The Places We Go

UNIT Productions—Pantages Studio

A blend of transparencies and shadowing drives this show. The transparencies look nicely made and the transitions good smoothly. The shadow interaction make this imagery work well. It’s a well conceived idea that takes the normal transparency art to the next level.

I can identify well with the story-line, being a first generation Canadian-Asian, but this play takes the opposite perspective. Normally, you see the struggles of the first-gen Canadian, versus the loss of the homeland family because of the emigration. It’s a fresh angle but the sequences can be a little too long. They use too many examples at times, and some of the lists are too long.

The singing here bothered me somewhat. If you’re going to sing at your show, you should be an accomplished singer. By contrast, if you want to assume the part of a sorrowful young girl singing, then sing at the level of a little girl. The off-key, weak singing just shows a shortcoming of the artist.

Although scheduled for one hour, the actual time barely runs 30 minutes. Shave the repetition and you have about 25 minutes of real material. There’s not much of a plot here and that’s because of the short run time.  This plot needs some twists and development—as is, it’s a bit simple and basic.

Ray Yuen