This week on the rundown we calm down a little bit — just five reviews this time. Shows in LA, Rhode Island, and online. Some good stuff including work from returning faves Chalk Rep, Siobhán O’Loughlin, and Candle House Collective.
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Chalk Lines — Chalk Rep
Free; Los Angeles, CA & Remote; Through December, 2021
Billed as an immersive audio experience, Chalk Lines is experienced at physical locations in Los Angeles or at home. Consisting of five recorded plays, the production features “underexplored communities in Los Angeles District’s 8, 9, and 10, BIPOC and LBGTQ perspectives.”
Recently, the NoPro Review Crew discussed vital questions around intentionality and design for immersive projects: Why is a story being told? Who is it for? Why is it immersive? And how will immersive qualities be implemented? Productions can be derailed when these questions aren’t concretely defined by creative teams.
In the case of Chalk Lines, the fictionalized stories were loosely tied to their locations; the value-add for listening to each play at its site was minimal. Especially for a company with a history of producing site-specific theatre, this was a misstep. Transportation was a compounding problem: Chalk Lines is spread out over miles and requires parking in dense areas. Chalk Rep estimated 90 minutes for the entire experience, although the plays themselves encompass 66 minutes. All told, it took more than three hours to experience three of the five plays during an off-peak traffic window; even then I couldn’t locate parking for two of the plays.
This begs key questions: did the team evaluate if (and how) listening to each play in its respective location would impact the understanding and resonance of that work; did the team beta test a full run of the physical experience during the design phase; did the team weigh how traffic and parking would affect the experience’s flow?
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Set in LA’s Union Station, Luis Alfaro’s “March of Time — Time Warp” was the most successful site-specific piece, incorporating elements of train travel (literally and allegorically) and referencing historical events connected to the station. Although Chalk Lines’ plays were wonderfully written, performed, and produced, their excellent quality cannot override the production’s foundational design hiccups.
— Laura Hess
Every Day I’ll Hope — Siobhán O’Loughlin
$40-$45; Voice Trax West in Studio City; Through Aug. 21 with a possible extension
Every Day I’ll Hope is a new immersive piece from Siobhán O’Loughlin that’s as emotionally affecting as it is funny, bringing a surprising level of intimacy not just between audience and performer, but between audience members.
The show takes place in a recording booth studio. Four audience members sit on one side with headphones on, while Bambi (O’Loughlin) acts as audio engineer.
Bambi is a TikTok star/Twitch streamer who veers heavily into geek culture, her favorite fandoms including Star Wars, Star Trek, and “League of Legends.” During our session, she wore a lavender wig, light-up cat-ear headphones, blue lipstick, and glitter makeup. She wasn’t shy about having a lot of followers.
Yet Bambi was more introspective than her “brand” would lead you to believe. She’d gathered us to help her record the fantasy audiobook she’s yet to write. She cast each of us as an archetype, then asked increasingly personal questions, mining for inspiration. She teased out revelations that quickly got very intimate, underscoring the mood with audio and visual cues from her booth.
But it didn’t feel as though she was exploiting us as impromptu muses. What she was looking for went much deeper. And she shared herself with us, too, her dreams and ambitions and how they’re going or, more importantly, not going. Any creator — be they a TikTok e-girl, novelist, musician, painter, or otherwise — could likely relate.
You might think you know everything a character like Bambi is, but you don’t. And that’s the point. Behind every creator, there’s a real person. They’re affected by mean comments, they yearn to be heard, and every day, they hope for something better than the day before.
— Juliet Bennett Rylah
Fairy Tale Farm — Clockjack Productions
$12–15; Bristol, RI’s Coggeshall Farm Museum; through Aug 1
Between scenes, which happen every 20 minutes or so, I spoke with a few families who also weren’t sure if FTF was supposed to be for kids or adults. Children’s activity books had been handed out with programs, show marketing featured little kids running around the farm, and there was a “make a fairy wand” booth by the live music area. But the writing is 100% aimed at adults and adults only. It’s not raunchy or violent. It’s just that jokes about divorce and death, delivered by competently sincere actors, don’t land for 8 year-olds. The one exception, according to the two kids who weren’t too shy to answer my questions, was Hansel and Gretel’s scene at the Candy House. Watching grown-ups fight about candy and exercise while wearing funny clothes “is just funny.”
— Leah Davis, from her Full Review
Ed Note: This spot used to have a capsule review of I Swing, You Swing: A Swinging 70’s Mystery by The Center for Sexual Re-Centering. We have since learned that the performance we attended was not representative of a public performance, and this materially impacted the review. We intend to revisit the show at a later date when the show returns this Fall.
Lovers Anonymous — Candle House Collective’s Firestarter Initiative
$67.25; Telephone; Run Concluded
In this intimate experience which runs across three days and several phone calls, a participant is asked to take on the role of a volunteer for a foreign country’s “Call-an-American” Initiative. It all sounds innocent enough. But in classic Candle House style, there’s layers underneath. That foreign country is Amet: a true meritocracy where people can ascend in society without fear of any of the various -isms: no sexism, no racism, no homophobia. The catch? Romantic relationships are forbidden. And punishment is exile.
Two of the citizens that you’re about to meet — Lili and Chantal — have been caught in a serious relationship. You, a third party, are the American who’s been asked to speak to them (at first together, and then separately) as their fates are being decided. One pathway leads to a rehab clinic, the forced renunciation of love, and getting to stay in utopian Amet; the other outcome is being cast out from Amet forever. But it’s easy to forget the situation during the show as the bubbly but naive Lili is bursting with questions about American dating culture, while the cool and shrewd Chantal probes you about her potential for success in America, as a Black female scientist.
Eventually, it’s revealed that not only are you part-investigator and part-confidant, but you’re also expected to take on the role of judge and jury for their fates. This is perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the performance; sans familial and romantic connections, and knowing what I know about the American experience and American history, should I choose to send Lili and Chantal off to America? Or perhaps even tear the lovers apart, knowing that they want different things? It seemed like the designers wanted us to go down a specific path (and it’s the same one that felt supported by the evidence as I saw it), but like all good stories, there’s a part of my mind that still wonders: What if?
Days later, I still don’t know if I made the right choice.
— Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor
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