Everyone knows that renting space for a
theater production can be daunting so what’s to be done if you can’t afford the
rent at the BCA or the Cambridge Y or the Factory? For a while, cabaret was
alive and well after hours, taking advantage of someone else’s run. The shows
would begin half an hour after the end of the show slotted in to the space.
Even that cost something because staff and security had to stay longer. That’s
all but disappeared.
What if you performed in a park in the
daytime? You wouldn’t need lights and sets could be minimal. It’s already
happening in the Lynn Woods (thirty minutes or so from Boston). I saw a lovely production of MUCH
ADO ABOUT NOTHING which moved from clearing to bandstand to water’s edge for
each scene. The advantage of the moveable Shakespeare is that you pay a lot
more attention to the verse. Your brain and your feet are engaged and you
anticipate each new locale. You can’t just sit back and let the iambic
pentameter wash over you (or lull you to sleep). You have a stake in the
performance and a choice of where to stand, which changes every ten minutes or
so.
A few years back I saw a “laundramatic” play
performed (with permission of the premises) in an actual laundry and a cafe
comedy about a pick up artist, in a little coffee house in Brighton where
customers had no idea what was going on around them. The element of surprise
and the audacity of the performance made it delightful.
What
if you performed in people’s houses? Last year Theatre on Fire presented
the powerful VINCENT RIVER (which takes place in a kitchen) in kitchens
all over Boston.
This year they’re presenting Harold Pinter’s nasty little indictment of tyranny
called PARTY TIME in living rooms where the audience members are guests at the
party.
Pinter drives home the price of a “perfect”
society without the “mess” of poverty or dissent by letting us witness a half
dozen or so well heeled partygoers sipping their expensive wine even as the police
are rounding up suspects outside. Only one of them fears for a family member
who has disappeared. The rest happily sign on to the repressive regime because
they think it will make them safe. Director Darren Evans and company play up
the sardonic, achieving a nifty resonance with our government suspending constitutional
rights in the name of homeland security. Bravo, Fire ensemble!
