Stay attentive

review by Chloe Hoang

3/10/17

The Night of the Iguana

            The surprised and horrified look on Pedro when he walked out of the room matches exactly the audiences’ faces. Tennessee Williams sure knew how to capture the audience’s attention quickly and surely give them something to remember. Pedro started the play running outside the resort room while rushing to pull up his pants, and hopefully it was accidentally that he showed a little more than he should have.

            The play is quite slow. This fact has been confirmed not just by the younger audiences, but also some of the older ones. The left wing of theatre definitely has a different musical experience with the rest the audience because instead of the acoustic version of the songs, an improvised remix of acoustic and men snoring on their wives were played.

            The actors all performed in a very professional manner. There were times that Bill Heck (Lawrence Shannon) and Amanda Plummer (Hannah Jelkes) did mess up and forget their lines. They bravely moved on and kept their act, even though it was somewhat noticeable. Being able to stay professional all throughout is hard, and not all actors can do so well. Other times, they were not able to control the volume and annunciation very well, making it hard for the audience to fully understand them. Though the actors might not have created the ambiguity on purpose, it made audience members to pay even closer attention to try to make sense of what was happening on stage.

            The best thing about this play was definitely the stage setting and effects. From the resort, to the sky, to the rocks on the side, and to the lighting at times, everything added up to a very real place and mood for the show. Moreover, the real rainfall at the end of the first half is extremely impressive. Combined with the thunder sound and the the abruptly low lighting, it was as if the whole room is experiencing the storm without getting all wet.

Unlike the typical cliché love story, the ending of the show was neither dramatic nor a hundred percent a happy ending. Tennessee Williams must love surprising people, because from the beginning till the end, the play was full of unexpected details. He proved that through having the flashy beginning, to the improvisational remix, and the sudden indoor storm, to a radically soft ending. The success of this slow-pace play is because of the unexpected twists it has.