Voyage Theater Company presents

THE PELICAN

Fourth Street Theatre
83 East 4th St..
NY NY 10003
5-14 May 2016

Written by August Strindberg
Directed by: Charles C. Bales and Kalle Westerling

Featuring Mary Round, Pauline Walsh, Nicholas Westemeyer, Malka Wallik and Thomas Brazzle.

THE PELICAN was written by August Strindberg for his Intimate Theatre. In the Intimate Theatre, Strindberg wanted pieces that pushed the envelope of conventional theatre.

Even though THE PELICAN is an “experimental” piece with exaggerated melodrama and supernatural aspects, the characters need to be grounded and real or the piece fails to connect with the audience. I’m afraid that is what has happened in this production. The characters are one-note (The Mother is haughty, the Daughter is flighty, the Son-in-law is selfish), and they speak their lines without any obvious thought or motivation behind the words. This renders relationships vague and unbelievable in Charles C. Bales directorial debut.

Many people worked on this production. There are translators, adaptors, dramaturgs, an assistant director, and a movement coach, and that doesn’t include the designers, producers, stage managers, and publicists. So much detail being attended to, yet the most important part of any play, the performances, were left hanging and vacant.

- Jean Tait -