Shelter Inn Place

The major problem with director Joan Kane’s production is that the play is too slow and sluggish, needing to be faster and more breakneck. As a result, the jokes don’t land as the audience has too much time to think about them and we never believe that the characters are worried about the impending storm. Also the acting is so exaggerated that the actors seem over the top rather than overwrought and stressed out. She has also allowed each actor to be one dimensional making the play rather hollow and artificial: Frank is harried, George is melancholy, Sam is randy, Mildred is flamboyant and Heidi is depressed. As to the plotting, each piece of stage business goes on too long; more events are needed. This is basically a farce but not staged at farce tempo or  having enough mishaps to keep it going. Although we hear enough about the approaching storm from the periodic radio reports, the characters do not get upset enough about it. No one seems ready to take cover. It takes the whole first act for Frank to finish boarding up the windows. [more]