Brilliant Traces

Raimound did a very extensive review of the play, so that doesn't leave much room to say much. My observations on top of this:

Anne Tomasetti and Aaron Kubey did an amazing job portraying their characters in the play. Frank Dattalo is a very efficient director, allowing Anne and Aaron's training and experience shine through while keeping them reined in his vision of how the play is presented on stage. Voice actors on stage are very difficult to integrate with ASL actors, and Frank did it by having them wear neutral colored clothes often standing in the shadows, flitting here and there or in one place for periods of time.

It is so refreshing seeing two characters interact with each other, not a larger scale theatre production with a dozen actors. There is chemistry between Anne and Aaron, and their energy melds or bounce off one another. Their conversations are very redundant but if not for character's varying responses to other (a full fight, making out, any emotion two people stuck in a room would have, pushing the envelope to drive a point home) it would be one boring play.

One thing that totally blew me away is: clarity of sign language use. No sloppy or slippery signs. Signing slow or fast, they're always clear and it was weird to be able to follow the whole way through. I've known Aaron and Anne over the years and they use their signs well and working together on this production, that is a great collaboration. One factor may be that it's only two people and their signing styles to grow accustomed to very quickly, not a larger group with individual ASL uses.

It makes sense that it's a one act play, not two (though the play is 90 minutes long) and as a sometimes actor myself you need that one act to maintain the intense energy. If it was broken down into two acts, I can't imagine trying to hold on to it after a 15 minute breather.


One last thing I'd like to mention is, two people are dealing with internal issues. Nice.

Bravo to Frank, Anne, and Aaron!!