melody. The chemistry and the way they just played off each other was amazing. The performance, I think, was only able to make the impact that it did with the amount of technical effects that were added on. There was this one point in the performance where Albert becomes upset and throws his books and coins all over the set. In order to augment the feeling, the directors often played music simultaneously that matched the feeling very well. They also had crew on the catwalk that would often drop items to magnify the effect. All I can say is wow. This is by far the best unprofessional performance I have ever seen. I only say unprofessional in the sense that there wasn't a lot of money put into the production.