Hearts Like Fists Review: Wendy Caster, Show Showdown
(Photo: Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pictured: Aja Houston, Becky Byers, Chester Poon, Jennifer Somers Kipley, Rachael Hip-Flores. Post by August Schulenburg.)
Our first review is out! And it’s from trusted Flux veteran Wendy Caster at Show Showdown! And she likes it!
Enough exclaiming: Let the link speak for itself.
I particularly like the quotes she uses to give a sense of the tone of the play. For reviewers who aren’t bound by word counts, there is something especially valuable about including quotes, especially for a play with heightened language like Hearts Like Fists. It allows the reader to measure their own experience of the language against the reviewer’s judgment in a way that I often find useful as a potential audience member (I often disagree with the diagnosis, though obviously not in this case).
To that end, my favorite quote is:
“This is dialogue that could easily be overdone, hyper-camped-up, but director Kelly O’Donnell keeps the goings-on at exactly the right level of restrained insanity.”
“…exactly the right level of restrained insanity” is a delightful way of describing the tonal balance we were always exploring in rehearsal.
As for her critical notes, do you agree that the music strikes the wrong note at the beginning? We’re trying to capture the kinetic, dubstep inspired soundscape of the fight sequences, interspersed with some playful thematic songs (Chris is actually DJing at the beginning!) Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
1 Comment on "Hearts Like Fists Review: Wendy Caster, Show Showdown"
It’s probable that the music at the beginning is too loud. I’m actually a fan of loud music under the right circumstances but we can bring the sound down a tad to make the experience better for those who prefer their music a tad softer, which I respect.