ATP playRites 2011
Feb. 15th, 2011 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqThe ATP playRites Festival started this weekend and I managed to see the premiere of three of the plays for free (thank you ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
othelianna for having a life in the theatre).
playRites, for those of you who don't know, is Alberta Theatre Projects' festival of new Canadian plays. It's in its 25th year and seems to be going quite well. They certainly can afford a high class of hors d'oeuvres at their premiere's at least.
The Romeo Initiative is a tale of Cold War romance - or rather, about pretended cold war romance. East German spies seducing West German secretaries to obtain state secrets. Act 1 was kind of slow and you might not know what's going on without knowing the play's synopsis, but the second act is really good.
Nisei Blue was the best of the three plays, since it seemed to have a solid narrative. The problem is that they seemed to have forgotten a key element in the play, and the play would hold together a lot better with it then without it. I only know about it becauseothelianna saw them rehearsing earlier versions of the play.
The play is about a young Vancouver police detective investigating strange happenings in "Japantown" in the months prior to WWII, and finding star-crossed love instead. It comes to a nasty (but really well acted) end.
Heartbreak is about crazy people, questionable psychotherapy techniques, and psychotic breaks. It's a comedy. It had the same actors as The Romeo Initiative, but they were much better here.
playRites is on until March 6th.
othelianna for having a life in the theatre).playRites, for those of you who don't know, is Alberta Theatre Projects' festival of new Canadian plays. It's in its 25th year and seems to be going quite well. They certainly can afford a high class of hors d'oeuvres at their premiere's at least.
The Romeo Initiative is a tale of Cold War romance - or rather, about pretended cold war romance. East German spies seducing West German secretaries to obtain state secrets. Act 1 was kind of slow and you might not know what's going on without knowing the play's synopsis, but the second act is really good.
Nisei Blue was the best of the three plays, since it seemed to have a solid narrative. The problem is that they seemed to have forgotten a key element in the play, and the play would hold together a lot better with it then without it. I only know about it because
othelianna saw them rehearsing earlier versions of the play.The play is about a young Vancouver police detective investigating strange happenings in "Japantown" in the months prior to WWII, and finding star-crossed love instead. It comes to a nasty (but really well acted) end.
Heartbreak is about crazy people, questionable psychotherapy techniques, and psychotic breaks. It's a comedy. It had the same actors as The Romeo Initiative, but they were much better here.
playRites is on until March 6th.
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 10:08 pm (UTC)So I'm curious: what was the key element missing from Nisei Blue?
I enjoyed Nisei Blue. I liked the story, even though I was a bit impatient with it since I'd figured out most of the "twists", but the final twist did manage to surprise me, so I forgave it. I thought the WWII montage was a bit clumsy, and found some of the actors a bit shaky too (though I saw a preview, so maybe they got stronger during the run). Overall, though, it was a fine show, and the setting was right up my alley.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 10:11 pm (UTC)The little girl that wanders around was supposed to be the ghost of their unborn child.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 11:04 pm (UTC)Also, originally the second time the Lead Female crosses the bridge all wrapped in a sheet, she was supposed to start bleeding spontaneously from the stomach. Later on, the Bad Guy would shoot her in the stomach. (They were having a really hard time getting the blood effect to work, which is why it eventually got cut, I think. It would have been really spectacular if it had worked, though.)