Friday, March 7: 5 pm
After spending some time with the
glorious new cast board at the front of the queue, I decided to start
this show with another of the new class of 2014, Lucia Chocarro as
the PA. Despite the number of shows I've seen, there are still
several characters that I'm never quite sure about how to catch out
of the first lift - I have a rough idea, but can't quite zero in. In
this case, I think that point in the show corresponds to her 1:1, so
my assumption would be that she's actually backstage for a few
minutes – however, I've heard from others that she actually starts
out in the basement. What to do? Well, the lift lets out in the
basement anyway, so I rushed out, checked her office (no joy), and
headed upstairs to the ground floor, where she. . . wouldn't. . .
actually. . . be. . . anyway. Hmm. I contented myself with
watching Marshall (James Finnemore) and Dolores (Jane Leaney) have
their sexytimes in the ornate bedroom, all by myself. Just me, them, and a lone black mask. Those moments are always fascinating and
exciting, but also just a little bit awkward. I know they're
performing for me, but I also kind of want to look away. If only
someone else was watching, I'd be fine.
Fortunately, before long, someone did
show up: the PA. Right away, she was very different from the others
I had spent time with. She was darker, more sinister, and completely
inscrutable. No matter what angle I caught her from, her eyes seemed
to disappear into pools of shadow. Where Kirsty Arnold gleefully
reveled in her evil manipulations and Fania Grigoriou looked down on
the world from a lofty, inhuman perch, Lucia seemed completely alien
without the superiority – she's just as distant, if not more so,
but it's a lateral move - if that makes any sense.
It's an interesting take, and that
shadowed eyes thing makes for a very striking visual, but it does
also make it more difficult to get inside her head, making it more
suitable for a supporting role that pops up now and again than someone that you follow for a
full loop. Still an enjoyable loop, but not one that stands out
among my best. As an interesting side note, Lucia's PA seems to like
to spread her attention around. Oftentimes, characters will kind of
imprint on a particular audience member, returning to them time and
again throughout the loop. But of the four major points of
interaction (the 1:1, the 2:1, the neck suck, and the watch quest),
each went to a different person (I got the neck suck!). I'll leave
the debate about which approach is superior to others, as I can see
the argument for both – but I do find it interesting to track the
differences.
At any rate, my loop ended just about
where it started, as the PA disappeared into her 1:1. Time to move
on. I decided to go to the desert and try my luck with the Dust
Witch. During my December trip, I hadn't even bothered to spend any
time with her, because I felt like I had done her loop in September.
But when I stop and actually think about it, all I had done was two
scenes and the 1:1. I suppose I must have subconsciously just
assumed she didn't do anything else during the rest of the loop - which is, of course ridiculous. This seemed like a good night to
remedy the situation, since Laura Harding was playing her - and as anyone
who's read my earlier write ups knows, she's already the scariest
person in the building, even before she puts on a black veil and
starts skulking about a dark desert.
I found her mid-anointing with Miguel
(Ed Warner), with quite the crowd around her. The scene ended
shortly after I arrived, no time to really get a sense of it. She
returned to her chapel to drop off the bowl of. . . stuff. Whatever
it is that she smears all over him. Then she slipped outside, running her
hands along many of ours on the way. I have to assume one of the
other guys grabbed hold, because she pulled him out and off to the
1:1. Damn, fortune did not favor the non-bold.
I've finally reached a point in my
Temple Studios journey where I'm no longer afraid of missing things
if I'm not busy every single second. So I decided I could wait for
her to emerge. I waited. And then I waited some more. Faye passed
by on her way to the sand dance. I kept waiting. Faye left. Still
waiting. Did you know that the sand doesn't actually extend all the
way to the wall? I sure do, now. It stops about six feet out. More
waiting. The lucky white mask emerged. Dusty did not. Waiting some
more. Wandered over to the scarecrows for a bit. Wandered back.
And hey! What's this? We have Dust Witch? Excellent. Loop
resumes. . . .now.
The Dust Witch headed over to Mary's
shrine in front of the scarecrows, and I found myself a spot off to
the side. She began a very cool prayer/ritual session (“set to the
music from Signs!” screamed the playlist-maintaining portion of my
brain), which ended with light streaming out of dozens of holes in
the shack behind her. It was really something to see, incredibly
dramatic considering how low-key it really was. The whole event
ended with the Dust Witch stumbling away, wracked with horrible
coughs. She worked her way over to the wall, then flattened herself
against it just as Dwayne (Luke Murphy) rushed in, coughing and
struggling just as she had. A premonition, I have to assume? My
original intention with the Dust Witch was to follow her to the
reset, then do a full final loop with Drugstore Girl - but after that
spectacular display, I decided to go for the full cycle.
Overcome with anguish, Dwayne began to
strip out of his clothes, twirling around the sand and flinging it
everywhere. As he moved deeper into the desert, the Dust Witch took
my hand. “Please help me,” she said, leading me out to where
Dwayne had been a few moments earlier. Not sure what exactly I can
help her with, but I'm certainly not going to say no. She knelt down
in the sand and began fumbling about with her hand, and it hit me:
she's blind. Of course. I picked up Dwayne's shoes, socks, and
shirt, and handed them to her. She stuffed them into a concealed
sack that began to look for all the world like a false pregnant
belly, and we headed over the the murder dune where Dwayne had
stripped down completely and was flinging himself through the air in
wild circles. I have to admit, I have a lot of respect for the guys
who play Dwayne – that role takes some real balls (no pun
intended). You're just out there for the world to see, with nowhere to hide. Once he finally
expended and exhausted himself, the Dust Witch helped him to his feet
and took him downstairs. Now, since I had been following her, rather
than him, I was in a prime position and was the first one down the
stairs after them. I have to admit I may have taken just a tiny bit
of perverse pleasure in getting between Naked Dwayne and his legions
of schoolgirl fans – although one of them did manage to duck under
my arm(!) when I pushed a door open and get ahead. Where there's a
will, there's a way.
It was a surprisingly long walk to the
first floor chapel, through portions of the studio. I had no idea
the Dust Witch walked through this much of the first floor, and no
idea that Dwayne covered this much ground without his pants. So
weird, so awkward. We eventually arrived, and all gajillion of us
crowded into the bath room (as opposed to bathroom) off to the side,
where the Dust Witch sort of reset Dwayne. I've heard many people
say that she's a gentle, comforting presence who calms him down, but
that's certainly not what I saw. I suppose that's kind of the end
result, but the process was surprisingly violent, resembling a forced
baptism or even a drowning more than anything else. I was suitably
creeped out by the end, and my pants legs were completely soaked.
Her work complete, the Dust Witch left
the room, and I followed her past throngs who were still in the
process of trying to get into the room. She passed through the
trailer park, and then the saloon (such an incongruous image).
Back upstairs, she encountered the recently dead Mary (Laure
Bachelot) at the shrine, and here that sense of comforting and aiding
came out, as her presence seemed to restore Mary's sanity, even as
Mary seemed to yearn for her like a child for a mother. Immediately
thereafter, Dust Witch took someone in for a 1:1, and it was time for
me to shift plans – as much as I wanted to see the rest of the
loop, I didn't want to wait around in that same spot for that same
amount of time again. Back to plan A: Drugstore Girl.
DG (Isabelle Cressy) was, as usual,
puttering about her drugstore. I had decided to follow her for two
reasons – one, to revisit a character I really enjoyed, and two,
because it would give me an opportunity to see how they got along
without a Badlands Jack (Did I mention there was no Badlands Jack at
this show? I should have. Because there wasn't. Anyhow. . . ).
Sadly, the loop had been tweaked just enough anyway that I wasn't
able to really notice exactly how they covered him – I suppose the
Drugstore Girl just spent a bit more time hanging out and not doing
anything in particular than she might otherwise have.
But enough of what I didn't see: here's
what I did see. I got a magic red lemonade almost right off the bat,
and the details worked out in such a way that I was finally able to
see exactly how it worked. I wound up with a near-perfect (almost
dangerously so) seat for the Andy(Tomislav English)/Miguel struggle.
I got my first extended look at one of the new Harrys, James
Traherne. He plays it quite a bit differently from James Sobol Kelly
– much goofier, more clowning. Sweeter, too – I wasn't really
feeling that edge of desperation that I got from JSK. I saw Bulldog
(how did I manage not to see it during my first show of this batch?
Inexcusable). I saw DG deliver a lemonade to the Grocer (Jesse
Kovarsky) instead of the gatekeeper(!) and dance in her rollerskates
with the Barman (Nicola Migliorati). I followed her to the hoedown,
where the Barman was forced to dance by himself a the end of the
line as if sitting at the head of the table, on account of Jack's
absence. This was the point where I noticed that Lily Ockwell (Faye)
had managed to work in a pretty good scream to kick the hoedown off
(she's famous for her Sexy Witch Shriek at Sleep No More). It's not
really a patch on the Sexy Witch Shriek, but still a nice little
touch that I appreciated and enjoyed.
Eventually we wound up back in the
drugstore, and I was served a jelly baby. Andy came in, pitched a
fit (understandably so, admittedly), and knocked over the postcard
rack on his way out. This is roughly where I would have expected a
Jack visit, but of course he didn't show up, so DG just spent the
time picking up and sorting the postcards. This left me feeling kind
of awkward – on the one hand, it's instinctive to want to help her.
On the other hand, what degree of intruding on the action is really
appropriate? My decision was made pretty quickly, though, when she
picked up the rack, knelt down to start in on the postcards, looked
back at the rack, and stood back up to re-adjust the rack a few
inches to the side. She just looked so sad, and the move was so pathetically ineffectual, I couldn't help myself,
and joined in on the picking and sorting. Afterward, she thanked me
quietly and weakly, then retrieved a rose from behind the counter
and. . . grabbed the hand of an old woman and took her down to the
murder. Harumph (I say facetiously).
Those two moments (the rack adjustment
and the half-hearted “thanks”) actually carried more emotion than
anything else in the loop. It's kind of funny the things that will
click with you.
On the way out of the drugstore, I
could hear that Faye was still in the midst of “Walking in the
Sand.” I immediately headed that way because, hey, it's “Walking
in the Sand.” Sadly, I was immediately accosted by a black mask
that insisted I follow DG down to the murder. I don't really get it
– there's clearly still stuff happening on this floor, so why can't
I go see it? Still, I was obviously not about to get in a fight over
it, so down I went. On my way in to Studio 2, I passed Ace (Mateo
Oxley) as he was herding the Studio 3 bar-goers inside. Apparently
recognizing me, he gave me a knowing smirk and a “well, well, well”
as I passed.
A few brief moments after that, it was
all over. Not a bad show (can there ever truly be one?), and it had
some very cool moments (Seriously, that Dust Witch scene at the
shrine. SERIOUSLY), but for the most part it never really wowed me, or drew me
in like the best shows do. Coming right on the heels of a first show
with significant portions that kind of felt the same way, I was starting to
wonder if the magic had worn off. Still, I was committed to four
more shows over the weekend – would one of them change my mind?
Would it?
Would it?
Spoiler: Yes.
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