Spring Break
Local plays are a polished pair
by Daniel Baron
Arts | 2/24/09
Posted online at 10:57 AM EST on 2/25/09
This past week I saw two plays, both with powerful scripts and strong, small casts. They were both done professionally and gave audiences serious issues to ponder. While the theater can be a place to escape the harsh realities of the world, Lowell and Boston are home to a kind of art that did just the opposite. I was taken deeper into my own realities and led through a path of the common existence shared by all humans everywhere.
The first show I saw was Bob Clyman's Tranced by the Merrimack Repertory Theater, a production about a hypnotherapist asked to help a young African student having difficulties in preparing for exams. The girl's difficulties are likely due to the repression of a traumatic event. A reporter is called in to listen to the patient's taped sessions, because they are relevant to a politically controversial project being planned by the African government that has been approved by the U.S. The reporter agrees to take on the story and is caught between the psychologist's office and that of a U.S. bureaucrat connected to the pending endeavor in Africa.
What stems out of this plot is a series of conversations that presents us with a very real yet often overlooked insight into humanity: We are all trying to entrance those we are with. In the context of Tranced, the doctor tries to put his patient under a spell in order to ease the transition from repression to memory while the official attempts to distract the reporter in the hopes that she might stop digging for the truth. And even when we think we have someone else under our control, that could just mean we ourselves are under a trance and our apparent control is but an illusion.
Tranced is a well-written play. I think some of the scenes dragged on a bit too long and that one was entirely unnecessary, but other than that the production was solid and unique. It's always a relief to see something unexpected and different.
However, many of the lines were fumbled, and there were cases of overacting, especially with the all-too-common over-movement of the hands. But the lines are probably straightened out by now (I saw Tranced opening night), and hand movement-itis happens. I can forgive these things because they barely bothered me; it was too good a show for me to be concerned with a few imperfections here and there.
The first show I saw was Bob Clyman's Tranced by the Merrimack Repertory Theater, a production about a hypnotherapist asked to help a young African student having difficulties in preparing for exams. The girl's difficulties are likely due to the repression of a traumatic event. A reporter is called in to listen to the patient's taped sessions, because they are relevant to a politically controversial project being planned by the African government that has been approved by the U.S. The reporter agrees to take on the story and is caught between the psychologist's office and that of a U.S. bureaucrat connected to the pending endeavor in Africa.
What stems out of this plot is a series of conversations that presents us with a very real yet often overlooked insight into humanity: We are all trying to entrance those we are with. In the context of Tranced, the doctor tries to put his patient under a spell in order to ease the transition from repression to memory while the official attempts to distract the reporter in the hopes that she might stop digging for the truth. And even when we think we have someone else under our control, that could just mean we ourselves are under a trance and our apparent control is but an illusion.
Tranced is a well-written play. I think some of the scenes dragged on a bit too long and that one was entirely unnecessary, but other than that the production was solid and unique. It's always a relief to see something unexpected and different.
However, many of the lines were fumbled, and there were cases of overacting, especially with the all-too-common over-movement of the hands. But the lines are probably straightened out by now (I saw Tranced opening night), and hand movement-itis happens. I can forgive these things because they barely bothered me; it was too good a show for me to be concerned with a few imperfections here and there.
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