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- AAAAH!(a sketchy romp)
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Now ...
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- 1play = My Head Was a Sledgehammer
2name = steven
3email = steven@ix.netcom.com
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = This should be a 4+ really. A truly heroic attempt, probably
as close as one could get to making Foreman's material work without being
"in at the creation". Therein lies the rub. Without actually
participating in the creation of the piece itself, I'm afraid no amount
of rehearsal could fill out the life of Mr. Foreman's plays adequately.
I'm also afraid that the intense stylization the piece requires was not
best served by having the director also act -- this is the kind of material
that truly needs an objective eye. Consequently, there was occasional sloppiness
in the execution when absolute control seemed called for. But these reservations
aside, the piece was astonishingly well-performed and hysterically funny.
This is NOT easy material for an audience weaned on linearity and Cutting
Ball didn't dumb it down for us. Rather, if not illuminating all the dark
corners, they kept the piece enormously entertaining while refusing to
pander. Good on ya, guys!
- play = My Head Was a Sledgehammer
2name = Jonathan
3email =
4rating = 5 Stars
5review = THE BEST OF THE FRINGE! Abstract absurd theatre well crafted
and acted. Afringe show that knows what it's doing instead of a blind display
of narcissism. SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- 1play = "My Head was a Sledgehammer"
2name = Antonio Sacre for Theatre Reviews LTD.
3email = Tonysacre@aol.com
4rating = None
5review = The Cutting Ball Theater presents Richard Foreman's "My
Head was a Sledgehammer" at Il Teatro 450, as part of the 1999 San
Francisco Fringe Theatre Festival, through 9/17, tickets/info: (415) 673-3847,
www.sffringe.org
- reviewed by Antonio Sacre, staff reviewer for Theatre Reviews Limited,
on the web at Theatrereviews.com
- Richard Foreman spoke at a panel in a packed lecture hall at the 1998
New York International Fringe Theater Festival in New York City. Before
he sat at the table, the mostly New Yorker audience buzzed with approval
that the NY Fringe had scored such a coup as getting the father (or at
least the cranky uncle) of the avant garde theater movement in New York
City to speak. When he came in, a hush fell over the chatty New Yorkers,
and he asked, "There are 150 shows here this year. Who here is doing
a show at the fringe?" Almost half of the audience raised their hands.
"I bet that 80% of the shows you are doing is crap. Just plain crap.
Why should I go at all? Who is going to challenge me? Nobody here can convince
me to see these shows."
- A young troupe from Canada took the bait, and a lively 30 minute discussion
ensued. He basically mocked, cajoled, pleaded, begged, and asked people
to make theater matter again. In the New York Times in August, 1999, speaking
about the 1999 NY Fringe, he bemoaned, "There's nothing [worth seeing
here.] Nobody is walking out of theaters like they used to in my shows."
- With this as a backdrop, Cutting Ball Theater's presentation of Foreman's
"My Head was a Sledgehammer" at the San Francisco Fringe Theatre
Festival almost works. The design is solid, the actors capable, and the
script intriguing. The stage is ringed by 8 fluorescent tubes that light
the stage in an unearthly glow, 15 children's school chairs set up facing
a tiny blackboard, and little pedestals with apples, books, and a miniature
horse set on them.
- The actors play an emotionally stated, nearly commedia del'arte style,
to varying degrees of effectiveness, sometime within the very lines they
are speaking. And the script wavers between absurdist, to existential,
to polemical, and never quite lands where it seems to want to, specifically,
at any place where an audience can grasp onto. The fault of this seems
to lie with the playwright. However, Foreman spends months, sometimes years
with his actors at the Ontological Society in New York City on each of
his scripts, so maybe under his tutelage the shows actually matter, are
actually worth seeing.
- So, if Foreman where in the audience of Cutting Ball's production,
he might storm out of the theater, demanding his money back. But he would
definitely thank the Cutting Ball for their ambition, their courage, and
their commitment to making theater matter again.
- play= My Head Was A Sledgehammer
- email= Marlounem@aol.com
- stars= 5 stars
- review= The cast was excellent in a very difficult play. Their performance
was definitely star material and I hope they get the recognition they justly
deserve.
- 1play = Sledgehammer
2name = BJP
3email =
4rating = 2 Stars
5review = I was either too stupid or too smart to get anything out of this
play -- I certainly hope it was the latter. From what I could tell, the
performers did a good job. Nonetheless, I would rather have a root canal
than see it again.
- 1play = My Head Was A Sledgehammer
2name = Jacquie B.
3email = jacquie@sirus.com
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = Ok, I admit!! I didn't get it! But the
performances are strong and the delivery is
tight. I laughed myself silly! I scratched
my head a lot! So try to fit this show in twice,
you won't be disappointed.
- Play: ... Head was a Sledge hammer
- Name: Larry McKerman
- Rating: 2 stars
- Review: so cute, a slightly beaten 4 wheel drive with plastic critters
on the hood and sushi in the glovebox & three parking tickets on the
window. I disagree. Objective reality exists.
Play: My
Head was a Seldgehammer
- Name: Robin Krieglstein
- Rating: 4 stars
- Review: Chaos on the edge of meaning.
- Play: My Head was a Sledgehammer
- Name: Malcolm McClay
- Rating: 5 stars
- Review: None
- Play: My Head was a Sledgehammer
- Name: Craig
- Rating: 1 star
- Review: Stream of conciousness idea is great. The language of the play
was a little sophmoric, however.
- Play: My Head was a Sledgehammer
- Name: Belu Rastor
- Rating: 5 stars
- Review: wonderful selection- great cast/director - directing and acting
very good.
- Play: My Head was a Sledgehamer
- Name: Chicony Miles
- Rating: 5 stars
- Review: None
- Play: My Heaad was a Sledgehammer
- Richard V Lynch III
- Rating: 4 stars
- Review: Well-played but too dense to follow in one exposure.
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