LOCOMOTION

On Wednesday night I decided to attend the play Locomotion. Having seen Almost, Maine recently, I was eager and excited to see this next performance. Was it going to be the same atmosphere as last time? Will the audience be generally the same group? I changed clothes to be a little more suited for the News-Journal Center. I learned my lesson last time when I was apparently one of the few ragged out individuals while everyone else was in formal wear. Having heard all about Almost, Maine my younger brother asked if he could come see Locomotion. He had never been to a play before, so I thought it would be even more interesting to be able to examine him as part of the audience.

                We arrived twenty minutes early, giving us time to finish our coffees. As we took a seat on the concrete slab out front of the main entrance, I looked around expecting to see swarms of older men and women heading toward the doors. But in fact, it was absolutely quiet. There was nobody heading into the building at all. My instructor was right; apparently word did not successfully get out concerning the performance.

                We made our way indoors, passing a female usher on our way to the escalator. My brother nudged me and whispered, “Cy, did you see her name? Her name’s Usher.” I laughed about how naïve my brother can be as he is only one month away from his eighteenth birthday. I told him that she is an usher and that it’s not her name. On the second floor I stopped my brother before heading into the theater. I had to show him the awesome bathroom that had impressed me the last time I had been there. Walking into the restroom he was just as impressed and happy with it as I had been when I first saw it. Yes, we are a strange pair.

                We sat front and center to the stage. Aside from the two of us, there was one family and a lone man in the audience. The music that was playing was much different than the music that had been playing while I had waited for Almost, Maine to start. This music was 80’s Hip Hop. I couldn’t help but smile, the atmosphere was so different than it had been last time.

                The show began and that is when my day ended. I’m sorry to be such a critic, but the whole experience was not worth my time. I was very lost at the start of the performance. The actors playing multiple characters made it even harder to try and make sense of what I was seeing. A man around my age was attempting to portray a young boy, varying around the ages of 9-13. I hope I never have to see or hear someone speak like that again. I give credit to the Latino actor though. He did a fantastic job with the different characters he could quickly turn into. Another thing I realized about the performance that made me not as pleased as I was with the last one, was the fact that sitting front and center is not comfortable to me. I realized I very much enjoy sitting on the side of the stage. I’m unsure as to the exact way to explain why that is, but it’s just something about feeling a little more behind the scenes, and the ability to study the actors on the sideline as they perform to those that are straight ahead of them.

                As we left, my brother said he didn’t like it for the same reasons, but he was very happy about the experience itself. When I got home I thought that maybe I should sleep on it before writing this blog post. Maybe I would reflect a little differently after it had been in my head for a day. When I woke up the next day I was surprised! I did feel differently about Locomotion! I had gone from not liking it, to really, REALLY not liking it. I have decided that there will be no train under our Christmas tree this year as to not be, in any way, reminded of Locomotion.