"Auditions, Zoe's Auditions Part 2" at The Drilling Company Theatre
“Auditions, Zoe’s Auditions, Part 2” at The Drilling Company
Written and Performed by Suzanna Geraghty
Reviewed by David Roberts
Theatre Reviews Limited
Zoe Brown’s journey is one from her “not to be” assessment of herself to understanding that all she needs to do is “be who she is” and “live in the moment.” Zoe has a thankless job at a theatre where everyone is incompetent (except Zoe): the actors are horrid, the product is stale, and no one seems to care much about anything. So Zoe dreams and makes some attempt to better her lot. She hires an agent whose contacts are “mostly dead.” Zoe goes on auditions and rarely takes responsibility to do the right thing: she whines a lot and blames the actions of others for her lateness, her appearance, and her lack of talent. And all of this is precisely what is wrong with Suzanna Geraghty’s “Auditions, Zoe’s Auditions Part 2:” it is difficult to feel compassion for Ms. Geraghty’s character Zoe (played by Ms. Geraghty).
The character’s appeal to pathos fails because much of her predicament is self-inflicted. One cannot feel for an actor who, when she auditions for “River Dance,” clashes into the musicians and ends up wearing bagpipes for a hat! Nothing ever “goes as planned” for this aspiring actor and that is simply all her fault.
Despite her agent Betty’s efforts, Zoe cannot measure up and, after the ubiquitous and mandatory dream sequence, Zoe comes off the audition circuit, returns to the theatre of the incompetent only to discover all the actors are caught in a storm and cannot perform “A Christmas Carol.” However, despite said storm, the audience has managed to show up anxious for a performance. Zoe, with the help of the audience, performs an abbreviated version of the Dickens’ masterpiece and Zoe subsequently achieves nirvana and delivers iambic pentameter like nobody’s business. She has arrived at the zenith of self-awareness and self-acceptance.
All of this takes far too long: one hour and ten minutes plus a ten minute intermission. There is no reason for an intermission. And the audience participation simply does not work: it is intrusive, annoying, and completely unnecessary.
Ms. Geraghty is clearly an actor of merit and talent. However, she needs to take a hard look at “Auditions.” The play needs to be re-imagined, shortened, and performed without audience participation. Only then can the audience sincerely care about the Chaplin-esque Zoe Brown.
AUDITIONS, ZOE’S AUDITIONS, PART 2
Presented by the Be You, All Others Are Taken Company in Association with The Drilling Company as part of 1st Irish 2012. Written and Performed by Suzanna Geraghty. Directorial and Movement Consultation by Andy Crook. Set design by Maree Kearns; lighting design by Miriam Nilofa Crowe; sound design by Alexis Nealon.
All performances of “Auditions” are at The Drilling Company Theatre, 236 West 78th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam) in New York City. “Auditions” runs from September 5 through September 22. Performance time Wednesday through Saturday is 8:00 p.m. and the Sunday matinee performance is at 3:00 p.m. To order tickets at $18.00 each, call the Box Office at 212-868-444 or visit www.1stIrish.org
1st Irish, the first and only festival in the world dedicated to Irish playwrights, is organized by Origin Theatre Company. Running from September 5 through October 1, 1st Irish 2012 presents the work of eleven contemporary Irish playwrights (plus Eugene O’Neill), in productions from Belfast, Dublin, Boston and New York. For festival information, visit www.1stIrish.org
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 | Permalink | Posted by David Roberts on Thursday, September 6, 2012 |
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