It plays infinitely better than if each character addressed “us” instead of addressing each other.įive of the seven of the eight cast members of Eat the Runt.Īnd so the interviews go, from the Human Resources person to various managers, trustees, curators and directors. A second camera shoots from an audience’s perspective and that’s the angle we see. Well, they are, but it’s not the angle we see.
The actors are not “speaking” to their device camera. It’s an adjustment that actually works pretty well for this show abetted by one key directorial decision by Argo Thompson. Times being what they are, for the purposes of this production the interviews are conducted via Zoom.
“Merritt” is applying for a position as a Grants Manager at a big city Art Museum and he/she/they must go through a series of interviews. Plot-wise, Eat the Runt is pretty simple. That actor sulks off and the show begins. This continues until a single actor remains as there are only seven roles. The actors each repeat a line of dialogue attributed to a specific character and an audience poll is taken to determine who gets the role. The audience is provided nothing with regard to a character’s race, gender, age, or orientation. The audience is given the characters’ names (they are gender-neutral) and a very short bio of each. The first 20 minutes of the show are spent with the ensemble of eight (Dodds Delzell, Serena Elize Flores, Beth Henry, Corey Jackson, Chandler Parrott Thomas, Angela Squire, Brandon Wilson, and Maron Zuckerman) auditioning for the individual roles. What that means is I could wax poetic about one particular performance and, depending on the whim of future audiences, that actor may never play that character again. Why? Well, per the author’s instructions, the cast changes with every performance and neither they nor their director gets to choose who plays what role. Well, some performances are unique-er than others and yes, I know that’s not a real word.Īvery Crozier’s Eat the Runt, Left Edge Theatre’s current live streaming production, makes a complete review damn near impossible. This is all to give a potential audience member some idea what they can expect to experience should they spend some of their hard-earned money on a ticket with the caveat that each performance of a production is unique. A well-crafted theatre review should contain a hint of plot, introductions to the characters, and evaluations of the performances, direction, and stagecraft.