what: endlings by j.w. brewer
where: the berger park coach house in edgewater
accompaniment: dustin
drinkability: meh. no byob or booze offered. looks like you could buy coke or water. but bonus: they gave us cookies!
show length: 82 minutes, no intermission
out of four: one/four
this was my first rum and coke production as well as my first experience at the berger park coach house (we saw VOOLF in the main park house last month). i went into the show knowing nothing about what i was headed into- which is always an exciting endeavor for a sunday evening.
we entered the theatre with all the players already out and on stage, milling about. i'm typically not crazy about preshows- but this was simply a decision by either the cast or the director to be in the house before the show started, not in character at all. chatting with each other, the audience, the stage manager (her even giving the call of '5 minutes' before they started), we watched what is usually hidden backstage (for good reason!). finally we settled in to the production and the show began.
endlings walks us through a day in the life of 4 strangers who wake up in a room with no windows and seemingly no exits. each character doesn't remember how they got where they currently reside and stumble through a period trying to remember anything about themselves beyond their names and their employment. we soon meet the doorman character (played by jeff newman) who proceeds to remove them one by one for an interrogation- each unique to their situation and seemingly what can make them break (physical vs mental torture).
throughout the show newman definitely wears the most hats and has the most dimension to his character. he morphs and fluctuates throughout the show, leaving you guessing how and what he will do next. sometimes he hits it perfectly on the head and other times he appears over the top and in need of control on stage. most fights and violence were done with precision, but as an audience member sitting in the front row i found myself worried of becoming involved in the action more than once.
while brewer's script illicits a fear inside of all of us (waking up in a strange place, memory loss, violence, torture, our past coming back to haunt us), we find ourselves asking "why?" and not in an exciting way. i think the result would have ultimately been much more powerful if the playwright and actors truly dove into how they would honestly react if they found themselves in the same situation. would your first instinct be to sucker punch a wall immediately upon waking? probably not.
the rum and coke collective are just getting started on their endeavors in chicago and i think they have a bright future ahead. i look forward to seeing how they grow and change in their productions to come.
hurry if you want to catch ENDLINGS before it closes this weekend! tickets are full price $15 with $7.50 tickets available on gold star.
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upcoming february shows:
thursday feb 20th, 7:30pm: sideshow theatre's the golden dragon
friday feb 21st, 7:30pm: broken nose theatre's from white plains
join me, will you?