Thursday, November 14, 2019

review - DARKSIDE - Mesa Encore Theatre

Billy Brandes and Jack Pauly
photo by Justin McBride / Social Profit Media
highlights from local critics reviews - (click link at bottom of each review to read complete review)

Click here for more information on this production that runs through November 24

"There have been dozens of films that focus on space exploration, but I believe Ken Jones' Darkside is one of the few plays that tackles the same subject. Mesa Encore Theatre's Black Box theatre provides an intimate space for this compelling drama that offers an in-depth look into the range of emotions, mounting tensions, and outright terror experienced, both on the ground and on the moon, by a trio of astronauts...ones uses dialogue infused with prose, poetry and passion to depict man's fascination with space travel and our desire in exploring the unknown. His scenes that are set in the two spacecraft are ripe with drama and fraught with mounting terror. While the scenes set on the ground help to break the tension and flesh out the characters, they don't really provide much detail beyond stereotypical soap opera scenes...Under George Canady's perceptive direction, Mesa Encore Theatre's production...allows our imaginations to create the interiors of the two spacecraft as well as the surface of the moon...The cast are all very good, especially the three actors who deliver gripping portrayals of the astronauts. Billy Brandes is exceptional as William "Bill" Griffin, a man who constantly worries about being alone if something happens to the other two...Jack Pauly and Michael Gerardi are equally as good as Edward Stone and Gerald "Gunner" Smith, respectively. ...Under Canady's excellent direction, the audience can truly feel the fear of all three characters as their outcome looks bleak....a moving and often nerve-wracking theatrical experience that depicts the sheer beauty and also the possible outright terror that comes with space travel."   -Gil Benbrook, Talkin' Broadway (click here to read the complete review)

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