Riot Resist Revolt Repeat

Vault Projects—Dragon Arts Collective

This gets the award for best production. The many flights of stairs on the way up to the venue were decorated to echo the themes of the show and the two strange doctors in the play meet you eerily and silently at the entrance. The stage and theatre is elaborately and beautifully decorated and they make use of every type of media there is. The work involved must have been tremendous and I appreciated the care and effort. I want them to do my next party.

The same kind of effort should have gone into the play. After around thirty plays, this is the first example of amateurish acting I’ve seen. Melanee Deschambeault was lovely and competent in the lead. The two other characters each had different flaws. Eric was stiff in his acting, which should be gone by this time in the run. You can tell he loves the theatre but I suspect he may be better used in directing or producing. Riva was strangely loud and startling when she did her lines. The shrouded character was superfluous, though they needed something for the fourth character to do until she was needed for the final scene. The script was interesting, though the medical scenes were awkward and uncomfortable to watch due to the roughness of the acting. The removal of various audience members of and on stage was pointless, and interrupted the flow. Despite my whining of too many one person plays; I would have preferred to see Melanie do this alone. The aboriginal aspect was a little preachy and the flow strange and disjointed, without a smooth pace. If she carried the story alone, this would have been avoided. They already had most of the medical scenes taped, and should have stuck with that. An interesting experience but not one that entirely satisfies. Great script but the execution needs work.

Lisa Campbell