Masticate
The directing is weaker than it could’ve been. The blocking is quite flat, even when it does make full use of the space. In particular, the restaurant scenes, meant to be so busy and manic, are oddly lifeless. Despite the well-done set by Arkadia Theatre Company, it often feels as though the characters are wandering around an empty space, with little tying them to the actual scene or setting. Furthermore, Fargo’s script leans heavily on monologues, and the staging is such that other characters rarely react during these sequences, making them feel overly-long and drawn out. On the positive side, however, Fargo’s characters are mostly quite strong – Rachel is an excellently-written character, Brandon is decent comic relief, and Kimberly and Joni are both given a good amount of depth. The performances Kelso gets out of these actors in particular are also quite excellent. [more]