Beast in the Moon

For my Friday night culture, I headed way uptown for Provision Theatre's Beast in the Moon. A member of the COP is assisting on the show and gave us the code word to get in free for their first preview. I am sympathetic to the need of theatres to put butts in seats, especially in the first weekend. Also, free meant I didn't have to save $25 to see the show. And I generally believe in supporting the efforts of members of the COP.

Beast in the Moon is a newish play about the impact of the Armenian Genocide in daily life. Following the quiet, if rocky marriage of a couple, Beast in the Moon navigates the rough terrain accordingly. It is not meant to be seamless.

The first act was hard to watch, mostly because of the undertones of rape. And because I would have made a few different artistic choices (the doll symbolizes the familiar; she is 15 not 5). But the second act occasionally approached sublime. The set was lovely and functional, and the seats in the new theatre space at the Irish American Heritage Center were some of the comfy-est I have ever sat in.

My only real complaint is that if I had just shown up to throw down $25, I would have been disappointed by the outward trappings. 1. It is hard to get to. Not really near public transit, so it involves driving several miles from the Loop. 2. It is not in a conventional theatre or theatre neighborhood. 3. When you find the theatre space, it looks like a run down high school hallway, and you are given a flimsy, non-designed printed program. Once you go inside, past the ragged blacks that have been nailed to the doorway, the set looks great, there is an Equity stage manager, and the quality of the show is high. While I understand that running a theatre is an expensive prospect, I think Provision would do well to either spruce up their "lobby", or reconsider ticket prices. A few pictures of the cast, maybe some info on the Genocide (which I only know about tangentially because of the controversy surrounding the exhibits of the Holocaust Museum where the Turkish government refuses to this day to acknowledge that the Genocide even happened, and the Jews felt they had exclusive rights to the idea of holocaust.)

Now to contact the rest of the COP for our Sunday meeting details.

on Pandora: "Travel in Time" - Kate Havnevik