Third Rail
January 4 - February 2, 2008
Review by frenchglen
A ghost story of isolated, struggling urban dwellers. Extremely broken, disjointed Dublin conversational style asks a lot of any cast, and here they mostly succeed. Bruce Burkhartsmeier carries the central role well, including an astonishing third scene monologue. One crucial visual moment may need more weight, pause. Probing modern tale.
4 comments:
Tough show to pull off and Third Rail does it beautifully. If you are an actor you shouldn't miss this show, each performance is a lesson in honesty with Burkhartsmeier leading the way- some of the best work I have ever seen Michael O'Connell do- Chris Harder's nuanced performance is both hilarious and brilliant and Val Landrum blew me away- she was so grounded and at the same time so honestly raw. Loved the set and the sound and lights. Wonderful, wonderful stuff going on in a heartbreaking, haunting piece.
Wow, couldn't disagree more. I really did not enjoy this performance. First of all - it's a weird script. I didn't care about any of the characters and I think that's mostly the playwright's fault. Bruce was great but poor Michael ends up being filler to a story that's supposed to take place over a year (production really failed to effectively show the time progression). Chris Harder was lovely but I had a tough time with Val's performance. I felt she yelled the whole time and faked her way through the character's emotional progression. Also, her collapse to the floor in grief- yuck, I wanted to laugh. The director should'nt have her doing it if she can't sell it. Basically I coudn't wait for her to get off stage. To be frank, I thought the only redeeming feature of this production was Jen's fantastic sound design.
I liked this show. As written, it did seem a little thinner than some of the other plays Third Rail has done recently, but it was still a solid production. If nothing else, you shouldn't miss this for Burkhartsmeier's triumphant return to the local stage after having been rather quiet in recent years. He was awesome many years ago in ART's "How I Learned to Drive," and he's awesome in this. Kudos to Third Rail for bringing him out.
i can not believe all the raves I am seeing! This play was a disapointment. The acting was forced at best and the story was very weak.
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