Review: Exit-stance

Sorry to say, a visit to an old man in a nursing home, foul-mouthed and defiantly individual though he might be, is no evening at the theater. Exit-stance gives us a one-man ramble purporting to be both, but only points up that conventions exist for reasons and breaking them is trickier than might be thought.

Convention No. 1: Don’t put an actual mirror on stage. It might reflect something not intended. (The actual mirror in this case reflected a spotlight directly into my eye.)

Convention No. 2: Props need to be firmly in place, ready to come to hand when needed. (The mirror fell over. Twice. Knocked everything off a table on one go.)

Convention No. 3: Actors should be clearly understandable, even if an accent is part of the characterization. (The sole character, an old man called only, if portentously, “OM,” is a native of India who has lived in this country most of his life. Yes, he should have an accent. But between the accent and the occasional chuckle as he talked, I lost the thread.)

Convention No. 4: It is dangerous to allow suggestions of aides-de-memory on stage. OM fumbles with a sheaf of papers for reasons not explained, at least not in anything he said that I caught, with the result that one wonders if the papers are in fact the script. He also wore a distracting earphone with a blinking red light. Was he being fed his lines?

Convention No. 4: If the actors exit, leaving an empty stage, there must be good dramatic reason. More than once, OM exits, leaving the stage empty for a longish time before tottering back in. The second time this happened, as everyone was wondering if he had gone to the bathroom, two audience members got up and left.

Exit-stance grapples with uncomfortable truths and wants to give us important things to think about. The ambitions here are admirable, but not yet ready for prime time. Not ready, in fact, for Fringe time.

— Jane Durrell