Writer Adam Hahn's second play this season for Studio Roanoke, "Feedback Loop," is a bit more high concept than plays well to my ear, but it is a superbly written and performed one-man effort (Don Gallo) that has been playing to nice sized crowds.
"Feedback" is the monologue-told tale of a man who is traveling back in time to try to save the life of his girlfriend. He does it over the course of 10 years, time after time watching the same girlfriend die, but each time in a different way as he watches himself become a different, parallel person each time.
It's a little hard to follow the linear logic for a while (each time you travel back, you become a different person and the other person/people don't die; they're still around), but once the hook is in "Groundhog Day" is on and the story takes form. Greg Machlin's direction is simple and pulls the story to its finish, if not its conclusion. I found myself drifting at points, but most of those in attendance, who have less attention deficit problems than I, seemed to hang on every word. And in slightly more than an hour of sustained dialogue, there are a lot of words to hang on.
As I've said before, I don't go to Studio Roanoke to see "Camelot," I go to see theater, raw, creative, developing, courageous, edgy, in your face theater and if "Feedback Loop" ain't theater, then it doesn't exist.
I hate it when these comments come out in Chinese or whatever the characters are. I have no idea how to translate it. Ideas, please.
ReplyDeleteAdam Hahn has an incredible gift for painting pictures with words and drawing us into his worlds with believeable, even lovable, characters. Without manipulating, his stories and his people make you laugh, cry, think.
ReplyDeleteWhen all is done and we have reached the "finish," we want to gather up Hahn's characters in our arms, hug them, buy them a drink and tell them, "it's gonna' be alright."