After seeing it 3 times, I can officially say I liked The Children, at The Theatre @ Boston Court.
Don't get me wrong: it moved me from the very first time I saw it, but it left me with so many mixed feelings that I didn't really know what to make of it.
I knew the play was going to be a take on the myth of Medea, and that someone was going to save the children from their fate. I even knew there were going to be puppets, but when the puppets first appeared, I was terrified.
We were sitting front and center, and they descended from the roof with a red light backdrop. They looked liked big, white voodoo dolls (I mistook the wires for really large needles) who'd been hung. It soon became clear that they were puppets, but it took a lot of disbelief to get past their creepiness for the rest of the show, and whenever a cast member would touch them or kiss their cheeks, I'd be reminded that they're puppets - not children - and I'd get creeped out all over again.
By the third time, the puppets were wonderfully endearing. I got to really appreciate their costumes - how they are made to look like little Greek children: the girl with the peplos a kore would wear, the boy whose hair resembled that of a kouros. I got to admire how much life Paige White and Sonny Valicenti breathed into the otherwise lifeless puppets with their emotion and their gestures.
And I got used to - and appreciated - the noise. There are many louds noises and lighting decisions that are purposefully meant to jolt you, replicating the shock of an accident upon impact. I hated these "interruptions" the first time and found them unnecessary, but I appreciated them so much more the next time.
Lastly, I LOVED the set design. We attended the talkback with the designer, and it was amazing to see how much metaphor is layered onto the set and how they reconciled what was going on in a child's imagination with what was happening in reality.
Overall, it was a deeply moving play with very wise choices, and I'm so glad I saw it more than once.
Don't get me wrong: it moved me from the very first time I saw it, but it left me with so many mixed feelings that I didn't really know what to make of it.
I knew the play was going to be a take on the myth of Medea, and that someone was going to save the children from their fate. I even knew there were going to be puppets, but when the puppets first appeared, I was terrified.
We were sitting front and center, and they descended from the roof with a red light backdrop. They looked liked big, white voodoo dolls (I mistook the wires for really large needles) who'd been hung. It soon became clear that they were puppets, but it took a lot of disbelief to get past their creepiness for the rest of the show, and whenever a cast member would touch them or kiss their cheeks, I'd be reminded that they're puppets - not children - and I'd get creeped out all over again.
By the third time, the puppets were wonderfully endearing. I got to really appreciate their costumes - how they are made to look like little Greek children: the girl with the peplos a kore would wear, the boy whose hair resembled that of a kouros. I got to admire how much life Paige White and Sonny Valicenti breathed into the otherwise lifeless puppets with their emotion and their gestures.
And I got used to - and appreciated - the noise. There are many louds noises and lighting decisions that are purposefully meant to jolt you, replicating the shock of an accident upon impact. I hated these "interruptions" the first time and found them unnecessary, but I appreciated them so much more the next time.
Lastly, I LOVED the set design. We attended the talkback with the designer, and it was amazing to see how much metaphor is layered onto the set and how they reconciled what was going on in a child's imagination with what was happening in reality.
Overall, it was a deeply moving play with very wise choices, and I'm so glad I saw it more than once.
