One last review
I found one last patron review of Promenading from the city paper blog... thought I'd put it here for posterity.
At 7/31/2006 10:11 AM, rollergirl said...
I also saw Promenading with Lunatics, written and directed by Alia Faith Williams with a cast of four and live onstage musical accompaniment. The piece looks at three women writers from the 1800s: journalist Nellie Bly who went undercover in an insane asylum and uncovered hidden injustices, the woman whose story Ibsen used for "A Doll's House" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman who wrote the (feminist) classic "The Yellow Wallpaper". The only small quibble is that the play gets a bit preachy at moments, but all of the actors did wonderful work playing multiple roles, and managing the heady material. I was most impressed by the direction and staging... there was a lot of fluidity in the interweaving of the stories and in movement from scene to scene. Two standout moments: when Nellie looks at her reflection, portrayed by another actor, as she practices going mad; and the brilliantly creepy yellow wallpaper, represented by two of the actors covered in filmy yellow fabric who crept along the walls, moving offstage into the audience and around the entire theater space... you could feel Gilman's pain and terror. There was a woman next to me who seemed to literally start having a claustrophobic breakdown... way to create visceral theater!
At 7/31/2006 10:11 AM, rollergirl said...
I also saw Promenading with Lunatics, written and directed by Alia Faith Williams with a cast of four and live onstage musical accompaniment. The piece looks at three women writers from the 1800s: journalist Nellie Bly who went undercover in an insane asylum and uncovered hidden injustices, the woman whose story Ibsen used for "A Doll's House" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman who wrote the (feminist) classic "The Yellow Wallpaper". The only small quibble is that the play gets a bit preachy at moments, but all of the actors did wonderful work playing multiple roles, and managing the heady material. I was most impressed by the direction and staging... there was a lot of fluidity in the interweaving of the stories and in movement from scene to scene. Two standout moments: when Nellie looks at her reflection, portrayed by another actor, as she practices going mad; and the brilliantly creepy yellow wallpaper, represented by two of the actors covered in filmy yellow fabric who crept along the walls, moving offstage into the audience and around the entire theater space... you could feel Gilman's pain and terror. There was a woman next to me who seemed to literally start having a claustrophobic breakdown... way to create visceral theater!
posted by Treadwell Theatre at 7:23 PM
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