Ron May’s Stray Cat Theatre began its 2013/14 season this past weekend in its usual uncompromising and challenging style with a new production of the somewhat controversial three hour drama The Flick by Annie Baker.
But what’s important here is what Stray Cat has done with the production. The three leads engage, particularly Louis Farber who, out of the three characters, is the one given to a more animated delivery and emotional outbursts. Eric Beeck’s scenic design successfully captures that unmistakable flavor of an old single-screen movie palace; you can practically smell the popcorn...plus, Coutney Weir’s sudden dance to a hip hop recording is hugely entertaining and gives the play an unexpected boost of energy.
...the fact that Ron May has brought the production to the valley in its entirety enables followers of theatre a chance to see for themselves what all that fuss was about when the artistic director of Playwrights Horizons, who staged the original production, wrote an e-mail to his angry subscribers defending his decision to stage the play in the first place. I can’t imagine Ron doing the same. And neither should he. That’s why Stray Cat is uncompromising and such a necessary element to valley theatre.
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