
Original, Clever, Delightful, Great acting, writing, direction, Quirky
See it if:
you're ready for a cure for all the bad theatre you might've been seeing lately; delightful performances & timely script tightly presented.
Don't see it if:
you're easily confused by imaginative narrative or staging, have no interest in history or current events or in innovative theatre.
A great evening of theatre, with great humor and subtle wit suffusing the entire production. Sparking performances by a wonderful cast and crisp direction pull off the imaginative script, a fresh take on the tragic Stanford White, Evelyn Nesbit and Harry K. Thaw triangle.
Tongue in cheek staging often crosses the fourth wall into the contemporary present, as do the characters, and humor catches as the timeless aspects of deviance and violent abuse kick in seamlessly.
In a welcome surprise, the actors wonderfully manage to achieve something pretty rare on stage: very evenly matched, very honest & wry performances across the board; a very solid ensemble.
The ending, however, might have been tighter, bringing home the points of money & celebrity entitlement more sharply to our present—a problem perhaps fixed by a small adjustment in the staging—but this is a minor complaint.
In all, Dementia Americana is a terrific evening that shouldn't be missed. And all deserve to be AE by now.