A Rakes progress: It was an experience to say the most

review by Katelynn Banville

March 17, 2017

            The Rakes Progress at the Emerson Majestic, was one of the most confusing things I have ever seen. The performers were very great at what they do but the play itself was not great. The plot of the play did not make any sense and was extremely hard to follow. With operas, it is very hard to understand what they are saying to begin with. The set and costumes added to the confusion by not being able to tell what was going on. It is very easy to become lost in the plot or lose interest because of this.

            In some points of the play the acting was distracting and disturbing from the show. There was one scene where there was some slightly distasteful acting going on which was slightly uncomfortable to watch. This message could have been displayed in a much more appropriate way while still accomplishing the same thing.

            The characters didn’t seem to make much sense as well. There was a lady who was blue with a beard. They didn’t explain much as to why she looked this way and it was partly strange that they did this. There costumes were distracting and the set pieces didn’t seem to fit in with the others. They used a lot of neon colors that didn’t mix well and none of the costumes seemed to fit with the others.

            This play would’ve benefitted with better costume and set choices. Since this all distracted you from what was going on the possibility of creating a great opera was diminished. The performers had great voices which was the only real plus side to this show.