Man in a Case, reviewed by Ann-Sophie Störmann

Caution: Contents Fragile! This Package Contains a Man

by Ann-Sophie Störmann

Hartford Stage, March 6^th. Two Stories, one play. Different and still connected? Even though it was confusing, the directors Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar made it work to put the stories “Man in a Case” and “About Love” by Checkhov into this one play.

            The whole thing was not like a normal play, no, it was more like a try to include media and technique into a play, that was supposed to be something different, something new. It started off with two hunters (acted out by Chris Giamo and Jess Barbagallo) who were leading into the story and telling the background of it. They guided the listener throughout the play, but still they were a part of the story.

The story in that Mikhail Baryshnikov as Belikov is the man in a case who never really felt love before, because he is “caught in his case” until he met Barbara (Tymberly Canale). He couldn’t deal with that so that finally led to his death. Now the confusing part starts: Taking of his coat Belikov gets up and…yeah, that’s the question: Does another story start or does the story go on? Is everything in a kind of after life or is it a completely new thing? The answer is: it is the beginning of the second story “About love”, but it’s hard to tell and it seems very confusing while you are sitting in the audience and trying to follow what just happened.  

            The plot wasn’t just only made up out of the two stories though, no, a lot of other different source material was used. The actors for example started singing Ukrainian songs and dancing dances they created by themselves. They also quoted out of poems that fit into the story. The hunters were talking about their work by researching about work of hunter specialists. Jeff Larson and Tei Blow, the video and sound directors were sitting right on the stage, being a part of the act. They produced their work on stage, using life cameras, in-ears, photo and video, which made the whole thing more exciting.

            The show was definitely interesting to see, especially, because of the techniques that were used, but it was confusing and not only for children hard to understand.