CE+Aunt+Dan+and+Lemon

Pros 1. The way that Paige Pulaski stayed in character as “Lemon” throughout the entire play was truly impressive. Even in scenes where Lemon was merely an observer, her face continued to twitch. This must have taken an enormous amount of concentration by the actress. 2. The set and props were used very efficiently, especially considering the limited budget. The table and beds were used by the same piece of furniture, which made scene changes very quick as well. 3. The costumes worn by Aunt Dan and Mindy in a few bedroom scenes are very revealing. I thought that Jennifer and Spencer did an excellent job portraying confidence onstage in such minimal clothing. It takes a lot of guts to prance around half naked on a stage, but Spencer and Jennifer never let it show if they felt at all uncomfortable; they stayed perfectly in character. 4. The lights and sound created a very dramatic scene during the murder. The lights are dim and the thunderstorm is raging when Mindy strangles Raimondo. There is a huge thud when Mindy rolls Raimondo’s limp body onto the floor. There is a disturbing scratching noise as she drags the dead man wrapped in tarp across the floor. She doesn’t speak while she does these things, which make the noises more dramatic and frightening. 5. In the ending monologue, Paige does an incredible job mastering Lemon’s nonchalant attitude. In this play, if the actress playing Lemon uses the wrong tone, then the lines can seem offensive. However, Paige maintains Lemon’s point that compassion does not exist and that world leaders help all citizens remain blissfully uninvolved.

Cons 1. Although Jennifer was a great actress and perfect for the role of Aunt Dan, I found myself lost at times because her monologues were so long. The text had many long monologues with no action besides speech, and I have a pretty short attention span. 2. I thought that the pantomiming was a bit lazy at times during the play. For example: When Lemon is speaking about using the bathroom sink, her hands make lazy, subtle motions while she pretends to turn on the faucet and lather her hands. This took away from my focus on the scene; I became aware that I was an audience member watching a stage rather than watching a world in the 1980’s. 3. I was really confused at times because the actors were playing multiple roles. Pieces of some actors’ costumes remained the same as well. The plot was already pretty difficult to follow and required a lot of attention to detail; the multiple roles confused me further. 4. The most distracting thing during the entire performance was the audience. I went on Sunday night and all of the members of the audience were teenagers. During the scene with Mindy and Raimondo in the bedroom, the kids in the audience were cracking up. This threw me off because at first I didn’t know if they were immature or if I had missed some underlying irony or humor in the scene. 5. I thought the actress that played the Mother seemed a bit awkward onstage. Her English accent, which seemed forced, made her talk in a very high voice. This was a little bit uncomfortable for the audience