what: fail/safe adapted (from the novel by eugene burdick & harvey wheeler) by nikki klix & anderson lawfer
where: strawdog's home space in lakeview
accompaniment: ally!
drinkability: great- wine and beer offered at cheap prices at the space.
show length: 70 minutes, no intermission.
out of four: two/four
fail/safe was adapted from a novel of the same name- a semi-historically accurate depiction of the tension during the time of the cold war- where nervous fingers hovered over buttons poised to destroy the world 10x over. we open in a private air force tracking room- three large screens displaying all air traffic (that concerns the government) while they track for UFOs (not of the alien variety). if indeed an unidentified flying object comes into view, air force pilots are ordered to track it down in order to find out if it is a threat or merely a commercial airline off course. we see said circumstance play out in front of us- the warning thresholds increasing as the UFO is not quickly identified. then, as soon as we've almost reached the fail/safe point (no turning back, all attacks go), the plane is identified as not a threat and the tension in the room subsides.
we see the power fail on the tracking devise, and when its brought back up, 6 airliners are on an accidental mission to bomb moscow, russia, with no way to communicate with them. thus- the crux of our 70-minute play.
hugen hall offers a decent amount of playing space, but due to the restrictive nature of the screens needed to visually guide us through the airspace, director anderson lawfer essentially crams the three areas of focus into a straight hallway-esque line down the center of the audience. perhaps this was done so to raise tensions, as you are mere feet away from the actors passing by you (so close, in fact that i sat directly behind the president and couldn't stop staring at the dirty elbow of his suitjacket, wanting so desperately to wipe at it), but often times felt like no matter where you sat- you were missing someone's reaction or constantly stared at a back. for a majority of the seventy minutes that we watched the show as well, the players sat. so- if you were positioned behind someone, you most likely missed everything they were doing facially, as not much movement happened around the stage.
one thing i will say- i was always incredibly engaged in the story- always glancing at the screens to see how far the planes have gone- if the planes that were sent after them were successful, what the enemies planes were doing, etc. all of the small technical details really brought the play to life- and were for the most part completely successful. the play suffered at the missing confidence of the actors- not sure if it was the air of an odd wednesday night at the theatre- but many actors stumbled and questioned lines beyond where you should be weeks into a show. then once the veil was lifted that there was no turning back on the mission and the president made some uncanny decisions for apologies- i was taken out of the story with consistent dialogue of "really?!" on loop. no fault of lawfers, i'll toss this one to burdick & wheeler.
fail/safe closes next week at strawdog- check it out if you want to see how the past could have ended up quite differently.
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upcoming october shows:
saturday october 25th, 11pm: cornservatory's deathtoll
TBD
join me, will you?