While Keypressed = False

Okay, there were some things that I may not have told clearly from the limited space of the review last Saturday.

I actually pondered making the review organized into two parts, but finally decided on the main review for last Saturday and just having addendums, which I knew may fill another whole post, for today.

The time frame of the play was around 1976 to 1986 in the northern part of the country. This meant that the costumes accurately portrayed the fashion sensibilities of that era.

In the first two acts the stage was supposed to be the living room and dining room of a big house. There were times when the action would shift not-so-subtly from the dining table where most of the actors sat and suddenly became quiet to the area near the piano where two of the characters were supposed to have a conversation not audible to the rest of the cast on stage, but had to be heard by the audience seated beyond the dining table, so I do not know if that nuance was clear to some of the audience.

This also meant that unlike in a regular play with the audience on one side, where it was possible that a character facing the audience would have an expression not visible to the others on stage, here a character facing one side of the stage would actually not be visible to most of the other watchers, so they could not rely on that kind of storytelling.

I do marvel though how the props men brought or rolled out everything, including a working piano in the first act to two beds, a wardrobe cabinet and even wrought iron garden furniture.

The best role that I mentioned last time, Josephine, who wore a short skirt in the first two scenes, had a bandage around one knee, and even a Band-Aid on the back of one hand.

It made me marvel all the more at the resilience of the actress, as she was even called on to run (with slight difficulty) offstage at one point. I would have loved to hear the story behind that, and her eventual resolve that despite her injury the show must go on.

More nods to the props department: at the dinner scene they had to show a big bowl of rice brought to the table. It probably was fake like those seen on the shop windows of some Japanese restaurants because otherwise I do not want to believe they cooked a batch for each show.

At one point a character had to drink rum (or simulated rum I don’t think it was iced tea; no bubbles were visible) in a glass that another overenthusiastic character poured coffee into, to the brim. I wonder was it was actually made of and what it tasted like.

At another point a character had to throw a clock on the floor, so I again marvel at the props men who had to fix that and make it look whole and working for every show.

And as I somewhat expected it did take at least two whole posts to write about 2 hours and 45 minutes (relatively long, including a 10 minute intermission) of theater.