FRINGE: “Places” brought back college memories
- Dev Team
- 21 Jul 2014
Disclaimer: I am not a theatre critic. Other than four years of drama class and a couple Winterfest performances in high school, I really don’t have much experience or knowledge of stage theory or theatre history. However, I do have a small list of credentials when it comes to creative writing. With that, I thought I would try my hand at reviewing (or let’s just call is journaling) a few performances.
PLACES
Written and Directed by Michael Kras
Evan Mulrooney as Alex
Michael Pearson as Jason
Rachel Estok as Rebecca
75 Minutes
Playing at Citadel Theatre
Have you ever been reading a book that doesn’t put too much effort into describing the setting, and then found that your mind has popped the scene into a very familiar place buried in your own memory? This seems to happen to me in the strangest ways sometimes.
Written and directed by Michael Kras, “Places” was 75 minutes of my mind doing just that. The play’s absence of any set dressing—just three chairs for the total three actors, and a piano—with a black curtain behind them had my mind constructing rooms and entire streetscapes. And I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much if there had been a set.
The story follows a few precise moments in the life of Alex (Evan Mulrooney), a struggling theatre student accompanied by his best friend and roommate Jason (Michael Pearson), an accounting student who wanted to be an actor, and building up a romantic rapport with Rebecca (Rachel Estok), an amateur dancer and the assistant stage director for the play Alex is supposedly starring in.
You could call it a coming-of-age tale. Those dramatic and uncertain college years we all are either currently living or fondly remember are the catalyst for the major conflict of the play: a fallout in Alex and Jason’s friendship. Of course, one could also argue that the major conflicts are the inner battles each character is struggling with and that every early twenty-something struggles with—self-doubt.
I’ve lived this play before: my first year in college, in a city that isn’t my home, being dared to live my dreams and rise to an occasion, but also being stunted by the faults of my close friends and my own.
I’ve had those same heavy conversations sitting on street curbs in Hamilton. When I lived on the mountain, I frequently walked home from downtown bars at 3:00 in the morning on the side of the West 5th access. And I’ve been single and insecure in this city as well, missing more opportunities—professional and romantic—than I would like to count.
The way I saw it, “Places” is a comedy. It just has a lot of drama mixed in with it. What I found unique about the play, and what I think you should know going into it, is that the fourth wall is broken regularly by the writer/director, addressing or being addressed by his “actors” at a couple key moments in the play.
I’m not sure I had a perfect grasp on why this was written in, but if I had to venture a guess I might say that the offstage director was supposed to be some kind of conscience, guiding the characters in making hard decisions—of course, I could be wrong about that.
The final thing I’ll note is the music. The aforementioned piano player was critical, I think, to the success of this play. Having an ongoing piano score that captured the mood is what kept me glued to the scenes sometimes. Cleverly too, the score would abruptly end and go into a ringtone riff when one of the characters was getting a call, just shattering the moment the same way phone calls can do in real life.
I greatly look forward to more by the Broken Soil Theatre Company.
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