- OTHER MEDIA
|
- I'm Yours! Or: Deranged by Love by Precarious Theatre Company
- SF Weekly October 15, 2008 (Chris Jensen)
-
- In Precarious Theatre's original production, it's all fun and games
until people start singing. Freely adapted from an episode in Don Quixote,
the show concerns two pairs of young lovers who stumble through a long
series of misunderstandings and mistaken identities en route to true love.
(The plot wouldn't be out of place in Shakespeare, and in fact served as
the basis for a lost play he possibly co-wrote.) There's much to admire
here, from Christian Cagigal's ingenious puppet work to the precise, energetic
performances by the cast. The problem is that writer and director Matthew
Graham Smith decided a mere romantic comedy wasn't enough — what we
really needed, apparently, was a musical. That's a shame, because from
the unnecessary opening number to the uninspired love songs, the original
music by H.P. Mendoza (Colma: The Musical) is far too earnest and conventional
for an otherwise irreverent and inventive play. Almost every time somebody
starts singing, the show's tone and pace get thrown out of whack; it would
have been better for everyone involved to drop the musical and just focus
on the comedy.
|
|