A Perfect Wedding
November 5, 2004
Kirk Douglas Theatre, Culver City
Play by Charles Mee
Charles Mee's fantastical play "A Perfect Wedding" gets the honor of inagurating the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Center Theatre Group's smaller third stage for new and experimental plays. The 300 seat theatre carved out of the historic Culver Theatre will serve as CTG's third stage, and will largely present world premieres that wouldn't work as well in a larger house such as the Mark Taper Forum or Ahmanson Theatre.
Mee's play deals with issues of marriage, love and relationships in a play that starts out seeming like a simple comedy but quickly veers into an imaginary land where literally anything happens. There are a pair of four "fairies" - fairy being used in both the mythical sense and homosexual one - plus poetic language, a lost priest, and magical trees. Plus a rousing Bollywood dance number.
It's definetly not your normal play. In fact, it was kind of weird. I get the sense that Mee wanted to say marriage and human relationships are never really 'normal,' but this play is only partially effective because it is so absurd. Everything is played to very broad comic effect; it is often over-the-top and sometimes not funny at all. An interesting play to kick off the Douglas, for sure, though I'm not sure it was an entirely successful production.
No comments:
Post a Comment