Saturday, April 23, 2016

When fancy technology and unsophisticated play meet each other

I have not seen many plays performed by professionals to this day, and the only recent memory I have is watching a mediocre drama narrating a life of a musician. Nonetheless, the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" has subverted my impression of play performance to some extent and most significantly, it has showed the promising possibility and future of combining technologies into modern plays. I was astonished to figure out that how the stage can be so advanced that it can have so many functions. The stage itself can be seen as not only a wide screen which can show images and videos but also as a moving machine, especially in the part when the front stage started to lower down to make a scene in the train station with proper decoration and the part where the back of the stage extended part of itself, forming stairs that the main character can walk on “in the air”. I also like the way they showed the different houses and families in this block. With all those small bulbs on the surface of the stage, audience can easily sense what they are performing when the lights lines up to show the contour of the street and different houses.

Besides the well-used technology that gave audience a visually stimulating experience, all actors show those characters’ personal trait. Christopher and his father feel real to me and the way the performers showed Christopher’s inner world and his autism is quite effective. I like the idea of showing overwhelmingly massive number symbols and equations “floating” on the stage when Christopher cannot control himself or is frightened or disordered by outside influences. By doing this, audience like me can develop an insight or a visual sharing into Christopher’s inner emotions and struggles.  

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