The Washington Post: Big Brother is watching — or, at least, Nicolae Ceausescu is. The stony gaze of Romania’s long-reigning communist dictator can be felt in Forum Theatre’s smart, absorbing production of Caryl Churchill’s “Mad Forest. Director Michael Dove has shrewdly given an in-the-round staging to this 1990 work about the Romanian revolution, planting Churchill’s politically aware and sometimes phantasmagorical scenes in what appears to be an Eastern European square. Silver busts of Ceausescu, mounted on silver pedestals, stand around the square’s perimeter (amid audience seating), creating a look of gloomy Stalinist-style pomp — and, more important, a paranoid vibe. In this exposed, encircled environment, there is no privacy: Anything may be seen or overheard.
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Forum Theatre’s ‘Mad Forest’: Smart, absorbing look at Communist Romania
The Washington Post: Big Brother is watching — or, at least, Nicolae Ceausescu is. The stony gaze of Romania’s long-reigning communist dictator can be felt in Forum Theatre’s smart, absorbing production of Caryl Churchill’s “Mad Forest. Director Michael Dove has shrewdly given an in-the-round staging to this 1990 work about the Romanian revolution, planting Churchill’s politically aware and sometimes phantasmagorical scenes in what appears to be an Eastern European square. Silver busts of Ceausescu, mounted on silver pedestals, stand around the square’s perimeter (amid audience seating), creating a look of gloomy Stalinist-style pomp — and, more important, a paranoid vibe. In this exposed, encircled environment, there is no privacy: Anything may be seen or overheard.
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I know that their is nothing that is stopping me from reading the scripts of the shows that we put on here, since they are all on the production website. However, part of me wishes that I made more time for it or we had to. Because as TDs the actual plot line doesnt affect us that much. Sure certain scenes might come across our radar because the actor will do something with a piece of scenery that is integral to the plot. But other than that not so much. So I had no idea what 'Mad Forrest' was about until I read this article, even though I have been helping draft and budget our production of it for the past few weeks. The reason why the plot strikes me at all is really just because my best friend in high school, is Romanian and she grew up in the aftermath of Nicolae Ceausescu and all that he stood for. So it is close to me in a way, and I am going to try to make an more concerted effort to read at least some of the shows that we put on. Because I think that it is important on some level at least in order to be more aware of the show.
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