The Game of Love and Chance

Mom and I went to see a play at Hobart and William Smith last night. Comparing apples to apples it was probably a 6.5 on a 10 scale. And that is being generous. When I was a tot, I did some of my first shows in the Hobart and William Smith Theatre, during the summer with a local summer theatre group. Ah the memories. Also, when I attended HWS, I did some shows there - I directed four and was in at least four others in my three years. I actually directed a fifth show, but it was performed outdoors...So the apples I am comparing are the apples from my experiences there to the apple of my experience of this production.

The show was set in the time period of when the play was written - the 1730s. The set was good, but needed a little tweaking to be excellent. The costumes were good, except for a couple of inconsistencies: mainly that the third "gentleman" in the show was not wearing a coat. Maybe because he was supposed to be a "boy?" I didn't get it and it confused me enough to make me write about it. The lighting was nothing special - though they left the house lights on low for the entire performance. Not sure what that is about either. And lastly, there was pre-show music that had nothing to do with the show. Maybe the director wanted to pump up his cast and the audience? I don't know. It left me confused as well.

The acting was ok, overall. Sadly, the director let one character scream the entire time. And what was oddest, but understandable after reading the director's bio, was that he had the Harlequin character doing a lot of stylized, traditional, exaggerated movements. Yet most of the other characters were much more normal. It just seemed out of place. If the others were more stylized maybe it would have worked better for me.

The script itself is a little talky for a commedia piece. And too focused on the young lovers - especially Silvia - for my taste.

Oh, and the show got off to a bad tasting start in my mouth. We got there at about 6:30, half an hour before curtain. In most instances, this is when the house opens and the guests are allowed to enter the theatre. Not this time. A very young (and teeny) stage manager came out and asked who in the compact mass of people standing in the foyer were out of town friends or family of cast and crew. Literally half the people there then had to make their way through the throng and got preferred seating. Then the rest of us had to stand there for another 5 minutes or more - I wasn't timing it - before being let in. They had a very full house - which is good for them - but the way the house was managed was not very good.

And that was the high point of Saturday - a night out at the theatre! Yay!

Poster for the show and a young lady I thought was the house manager - but she wasn't

Mom holding our programs/tickets