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Suitcase
Or, those that resemble flies from a distance
By Melissa James Gibson
Directed by Zachary Davis
Produced by Appetite Theatre
At National Pastime Theater
4139 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL
Call 773-275-1931, tickets $15
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
Running time is 75 minutes with no intermission
Through December 17, 2006
Suitcase an enigma that is boring
Appetite Theatre Company hooked me with their terrific production of Match last June, so I returned to review Suitcase. What a shock! I left the theatre wondering what Suitcase was about. I’ve no clue. In this 75 minute show (that played like it was 3 hours long), there is little story and no dramatic content to report. The show is a wordy absurdist-styled piece that is tedious, irritating and boring. I can’t understand why a theatre company would mount such as play? Sure it is a challenge for the actors, but who wants to see a play that meanders with lots of meaningless dialogue that goes on and on without saying anything. The script could be in Russian for all the sense it made.
Billed as a comedy, I never laughed. There are two women both trying to finish their dissertations. They talk by phone for most of the show while their boy friends try to get them to open their apartment doors. The girls ignore the guys for reasons that are never made clear. The play is filled with word play, the meaning of words, labels and in a disconnected babble that ramblings on without offering any insights nor anything interesting. The play opens with all four actors singing an atonal song that sounded sour. The show has recorded dialogue and video projections that seem gimmicky and add nothing to the show.
Billed as witty and smartly hip, Suitcase is supposed to be a relationship play but it tediously goes no where. The songs were flat and the constant phone calls between the woman rambled on until I was ready to pull the plug. The characters were a collection of neurotic, vain, heartless women and nerdy, desperate loser men that we couldn’t care less what happens to them. Joel Ewing was the only performer who conveyed empathy. The play revolves around the fact that the women will not let the men into their apartments and the guys keep trying to get in. So what, who cares. I couldn’t wait for this boring play to end. This play is about nothing and nothing happens, only much gibbering. Skip this one.
Not Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: November 16, 2006
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