SPLATTER THEATRE
Metraform at Annoyance Theatre
Unfortunately, plot and character development are largely neglected. Which is a shame, because if there’s anything the Metraform actors are good at it’s creating strong, funny, original, multilayered characters at the snap of a finger. Less than 30 seconds after Matt Walsh enters, for example, he not only establishes that he’s the “class dick,” but also makes himself so annoying that we find ourselves looking forward to his gratuitous, bloody murder.
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Also unworthy of its cast’s talents is David Ives’s Ancient History, currently running at Strawdog Theatre. This very talky, essentially plotless two-person play concerns a pair of bright, witty, verbally aggressive New Yorkers who, for all their talk, have an extraordinarily hard time communicating.
As it is, Voinovich and Ritz are trapped in a play that takes two full acts to ask the question, “Will it ever stop?” Something we’d been asking ourselves for the better part of two hours.
