In the Company of a Critical Audience

Well here goes. I'm not a big fan of blogging, in fact I resent it. Either way, I've never done it, so I'm just going to go ahead and post a little essay I wrote about that show we saw this last Monday, September 21st. I tried to keep it as brief as possible and (believe it or not) I cut about half of what I wrote.


May I begin this by saying that, on the whole, I enjoyed "In the Company of Sinners and Saints." It was a relatively entertaining way to spend an hour and a half which, at the end of the day, is all you can really ask from a play. With this in mind, allow me to explain that I am a very cynical individual who happens to be a major critic. Being an actor/singer myself (I've attended summer camps from the age of five to the age of fifteen and I can assure you I am by no means an amateur), I feel the need to pick apart the weaknesses of a play regardless of how good it was as a whole. This is why I chose to say that I enjoyed it. Now I can assertively state my critiques and opinions without people assuming I am just "hating on the show." I will begin where any sensible thing would begin: at the beginning. Which, coincidentally, is precisely my first problem; this show did not start at the beginning (or am I alone in assuming it seemed to start somewhere in the middle?). I feel as though starting us in a car with four people who are apparently friends (though one is male and doesn't speak and appears to not be accepted by the others) assumes a level of understanding that we simply do not, and cannot, possess. Who are these people? Why doesn't the guy talk? Where are they going? Why are they all piled in? Yes these questions were all answered later on, but this is precisely the problem! It is simply ludicrous to begin a play with such ambiguity. It would have been more prudent to begin with Lucy and her mother in the morning, giving some dialogue so as to explain the situation. Perhaps something like: "Why are you still here, Lucy?" "Alex is running late mom, she's almost here though." "I see. Is Conner still carpooling with you? I've always felt sorry for him; having to ride in a car full of girls..." "yea mom, he's Alex's cousin and he's not old enough to drive. How else is he gonna get to school?" "Well..." "Besides riding the bus." *insert car honking sound effect* "Oh, that's her! Gotta go mom, love you!" This would've been a perfectly acceptable way to begin a play. It introduces us to the main character in a natural setting, introduces her mother, and answers all the aforementioned questions.
I'm trying to keep this brief, so I'll skip right to the end and leave out the five possible paragraphs of other things I could nit-pick. Two things: St. Lucy and the Video Guy. Firstly, wow, the main character was named after the Saint. How clever. Anyway, I might be alone in this, but I realized as soon as that woman walked into the video store that it was also the police officer from five minutes before. At the time, I assumed they were simply reusing the same actress so that one person could have a large role, rather than three people having small roles. Then Lucy mentioned the "old woman" who was giving away her "wordly possessions" and i immediately realized that this was not the case, they were legitimately the same person who could obviously be no other than St. Lucy (owing to the ten plus references to Lucy's pendant). It was at this moment that I realized more or less exactly how the show would end. I knew that somehow Lucy would have an out of body experience where she had a moral discussion with St. Lucy. The squirrel was kind of a surprise. Ok, I suppose that's not TOO bad, just a little obvious. The Video Guy, however, was just awful. I sincerely hope the writer wasn't trying to make that a legitimate plot twist because it was the most obvious plot twist since Princess Leia ended up with Han Solo. So obvious in fact, that I'm surprised Lucy didn't figure it out! For goodness' sake, he takes pictures of you, shows you he has the ability to mess with things electronically, and says "Alex isn't done with you, I know what I'm talking about." I suppose he could've said "Hey Lucy, I put that picture of you drinking up on Facebook," but this is the ONLY thing he could've done to make it MORE obvious.
For the sake of time, I'll stop there, but rest assured I could go on. And on. And on. Let me remind you, however, taht I enjoyed the show. It was...adequate I would say. I suppose I would give it a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being Les Misèrables and 1 being Cats.) Could I ahve written this show? Most likely not, as such I respect and admire the work. Could I have improved upon a few things? Most definately, as such, I reserve the right to critique it and offer my opinion. After all, that's what blogging is for, right?