Audience Reviews of Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars at SF Fringe Festival 2002


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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: The Way Light Srikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Kelly Sandlin Reviewer Email: ksandlin@attbi.com Rating: 4 Stars As we sat in the tiny theatre to watch this play, I began to think about space and limitation. I thought about the same thing at the end. Joe Besecker has used a limited time (1 hour) and a minimal space, to show the limitless territory of the writer's imagination. Danielle Thys displays considerable talent in the supple manner with which she switches from one famously fucked up literata to the next. Her deftness with accent is punctuated with understated movement. This prevents the performance from taking on the overwrought quality of multicharacter portrayals. Christopher Slater, as the haunted and grieving playwright, does not serve as a mere backdrop. His smooth, cynical, Tennesee Williams showed just the right glimmers of underlying pain and anger. This play was intelligent and emotional, a combination not easily forgotten. Play: THE WAY LIGHT STRIKES FILLED MASON JARS Reviewer: Diana Orgain Reviewer Email: diana_o@pacbell.net Rating: 5 Stars A wonderful play by Joe Beseker! The script is exciting and complex. The audience is pushed to re-evaluate it's perception about writers, artists, and the creative process. Great perfomances by Christopher Slater and Danielle Thys. Voted best of the fringe - You have a few more opportunities to see it next week - Don't miss it!!! Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Tierney Hobson Reviewer Email: tierney@mbay.net Rating: 5 Stars I was completely captivated by the performances in this play. The heartache, guilt and extreme turmoil that a friend must feel when their mate commits suicide is so convincingly portrayed here that I was reduced to sobs by the end. Danielle Thys's performance was stellar as she seamlessly metamorphosed into the different characters--she really is superb. And how she still managed to deftly dance between extreme sadness while still gracefully interjecting moments of humour--was a wonder to behold. I was so engrossed that when the play came to the end I'd forgotten where I was--that to me is a true sign of success. This is a MUST SEE! Particularly to see the brimming talent of Danielle Thys. Five stars all around! Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Frequent Fringer Reviewer Email: Rating: 5 Stars Another magnificent play by Joe Beseker! A play with perpetually significant content performed with sensitive excellence by Christopher Slater and Danielle Thys. Danielle Thys' performance is nothing short of amazing. It is a real treat to partake of such a knowledgeable understanding of the role and such a rendering of theatrical excellence.This whole play is a gem and a journey into the intensity of relationships that had me wiping away tears intermittently with congratulatory applause. See it.!!! One more performance on Saturday at 1 p.m. Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Tim Bauer Reviewer Email: Rating: 5 Stars The script itself works on so many levels -- and then the performances bring it all home. A beautiful, thrilling, amazing piece that will make you think, feel -- and truly appreciate what good playwriting is all about. Don't miss this one! Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Dawson Moore Reviewer Email: dawson@dawsonmoore.com Rating: 5 Stars Really great show. Danielle Thys is one of the truly top notch actors in this town, Christopher Slater is understated and fabulous, and the production is smoothly directed, touching and professional. Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Victoria Reviewer Email: Rating: 5 Stars An emotional rollercoster, well worth the ride. Danielle Thys' dazzling portrayal of four complex, deeply troubled women is a tour de force. Don't miss it! Play: THE WAY LIGHT STRIKES FILLED MASON JARS Reviewer: Mike Ward Reviewer Email: IsisArtsCo@aol.com Rating: 5 Stars The Bay Area is blessed with some exceptionally talented theatre artists and occasionally the opportunity to view them in a "sampler" plate comes along, particularly at the Fringe. For those who have not experienced the work of San Francisco playwright Joe Besecker, THE WAY LIGHT STRIKES FILLED MASON JARS is an opportunity to nibble upon some of the flavors that frequently appear and unify his body of work: a fascination for literary figures, the blurring of the line between reality and illusion as presented in the context of a theatrical world, overlapping and concentric thematic circles which oddly resonate from moment to moment, and addiction --frequently sex, alcohol and pills-- with odd twists into murder, abortion and incest. A deliciously dark humor flavors his work and it is often intended to provoke. THE WAY LIGHT STRIKES FILLED MASON JARS is no exception. It is rare to be able to balance all of that in a one-act play, yet Besecker manages to do it artfully. A bo! nus to the evening's proceedings is seeing the playwright's muse, Danielle Thys, perform. Since appearing as Melody in Besecker's DEAD HEADS in the early-mid 90's, Thys has shown herself as the preeminent interpreter of the playwright's complex and disturbed characters. She has an innate understanding of the musicality of Besecker's texts, rhythms that are deceptive and that separate the good or merely passable from the gifted. Flowing with feline facility from the main character, playwright Maggie, into a triptych of literary heavyweights --Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion-- Thys' ease and grace fuses with a presence that is always captivating without relying on forced emotional pyrotechnics to command attention. Her performance is modulated both to the space of the theatre and to the interior landscape of these four deeply troubled women. As the male counterpart to the proceedings, Christopher Slater is best in the first part of the play. His opening as K! evin --Maggie's collaborator in writing and emotional trauma-- shows promise, as does his Tennessee Williams. However, he doesn't quite latch on to some of Besecker's shifts and rhythms and at times goes for choices too large for the space and the emotion of the characters. A bit more subtlety and nuance are required to keep this soulful, sordid soufflé from slightly collapsing before it is finished. Ian Walker directs and designs the evening's proceedings with sensitivity to the alternating delicate and harsh tides of the text, being mindful of the fragile webs the playwright has crafted that connect these lost, disparate, deep and deeply troubled characters. In the hands of a less sensitive director, the piece would have unwound after the first literary vignette between Carson McCullers and Tennessee Williams (a delightful and disturbing scene where Thys and Slater really are cooking). Yet Walker kept the proceedings focused and moving along in a cohesive, coherent mann! er, allowing these damaged souls the space to spar and dance through emotional minefields without interference. THE WAY LIGHT STRIKES FILLED MASON JARS is a wonderful opportunity to see some of the best in the Bay Area come together for a provocative, intelligent and appealing mélange of the region's finer creative forces. Catch it at EXIT Stage Left before this feast of talents disappears. Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Vince Vitale Reviewer Email: WorldGazer@aol.com Rating: 5 Stars The Way Light Strikes is about the extinction of hope and support in relationships. "Marriage is either regeneration or doom," says one of the characters. Playwright Joe Besecker uses the vehicle of prophetic insights to have the characters tell their own stories of current angst and dismal end. Through the eyes of playwright characters Kevin and Maggie, we gain insight into the somewhat fictionalized lives of Tennessee Williams, Sylvia Plath, Carson McCullers, Joan Didion and others, to reveal why some of them may have run out of reasons to live, not able to appreciate little things . . . like the way light strikes filled mason jars. For this viewer, the interesting perspective of the playwright, the apt direction of Ian Walker and the fine acting of Christopher Slater are all completely overshadowed by the pure brilliance of Danielle Thys. Thys has one of the most phenomenal stage presences I've ever encountered on any stage. I would pay to hear her perform the San Fra! ncisco White Pages, knowing her performance would make it seem like The Greatest Story Ever Told. I cannot imagine any actress better in the sophisticated woman role than Danielle Thys. She is a goddess of exquisite delivery and timing. Make her your reason for seeing The Way Light Strikes and you won't be disappointed. Play: THE WAY LIGHT STRIKES FILLED MASON JARS Reviewer: Mike Ward Reviewer Email: IsisArtsCo@aol.com Rating: 5 Stars The Bay Area is blessed with some exceptionally talented theatre artists and occasionally the opportunity to view them in a “sampler” plate comes along, particularly at the Fringe. This year’s Fringe once again gives us this chance to taste from the diverse palette of regional talent. Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Susan Reviewer Email: sallen@vsite.com Rating: 5 Stars Beautiful directing and acting of brilliant writing, this is a play beyond the best. Joe Besecker has created two complicated but engaging writing partners, Kevin & Maggie, who also portray the three famous partnerships - Williams & McCullers, Hughes & Plath, and Dunne & Didion - in the guise of rehearsing their scene writing for a project about the writing partnerships. Kevin & Maggie communicate their experience and feeling for each other in their scenes about the more famous pairs. If you wonder why some things don't seem true to your knowledge of the more famous pairs, remember they have been interpreted by Maggie and Kevin who have unresolved conflicts of romance, remorse, and respect invested in their scene work, the one are of their partnership that is mutually treasured. After a full day of fringing, this was a great surprise. Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Frawst Reviewer Email: Rating: 5 Stars On this scale my enjoymaent of this piece is more 7ish stars. Honestly. Danielle Thys gives possibly the best performance I've seen in my three Fringes. The program blurb makes it sound much more pompous and stodgy than it is. I don't know that you will be able to get in next weekend, I would try to get in during the week if you can (Wednesday night) Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Neil G. Greene Reviewer Email: neilggreene2003@yahoo.com There was no moment in which I did not appreciate this play, and only now, approximately 45 minutes after lights out, a walk through the Exit Theater hallway, down dirty Eddy St., to my car with my lovely lady, and home again, home again lickety split, can I can finally relax and enjoy the intensity of The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars. I have spent many a moment looking at those very jars, envious of their calm pure wedding of light and water—in direct contrast to the ruddy tear-driven-angst drama of this performance—like looking at your own clenched fist, replete with white knuckles and choking fingers, and asking your fist to open so you can see the calm of your palm, but it doesn’t happen, it gets sweatier and tighter and all the more poetic. From the relative safety of my seat in the audience is where I bare witness to a reality I do not want to exist within, but appreciate, because it offers a view into an emotional swamp you want to witness but don’t want to walk! through—most painfully demonstrated in the scene between Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath; most playful between Tennessee Williams and Carson McCullers; most heartfelt between John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. However, the best, or the most sincere or marrow-like part of the play is when Maggie and Kevin are themselves, discussing their relationship and addressing their feelings for one another as playwrites and pained life-collaborators struggling towards the inevitable completion of an exposition on love, loss, pain and a natural inability of dysfunctional yet brilliant individuals to embrace one another or transcribe from the written page the clarity and light the reincarnated authors are known to be capable of writing. Finally, The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars made me think that these people will never be happy and that they live life for other reasons than my own—their work, yet in the end that isn't enough, it's love that they value most, and it's proven all to we! ll with the play's believable and sincere conclusion. Play: The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars Reviewer: Neil G. Greene Reviewer Email: neilggreene2003@yahoo.com Rating: None There was no moment in which I did not appreciate this play, and only now, approximately 45 minutes after lights out, a walk through the Exit Theater hallway, down dirty Eddy St., to my car with my lovely lady, and home again, home again lickety split, can I can finally relax and enjoy the intensity of The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars. I have spent many a moment looking at those very jars, envious of their calm pure wedding of light and water—in direct contrast to the ruddy tear-driven-angst drama of this performance—like looking at your own clenched fist, replete with white knuckles and choking fingers, and asking your fist to open so you can see the calm of your palm, but it doesn’t happen, it gets sweatier and tighter and all the more poetic. From the relative safety of my seat in the audience is where I bare witness to a reality I do not want to exist within, but appreciate, because it offers a view into an emotional swamp you want to witness but don’t want to walk! through—most painfully demonstrated in the scene between Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath; most playful between Tennessee Williams and Carson McCullers; most heartfelt between John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. However, the best, or the most sincere or marrow-like part of the play is when Maggie and Kevin are themselves, discussing their relationship and addressing their feelings for one another as playwrites and pained life-collaborators struggling towards the inevitable completion of an exposition on love, loss, pain and a natural inability of dysfunctional yet brilliant individuals to embrace one another or transcribe from the written page the clarity and light the reincarnated authors are known to be capable of writing. Finally, The Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars made me think that these people will never be happy and that they live life for other reasons than my own—their work, yet in the end that isn't enough, it's love that they value most, and it's proven all to we! ll with the play's believable and sincere conclusion.
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