Pittsburgh in the Round: The Theater Factory’s The Complete History of America (abridged) directed by Jen James is a delightful and frantic journey through the formation of the United States, from Vikings to Native Americans to all sorts of the scandals, wars, presidencies, doctrines, and missteps that arise when nation building – a work with a mix of vaudeville, camp, sketch comedy, slapstick, and one-liners. The actors leave the audience a bit winded by their unceasing movement and quick-paced dialogue
2 comments:
It is very timely to be seeing them doing the show. I was wondering if they were going to add in contemporary events and then reading through the article I saw that they included Donald J Trump's name. I was hoping that this would be a topic of conversation among theatergoers with the actors through a very interactive show like this. I find that this show often tries to make history humorous and amusing because hey it's a show! However when you get down to the real facts some of the events presented by the show are very terrifying. I'd be interested to see how they perform the play because when I've seen previously some of the actions and performances seemed a little insensitive. Or maybe insensitive is the wrong word, but it felt like they were trying to make a laugh out of every situation regardless of its content. I completely agree that there are many points in history we need to laugh at, but also there are some portions of history in which we need to understand the consequences and what led up to the event. Not so much to make us feel sad in the theater but you realize it's weight and significance.
Being someone the is kinda a history junky and always kinda annoyed that more people don't understand some of the more homorous and intriguing aspects of history,especially American history, this show is right up my alley. Honestly when speaking on history I think one the best means to teach someone is through humor, more likely to remember the funny story's like Benjamin Fanklin's raccoon hat than you are the dry political policies of the past. And in remembering funny stories you can tie other information to the framework to develop better understanding of history. And it is because of this way I have seen information retained in the past that I feel the show The Complete History of America (abridged) could be really interesting. By using flippant ways to look back at history they can help connect us the ridiculous and human part of it that can get lost in textbooks.
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