Monday, March 19, 2018

The roots of a play: Josephine Sunshine & The Energy Facility, 3/19/18

The Troy Foundry Theatre is hosting staged readings, that is, public rehearsals, of productions this week & next at different sites in the hometown.

Tonight, the Scarlet Seven Gallery in downtown was the place for a reading of Josephine Sunshine & The Energy Facility, a new play by Allison Giguere. Based on the enthusiastic response of the 50+ people who attended the program, I'd say we'd see a finished product down the road.

While the program was scheduled to fill a 2 hour window from 7:30-9:30 pm (ET), between the reading and a short Q & A session with Ms. Giguere and the cast, the night was over in less than 90 minutes.

Josephine Sunshine is, at various points, a social-psychological study and a romantic comedy bordering on eroticism involving the title character (Dana Goodknight), her husband (James Carola), her mother (Amy Kirkpatrick Rosen), and a stranger who becomes Josephine's, ah, new partner (KD McTeigue). What does the "Energy Facility" of the title represent? It all depends on the viewer's interpretation. It could be an allegory or analogue for today's society, especially given the #Metoo movement, or how government is perceived today, based on the Trump administration, or it could be something else entirely. Something to think about.

Rating: A--.

Next week, Troy Foundry Theatre, which is clearly operating as a traveling theatre within city limits, moves across town to the Collar Works in North Central for a reading of The Charlie Play.

No comments: