Backwoods gold

review by Drew Webster

3/10/16

Everyone’s a critic

As soon as most hear the beginning guitar riff, most people instantly think of that classic Johnny Cash song “Hurt”. The song actually fits quite well in general with the theme for The Night of the Iguana, a very emotional straight play directed by Michael Wilson and written by Tennessee Williams. This review is being written after viewing the show on Thursday, March 9^th, 2017, and the show had a lot of high and low points, despite what some may be lead to believe.

 The set is without a doubt some of the best out there when it comes to theatre. The whole show takes place on the same single mountaintop inn. The little rusted hotel sits atop a Mexican jungle, and shows very believable signs of aging. The whole structure appears to be on its last legs, with paint chips, wood splits and rust littering the inn and its equipment. The rock formations are also something to behold, being broken and eroded enough to look like a mountain, but not so much that they look like someone just put cement over broken pieces of wood. There is also a soundtrack playing constantly, where you can hear the wind blow and the ocean waves rise and fall. This combination of effects and set design make the viewer feel as if they are in Mexico watching this happen. The whole time you get the feeling that the director really wanted to immerse you in this world Tennessee Williams created.

However, the set isn’t enough to carry the show, and the whole show seems a bit dragged out frequently. I really appreciate how scenes can drag on, since there are loads of people who would would ramble on in serious talks to get their point across. But, it’s easy in this show to get bored if a scene drags on for two long, and at several points one can get lost in the amount of text being hurled in their direction. The acting is great, its just there are some portions where the idea in the scene could be condensed. For someone with a short attention span, this might make the show much less enjoyable.

Despite my criticism for the show’s pacing, the show makes up for it’s losses in story, talent and characters. It is probably the most well-acted show I’ve seen, and the set and sound couldn’t be more perfect. However, I would stick with the age rating suggestion for this, and only see this with your family if they are 15 or older. But, if you can get tickets for this wildly popular play, I highly recommend you grab some tickets and see “The Night of the Iguana”.