April 23, 2009 - Rude Mechanicals’ The
Method Gun
I've had a hard time
trying to figure out how to review The
Method Gun, the Rude Mechanicals
reworked revival of their hit show that is about to go on tour
to New York. The show peeks into the bizarre techniques
of actor-training guru, Stella Burden, as recounted through the
eyes of her students as they prepare a continually-incubating
production of A Streetcar Named Desire - staged
without Tennessee Williams' four main characters.
Being an actor often
requires you to lay your soul bare on the stage, and the
characters in
The Method Gun lay everything bare - emotions, acting
skills, even their flesh. And the audience is not only
along for the ride, but a part of the creative process each
night.
 | ||
See, the premise is
that guru Burden has suddenly disappeared, presumably to South
America, leaving her acting charges to their own devises.
And the co-dependent bunch can't get their act together
to complete the show - much less function as either confident
actors or stable human beings.
With a script culled from
Burden's journals and interviews with her cast, the show
bounces between acting exercises, confessional monologues,
scene rehearsals for the bizarre Streetcar, and the occasional visit from a talking
tiger.
It's a remarkable,
inspired, thought-provoking, and beautifully-acted show.
So how can I accurately describe such a complex and intimate
production?
And then my husband
said, "You know, it was like getting on an elevator, but
turning around and watching the other people on the elevator
with you, instead of staring at the walls." That's
it - permitted voyeurism. With healthy doses of
schadenfreude and redemption.
(Image: Lana Lesley, Thomas Graves,
Jude Hickey, Hannah Kenah, and Heather Hanna; photo by Bret
Brookshire)