Audience Reviews of Devouring Time at SF Fringe Festival 2002


		SAN FRANCISCO FRINGE FESTIVAL AUDIENCE REVIEWS
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CLICK HERE FOR A RECENT REVIEWS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER CLICK ON PLAY FOR AUDIENCE REVIEWS FOR THAT PLAY <52 American Appetite: Tales of Dirty Young Boys & Spry Old Men, The An Evening At Home Anablep and Other Oddities Back to Kroenig Beckett's Last Dance Beneath Sita's Belly Black Box Confessions Blue Sofa Candistan Caught Sleeping Cleopatra!-And Antony ClockBusters Death Blow - The Show Devouring Time Engineer and The Artist, The Enronicles Exit Laughing! F--king Handicapped Guy Fred Anderson -Professional Goofball! Full Spectrum Improvisation George Bush's Nuts Getting It Wrong Guano dell' Amore - ("Birdshit of Love") Gulag Ha Ha Interactive Solo Performer Daniel Packard Ken and Andy Show, The Lillie, A Musical Looking, Then Pointing Mad Adventures of Chaos For Hire, The Me Laugh You Long Time Menopause and Desire: Or Why Must I Be Middle Aged and In Love? Microclimates: A Crime Against Gravity or The Burrito From Sausalito My Son, the Mummy: Episode Pi nEO-sURREALIST sYSTEMS pRESENTS: HOE- DOWN!!!!! Objects In Mirror (May Be Closer Than They Appear) OUTTAKES: Monologues, Stories, and Social Commentary Rise And Fall of The US/them Empire, The Smashing Icons Something You Might Want Song in Your Blood, The Spray Stranger In Woodstock Surfing Toasters Survival of the Fit Enough/ Fern Talking To Myself Tangled Uncle Jacques' Symphony Underground Movement Theatre Upper Canada Cougar Movement, The Valentine's Play Time Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars, The Winterkill Woods For The Trees Zucchini: The Forbidden Dance!		Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Mary Reviewer Email: Rating: 5 Stars Congratulations to Candice Milan, Jonathan Gonzalez and Gene Mocsy on their creativity and incredible talent! Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Vince Marazita Reviewer Email: vmarazita@jps.net Rating: 5 Stars The Bella Union Theatre Company "devoured" 52 minutes of my time with an uniquely intimate look at a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets. Candice Milan masterfully selected a group of the sonnets, and gave them new life by adding new meaning to words that are close to 400 years old. For those of us who are a bit rusty with interpreting Shakespeare in real time, the excellent direction and acting added to the ease of interpretation for the audience. The non-verbal communication, expressions, gesturing and movements were subtle translators that made for a complete theatrical experience! From the simple gestures of folding laudry to the sensual intimacy of this love triangle, the actors gave a power punch of human emotions. I was frankly surprised that the acting, direction, tech and props blended so well with the sonnets. If you want to see actors doing their job as it should be done, go see DEVOURING TIME and you won't regret it. Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Vonn Scott Bair Reviewer Email: Rating: 4 Stars A huge improvement over what must have been a bad case of Opening Night jitters. Most of the show works now. Very effective dramatization of Shakespeare's sonnets. The dark-haired actor did an extremely good job of speaking the verse and turned in one of the best performances of the festival. One glaring flaw: the slide show includes a picture of the WTC with an airplane in the foreground. Get rid of that and it's a five-star show. Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Jay Martin Reviewer Email: scenography@hotmail.com Rating: 4 Stars Shakespeare lied! He wrote, "This gives life to thee." But his sonnets DON'T give life to the people they're about. Fortunately, the actors of Devouring Time do. They act a story in which the sonnets are their words, and they provide what the sonnets lack. "I sigh the lack of many a thing I lost," wrote Shakespeare. "What things," I've always wanted to shout. "Be specific!" Devouring Time presents specific relationships which actually make it possible to enjoy Shakespeare's vague and vain and boyish philosophy. P.S. Actors, don't kiss so rough! Play: devouring time Reviewer: corinne mcwilliams Reviewer Email: Rating: 4 Stars This play is superbly conceived and very well presented. BUT - get rid of the slide projector! It isn't used enough to be really integrated into the production and the noise of its roaring is distracting. Otherwise - this is super and not-to-be-missed. Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: John Sulak Reviewer Email: sulak@mindspring.com Rating: 5 Stars Director Candice M. Milan, with the help of two other fine actors, found a story connecting several of Shakespeare's sonnets together so there was a real dramatic arc with a beginning middle and end. I don't know if the story was what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote them, but their interpretation is a valid one for today's world (and certainly for San Francisco)! I enjoyed the way they explored the poems and brought them to life. When it was over I wanted to go home and read the original words myself, and that's the highest complement I can pay any performance of Shakespeare. Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Vince Vitale Reviewer Email: WorldGazer@aol.com Rating: 4 Stars Bella Union Theatre Company has put Shakespeare sonnets together to tell the story of a love triangle between a woman, an older man and a younger man. At once compelling, Devouring Time reveals why Shakespeare is always modern. However, Bella is not the RSC, and Americans have difficulty comprehending that because a sonnet is written in iambic pentameter does not mean the words should be weighed down by the meter. I won't call this a "noble effort" because that itself is a cliché of critique. It is worth experiencing, and would be even more so if Bella would rid the stage of the ever-present annoying whir of the slide projector, the slides of which do not appreciably add to the production. It's a rough job taking on Shakespeare for the modern stage, and I'm glad Bella did. Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Sam Jones Reviewer Email: sam.jones@vta.org Rating: 5 Stars Extreme thanks to the creators, whose study and interpretation transform a printed page (a Shakespeare sonnet) into a living experience. Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Karina Reviewer Email: kjsliwin@uclink4.berkeley.edu Rating: 1 Star Great concept but doesn't really come together as a play. The cast took on a great project and it turned out too much for them--the setting over many years, the set with its many flower pots, and the complicated plot with its many sex scenes...I like seeing Shakespeare without a set. Play: Devouring Time Reviewer: Jon Reviewer Email: Rating: 1 Star I like the concept - of pasting together many of Shakespeares sonnets in a modern day environment, but I'm sorry: it just didn't work for me. I find the whole bi-sexual love triangle laughable and what was the whole reference to Sept 11 - come on guys, a little too obvious don't you think? I almost walked out twice but stopped myself. It seemed to get going in the middle but overall, the acting wasn't varied enough, and the interpretation of the sonnets not deep enough to carry the show :-(
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