WM+-+Critique+3+Aunt+Dan+and+Lemon

William Morrison // Aunt Dan and Lemon // Review Good:  1. Costumes- I thought that the costumes of the performers were very well done and complimented their characters’ personalities and added to the overall performance. The baggy light-colored pajamas for Lemon allowed her to act as the sickly middle-aged woman while also acting like a child in bed when Aunt Dan was telling her stories. I also liked the costume for Aunt Dan. I thought that the hat, disheveled hairstyle, the black skirt, and the leather boots added some class worthy of a professor but still emphasized the wild, passionate side of the character.  2. Set- Considering the financial limitation with the play, I thought that the utilization of the table was an inventive way to portray the different scenes. Even though every set used the same table, I was able to understand each scene with the help or props and the actors and actresses. It also reduced the amount of effort and time required changing scenes in this play, which has numerous scene changes.  3. Matthew Bowdren- I was impressed by the acting of Matthew Bowdren. At first, I was very apprehensive when I noticed that he would be playing three different characters (Father, Jasper, and Freddie) throughout the play. I wondered if I would be able to decipher which character he was at the moment. The costume changes helped, but it was his great acting that helped to add a different personality to each of the different characters he played.  4. Jase Wingate- Although Jase Wingate played the less prominent character Andy, he was my favorite performer. When I first read the play, Andy seemed to have a careless, nonchalant attitude, and I believe that this attitude was presented perfectly by the voice, mannerisms, appearance, and overall acting of Jase Wingate.  5. Character interactions- I liked the idea of having Aunt Dan and Lemon interact during the stories(monologues) that Aunt Dan told to Lemon. Watching them play cards and even change positions several times on the bed helped to keep my attention and added a level of affection between the two characters. Bad:  1. Aunt Dan’s apartment- I did not like the way the scene of Lemon visiting Aunt Dan was handled, especially during Aunt Dan’s entrance. The overly dramatic music and the walker almost seemed more comical than sad, especially since the actress playing Aunt Dan stumbled a few times with the walker which revealed her unfamiliarity with the object and made the scene less believable.  2. Lemon- Although Paige Pulaski did a marvelous job memorizing her lines, I did not like the way she presented Lemon. I envisioned Lemon more sickly, frail, and thin, merely telling stories to pass the time. Paige added a sort of joviality to Lemon that made me forget that she was a lonely hermit slowly dying in her own home.  3. Lighting- I thought that it was a good idea to cast Lemon’s armchair in a mellow light instead of the bright lights shining on the rest of the stage. The only downside to this is that other characters sometimes wandered into that mellow light. This happened during the first monologue of Father. Several times during his monologue while pacing the front of the stage, he wandered into the light and quickly retreated.  4. Killing Raimondo- I did not like this scene. I thought that Raimondo showed too much energy when being strangled considering he had been drugged. I also did not like having to watch Mindy untie Raimondo and dispose of him. Mindy noticeably had difficulty with several of the knots, which had only been tightened further by the unnecessary flailing of Raimondo. Overall, the scene just seemed stretched out and unimportant.  5. Chelsey Horn- Chelsey Horn reminded me why it is difficult to play three different characters in the same show. She did not show much distinction between the personalities of the different characters she was playing. She had the same accent and stature for all three. If it weren’t for the change in costume, I would have thought that all three of those characters were the same.