Hands down, the best Chicago play I have seen thus far. It was a perfect production of a script that is a thick mountain heavy wording & a heavy-headed trip of a story. I went with a friend who had never seen a play before, so it was a relief that his first taste of the stage was a great one. Their front-of-house staff also stood out as being especially friendly, accomodating, & approachable.
It was clear that this production had hours of energy from a variety of sources to finely-articulate the end-product. It was staged well, which allowed for poignant, snap-shots of moments. The set was great, which is not something on which I usually have a huge opinion, but it did stand out. It is easy to get lazy when a play has one set, especially when that one set is in a living room. I think the standard should be higher when there is only one set because it is the sole result of the set decorating efforts. This set was a realistic interpretation of a beautiful living room for a beautiful family. It was also the perfect stage to set the scene for the imploding/exploding of the family unit. The fact that the set was great, and the fact that it was destroyed so well, just served as a visual/thematic hammering in of the reality of what was happening to this family. The set actively contributed when it could have been slighted, which is an example of what made me think so highly of this production: they majored in minors. Details did not go unnoticed on the production end, and were highly noticable & effective on the audience's end.
thinkTalk: the official Remy Bumppo Theatre Company blog The Players
In a quadrangle of a play, the effect of one weak link can be an irrevocable poison to the production. Luckily, Remy Bumppo's cast was individually & wholly thoughtful, effective, & engaging.
Will Allan as Billy
His character served as a punctuating point to mark how far the chaos has fallen, as well as the face of the future this diaster has broken. He had limited time to present the entire color wheel of emotion from the perpective of a man young in years & life. He was cast very well in terms of age-appropriateness & chemistry with both parents, which is important because this play means nothing if we don't care about this family. As the only child of a married couple, this character served as the heart of this play's heartbreak. And this actor hit the nail on the head, heartbreak & all.
Annabel Armour as Stevie
She changed with the character. Her acting was like a surfer who adjusts their balance based on the curl of the wave. With the shocking curl of information that Stevie has to survive, there are a thousand tiny moments where an actress could drop the ball, lose character, make the absolute wrong choice, or just lose momentum. Luckily, she avoided all of those potential pitfalls and gave a seething, crystal-clear performance. She created a character whose life i could picture off the stage. She created a character whose past & future I could clearly envision.
Michael Joseph Mitchell as Ross
In a quadrangle of a play, the effect of one weak link can be an irrevocable poison to the production. Luckily, Remy Bumppo's cast was individually & wholly thoughtful, effective, & engaging.
Will Allan as Billy
His character served as a punctuating point to mark how far the chaos has fallen, as well as the face of the future this diaster has broken. He had limited time to present the entire color wheel of emotion from the perpective of a man young in years & life. He was cast very well in terms of age-appropriateness & chemistry with both parents, which is important because this play means nothing if we don't care about this family. As the only child of a married couple, this character served as the heart of this play's heartbreak. And this actor hit the nail on the head, heartbreak & all.
Annabel Armour as Stevie
She changed with the character. Her acting was like a surfer who adjusts their balance based on the curl of the wave. With the shocking curl of information that Stevie has to survive, there are a thousand tiny moments where an actress could drop the ball, lose character, make the absolute wrong choice, or just lose momentum. Luckily, she avoided all of those potential pitfalls and gave a seething, crystal-clear performance. She created a character whose life i could picture off the stage. She created a character whose past & future I could clearly envision.
Michael Joseph Mitchell as Ross
His role serves as the involved but removed, third-party informant/victim. It's a part without tons of stage time, but the most relatable the the audience. In watching this family fall apart, we become involved & invested in their trauma even though we are audience members. Ross is an audience member of this conflict, so his reaction should provide an arena for the audience to emotionally resonate with actualizing the unimaginable. He achieved this, while bringing a fresh energy, comedic know-how, & an authentically personal performance.
Nick Sandys as Martin
He is clearly a very seasoned actor. The challenge of this part is, not only to make the audience somehow able to believe this man made this terrible choice, but to also stir up empathy of the resulting disintegration of his life. As the backbone of the cast, I couldn't imagine a stronger spine.
I forgot about my 3 favorite quotes from The Goat & was very happy to hear them spoken.
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