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| Big River | | Date Created: Jun 04, 2005, 10:36 PM |
 I guess I didn't read the program well enough. I didn't realize that Big River was a revival of a play by Roger Miller and I didn't know it was presented by The Deaf West Theatre.
Well at least I didn't have any preconceptions going into it. Some friends invited us to the Buell theater in Denver for the current production of The Denver Center for the Performing Arts. What was playing wasn't particularly important. It was a chance to get together with friends and see a real stage production.
The tip off should have been the opening announcements when a person got up on stage and did the usual pre-concert announcements in sign language. My friend leaned over and jokingly said he hoped the whole play wasn't going to be done that way. I just figured it was the latest politically correct way to open shows in Denver.
As the show opened with nicely done sets and obviously talented actors and actresses, I began to think of the movie, The Goodbye Girl, where the character Richard Dreyfess plays is a struggling actor asked to play Hamlet as a gay man. It's an interesting experiment in acting, but it doesn't really work. I'd be interested to know if it's even meaningful to someone who is actually deaf.
Another thought that came to mind was the way the Blue Man Group handle their lack of speaking. They run a red lettered crawler across the top of the stage. It's quite effective. Subtitles are used in foreign language movies too.
So how do you do a CD of the production of Big River in sign language? Apparently you go with the original cast and production from 1985. There was at least one standout song, River In The Rain, which Dr. Reptile should get for the latest theme CD on rivers...
The reviews of Big River have apparently tried to avoid the political correct hot potato of a Broadway type stage production in sign language but have concentrated on the weaknesses of the score and platitudiness nature of the story. I expected a watered down, PC version of the Huckleberry Finn story, but I didn't expect the distraction of actors mouthing the words and singing of someone offstage and the sign language throughout.
I would have stayed after the intermission, but our group felt the sign language was too distracting so we missed the second half as did many others. Feel free to form your own opinion as to whether sign language works for a stage production. |
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