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drinks Monday 2 June 08
DUBLIN ... Colman Higgins describes the scope and history of Dublin Gay Theatre Festival ... and reviews two of its shows ... Down Dangerous Passes Road ... Confessions of A Mormon Boy /// LONDON ... film on now ... La Question Humaine / Heartbeat Detector /// BRIGHTON ... It's on till 26 May and here's at least 20 Things you might want to know about Brighton Fringe /// PEOPLE ... Who was there at Fringe Report's First Monday 5 May - photographs & article /// CULTURE ... One Culture ... film screening 30 May booking now ... details
Doing Time Through the Visiting Glass
Verdict: Heartbreaking tales from prisoners’ relatives
Dublin 05 – International Bar – 12-17 Sept 05 - 18.15 (19.15)
This one-hour, one-woman show by Ashley Lucas, from El Paso, Texas, is a series of character monologues from people who have been affected – in different ways – from having a relative in prison in the US.
Based on material from over 400 letters and interviews with affected families, the show illustrates the different types of daily heartbreak suffered by those whom prisoners leave behind. Lucas herself is the daughter of a prisoner, which not only gives her a unique insight into the suffering involved, but also made it easier for other prisoners’ relatives to open up to her.
The performance begins and ends with the most important character, a Texan woman whose husband is doing 35 years in a prison 10 hours' drive away. She comes up again at the end of the show, when the extent of her drink problem and bizarre coping mechanisms become obvious.
Not all of the characters are so openly affected. One black woman has lost touch with her prisoner husband, for fear he may ring her in work and her white workmates will know and judge her accordingly. Another male character, who was the only person in his family to graduate from high school, appears uninterested in his jailbird relatives, but one wonders how much he’s covering up.
While Lucas appears to be making a political point – that jail is inhuman and that alternatives should be used – she only occasionally wanders into obvious politicking. Instead she lets the human impact of the characters' stories make her point for her.
Each character is well-acted, with the most touching part being that many of the characters are pretending that everything is OK, only to let the mask over the suffering slip.
A technical difficulty is the sound quality of the occasional music and voice monologue recordings, which makes them difficult to hear. And one of the characters, a Hispanic woman, speaks partly in Spanish - which is good for realistic effect, but not for comprehension.
Cast Credits: Written and performed by Ashley Lucas. Voiceovers - Mario Chacon, Farrell Foreman, Arturo Medina, Jim Miller.
Company Credits: Director – Maria Figueroa. Stage Manager – Maria Fuentes. Videographer – Jorge Nava. Dramaturg – David Johann. Costume Designer – Giovanna Guzman.
END
(c) Colman Higgins 2005
reviewed September 05 / International Bar
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
