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A CurtainUp Review
The Method Gun
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Actors Practice Crying. . .Go. .—company member Elizabeth Johns
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The theater ensemble Rude Mechs, from Austin, Texas, has created a show about The Burden Company — a small theater collective who were all disciples of a recluse teacher, Stella Burden. The Method Gun chronicles the company for the year after Burden ran off to South America without them. The group’s devotion unwavering, they still continued her 9-year rehearsal process for A Streetcar Named Desire , without any of the main characters present. We see re-creations of rehearsals, acting exercises, and company conflicts.
The five performers are all individuals. All are comfortable onstage and with each other. The Rude Mechs, like The Burden Company, have spent hours upon hours with each other. Five minutes in, they are all front and center, giving in to practice crying for what seemed like a full two minutes — chests heaving, faces contorting, begging for pity. They are aptly showing the ugliness of The Approach, but the appeal as well of the close-knit group and the catharsis.
Leave it to the Rude Mechs to take a topic that would seem to only speak to insider (aka theater insiders), and make it not only fabulously funny, but also universal. How do we part from something that has come to define us? And how do we honor those who have helped define us? I left the theater thankful for this supposed Stella Burden, and her unconventional ideas.
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The Method Gun Written by Kirk Lynn Directed by Shawn Sides Cast: Thomas Graves, Hannah Kenah, Lana Lesley, E Jason Liebrecht, Shawn Sides Production Manager/Technical Director: Madge Darlington Lighting Designer: Brian H Scott Scenic Designer: Leilah Stewart Costume Designer: Katey Gilligan Sound Designer/Composer: Graham Reynolds Stage Manager: Lowell Bartholomee Projection Design: Lowell Bartholomee/ Michael Mergen Dramaturg: Adrien-Alice Hansel Rude Mechs at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W 19th street, 212 924 0077, www.dancetheaterworkshop.org From 3/2/11 -3/12/11 Tuesday through Saturday @ 730pm, and March 5 & 11 also at 1030pm. Reviewed by Amanda Cooper based on 3/2/11 performance |
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Slings & Arrows-the complete set
You don't have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to love all 21 episodes of this hilarious and moving Canadian TV series about a fictional Shakespeare Company
