Blind Mouth Singing
At first glance, the script of this play is a peculiar one. One can’t be sure if he is being faced with something supernatural or psychological. A play such as this one would be extremely hard to perform theatrically. That point must be kept in mind when attending the performance.
The plot in itself was confusing at first. The beginning throws the reader off completely. Towards the middle, and even more so towards the end, this play turns into a psychological thriller and proves to be fascinating. The twisted plot and the emotional outbursts added very much to the mysterious nature of the play. It took much talent on the part of Jorge Ignacio Cortiňas for writing such an intricate and captivating play.
The actors did an excellent job bringing the script to life considering the difficulty of acting it out. This play probably would have been more suitable as a cinematic production rather than a theatrical one. The props, the set, and the whole concept were just too awkward to put on a stage. The performers can not be undermined for they did a truly magnificent job in this production. They were full of energy, passion and emotion. They really grasped the roles of all the characters. It is a very important quality to be able to not just act as a character, but to actually become the character, and these performers were able to do that.
The stage itself was not easy to adjust to. When reading the script, one would assume that there is an actual vertical well. One of the performers said “The Broadway version of this play would have a tall vertical well, so people can see the actors actually climbing up and down.” Instead the well was horizontal, and considering its importance in the play, it was not an easy thing to stomach. Also, it was very hard to determine where the house ended and where the garden began. The stage was too crowded to portray a house and a garden, and that is something that can not be overlooked. The confusing structure of the props and how the well works definitely took vital attention away from the plot and the performance.
The single most remarkable aspect of this play was the mystery. The plot itself is full of very suspenseful and frightening moments. When these moments were acted out, the audience gasped in shock and fear. People were literally on the edge of their seats out of terror. The eerie way that the actors mumbled words, as well as the dark and gloomy lighting added to this play’s mystifying nature.
Overall, this was an excellent play, and was acted out terrifically. There is one complaint that can be drawn from this production: it is not a script made for a stage. It would be much better off on a movie screen with all of the special effects and area that it calls for. The actors did a noteworthy job with this play, but they can not be blamed for a story which requires just a bit more than a small stage, a few props, and several talented actors.
An actor from the play, the director, and the stage manager actually visited a classroom recently. This was a class that went to see the actual production a couple of weeks before the visit. The young adults were anxious to meet the people responsible for such a spectacular performance.
The crew came to replay a short scene and also to answer some questions for the class of college students at Baruch College. The director explained the effort that must be put into creating a play. He spoke of the months of thought that are required to make everything work. The speech that he gave had a huge impact on the students and actually helped them to understand the play as a theatrical performance a little bit better. The stage manager explained the difficulty of making sure that everything goes well on and off the stage, and the actor told the class about his many experiences as an actor. He spoke of the many techniques he uses while on the stage, such as the “fourth wall” which is a tool used to pretend that the audience does not exist. The visit was a success and it really opened the eyes of the students as well as their professor. Evidently, this production was backed by a hard working and very talented group of intellectuals. That would explain the intensity and appeal of the performance.
Blind Mouth Singing is a very interesting play to read. Although it falls short of expectations in the actual performance, it is still worthy of being watched. The performance was fantastic, but the story was meant for more than theatrics.