Before Your Very Eyes
I walked into the theatre and saw a handful of children (ranging in age from about 10 to about 15, I think) playing behind a see-through partition. Throughout the pre-show, they played various games in what looks like a typical rec room. (There are giant screens on both sides of the stage.) I wondered if I was going to be watching children play for the duration of the show, and, if so, what that would amount to as a theatrical experience. I did watch them play, but there was more to it than that. A voice ( Rigley Riley ) speaks to and prompts the children, and for the next 70 minutes, we watch as the children grow up, before our very eyes. They are playing dress up, going through different stages of life. In effect, the Gob Squad (the theatrical team that created the show; Bridget Kelso Anthony is the performance coach) presented a meditation on life and death, and reflected our lives back to us. (The mirrored back wall didn't hurt.) The live action on stage is interspersed...