Theatre Appreciation Production Response on Dead Mans Cell phone

Dead Mans Cellphone

Dead Mans Cellphone is a commendable work by playwright Sarah Ruhl and is being performed by theatre companies all across United States. At UNM Department of Theatre and Dance, the play was directed by Kristen Loree, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and was performed between February 19th 2010 to Februrary 28th 2010 at the experimental theatre located in the Pope Joy building Complex. Sarah Ruhl has made a great attempt to expose the life of a 21st century, technologically obsessed human being. According to the director of the play, Kristen Loree, It is more or less a dark comedy, which is funny at times and then shifts from comedy to a little surprise. My overall reaction to the play was very positive, as it portrays how cell phones have now become the most commonly used medium of communication and have undermined the quality of human communication, with which I complete agree. They have replaced the face to face conversation through meetings and social gatherings, which once used to be the only way of interaction and involved exchange of emotions, personal touch and truthfulness. Such a digital communication is fairly impersonal and emotionally insensitive. After I watched the play, I was impressed by the work of set designers and the acting of all the crew members. I am going to evaluate these technical and non technical elements in detail in the following paragraphs. This discussion would include how the set design helped me to suspend my disbelief in reality and instill a sense belief in what was being presented in the play. For non technical element like acting, I am going to reflect upon the acting of lead actress Rachel Corona, who played Jean ; Amy Archuleta, who played Mrs. Gottlieb and how other characters performed to make this play a success at UNM. The overall theme of this play revolves around the use of cell phones and the way they have trivialized and jumblized our lives. This is apparent from the speech delivered by Mrs. Gottlieb in which she asks the masses attending Gordons funeral to turn their fucking cell phone off. She also says that there is no such place where people do not answer their cell phones, whether it is theatre, church or bathroom. On the top of this, cell phone use has led to invasion of privacy, which we once used to have. This is reflected by dialogue that Jean had with Dwight, in which she tells him about this lady at the pharmacy who was cursing while in the line and giving out confidential information about her life and didnt care about people listening to her conversation. The play also reveals the use of technology has lead to a sense of loneliness among people. People think that since they have cell phones, they dont have to be at places at the right time, leaving their loved ones alone. For instance Dwight tells Jean that

these days it is hard to find sentimental people, as people do not want to remember anything, because they have their cell phones to remember things for them. The play also touches on the darkness associated with organ trade and the way organs traders cheat donors and make money. This play was performed in a black box theatre, which in my opinion was a great choice for this play, as the dark surroundings perfectly signified the negativity and darkness associated with Gordons occupation and involvement in organ trade. The view was diagonal and I am sure it was great from every angle, regardless of the location of the seat. I liked the use of umbrellas and window to portray the first plot as a caf. The guy riding the bicycle forced me to believe it was a real caf on a busy street. After looking at these elements of the set, I did not realize how and when I suspended my disbelief in reality. Also, the idea of setting a big table on the left side of the stage (from crews perspective) was great, as it was put to multiple uses like dining space, stage where Mrs. Gottlieb delivers her speech to Gordons funeral mass etc. This would have saved lot of time and effort to move furniture around. Moreover, the color of the flooring and furniture was inspired by painter Edward Hoppers work to reflect the loneliness that prevails in the society of technologically obsessed humans. The idea of having a stair case to hell next to the black table was commendable and probably helped the designers to save a lot of performance space. Although in the beginning I felt that the setup was slightly congested, but towards the end I realized that since the play was being performed in the experimental theatre, which is smaller in size than other performance spaces in Pope Joy complex, the designers utilized the available space judiciously. As far as acting is concerned, Rachel Corona and Amy Archuleta proved to be great actors and were well suited in the description of characters they played. Jeans role demanded Rachel to go from being judgmental to equal and from being an introvert or lonely person in the beginning to being an exciting and confident person in the end, which was handled in a very satisfactory manner by her. This role demanded Rachel to have excellent body language with Gordon and Dwight while performing emotionally intense scenes in this love triangle. Her acting skills created a great chemistry between these three characters. Also, I personally feel that Amy Archuleta with her strong personality and acting skills did great justice to the dominating and satirical role of Mrs. Gottlieb. Her physical appearance and makeup blended perfectly with this character. I liked the way she pitched her tone up and down depending upon the situation, which forced me to pay attention to the play and further suspend my disbelief. Overall this play was very entertaining. The direction was excellent I liked the supporting crews dance performance, which further added humor to this dark comedy. The play has beautifully presented the impact of industrialization and modernization on our society, which is overlooked by most of us. I still remember when Mrs. Gottlieb talked about link between wearing black and mourning. And how we make black every time these days. It made me think about how the norms of our society are being constantly transformed overtime. Every generation passes on a modified version of tradition and norms to their successors.