Amazingly theatrical and physical. Really great work.

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On a previous visit of this company to L.A., I bought out the house for one night and made a party for my friends, it was that good. This production was very disappointing to me and to the four people I went with. We left after the first act. The acting was surprisingly annoying and over the top, and nothing else about the production was appealing either.

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Moliere's biting satire updated with contemporary themes. While the set is lean, the actors' talents are exceptional! A truly delightful experience.

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I wanted to like this more. The physical life of the characters on the stage was very interesting, and the skill and energy of the cast was excellent. I liked it, I was glad I went. But it could have been better.

The playwright used the Moliere plot, but the script lacked the wit of the original. The language was mundane and there were many contradictions that completely violated my willing suspension of disbelief. No one gets a $7 power bill, and if they did, it would be cause for celebration, not a reason to go "off the grid." The cost of candles for a week would be more. And a character who is almost 5 years younger than his sister cannot be believed when he describes an event that happened to his sister when she was 4 as if he had witnessed it. I wanted to slap the author. Why distract her audience with such obvious untruths, especially since they didn't even contribute to something being funny. I thought this was going to be a comedy, but there was not enough funny in the script.

The miser character could have been better written. As it was, she was one-dimensional and only loved her money. A better choice would have been that she really loved her children and her new boy toy and her money. If she had been torn apart by having to make difficult choices, she would have been more interesting, fun and real. The actress would have had more to play and the audience could have related and enjoyed her struggle.

The set was simple, but uninspired and did not help the actors. The main set piece was a diving board, which did allow for some lovely physical action. But there was very little real furniture. Boxes. Often a set design will allow for different "acting areas" which gives the director and the actors places to play, and more variety for composition of the scene. This set did not serve the play well. And it was also confusing. At the beginning of the play the diving board was used with the implication that it was over a swimming pool. Then in the same scene characters walked thru the pool as if it was not there.

I wanted to slap the costumer too. Was there some symbolism about using so many ties to embellish two of the characters wardrobe, or did someone just donate a lot of ties and this was the only way the costumer could think to use them? It was strange, because the costumes for the leading character were appropriate and seemed well designed. She had a lot of different wonderful costumes. It almost seemed like she had a different costume designer than the rest of the cast. The daughter ran around in a swimsuit most of the play and she either wore her swimming cap or had it bucked around her neck the entire time. When instructed to cover up, she put on a filthy men's shirt. It was distracting and inexplicable. The designer also should have taken into account the differences between the actress and the character. Actresses can have tattoos, but this character was supposed to not have had any money, so she would not have been able to purchase the varied assortment of tattoos that adorned the actress's body, especially the large floral arrangement across her back and shoulders. It would have helped the play to use makeup on the smaller tattoos and a swimsuit that covered the larger ones to help the actress seem to be the person she was playing.

I felt sorry for the actors, who were fully committed to their performances. During the last part of the first act a man in the center of the audience fell asleep and was snoring loudly.

It wasn't bad enough to leave during intermission, we went back in hoping that it would be better during the second act.

Wow. This all sounds so harsh. But this play has a lot of problems.

I said I liked it, and I did. I like people who take risks. I want to see theatre that is not safe, that is challenging and fresh. It was not a perfect evening of theatre. But I expected it to be better than it was. Something else missing. It had nothing to do with the set or costumes or tattoos.

I think it had to do with emotional truth. I just didn't feel it. It might have been the performance, but I doubt it. I think the problem was with the script. Moliere wrote farces, but he also used insight to create characters that his audience could feel for. The author seemed to lack insight and sensitivity to human truth. This play is about a dysfunctional family. It is set in Southern California. The family bond is messy and complex. People do horrible things to people they really care about. And if the playwright had tapped into that kind of real story and put it in this play, it could have been better.

It was my first time at the 24th street theatre. The parking right across the street was perfect, and a fee of $5 was a bargain. The entire staff made us feel welcome. Everyone was friendly and helpful. The lobby featured a photo exhibition of New Orleans. There was a lovely snack bar that was open before the show as well as intermission. The seats had lots of leg room and the theatre felt open and roomy with good sight lines. It was general seating, so come early for your choice of seats. All of the seats were good whether sitting in the front row or the back. I was a little worried about getting there, but it was just a couple of blocks from the freeway and easy to find.

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