'Tis Pity She's A Whore

Last night I saw 'Tis Pity She's a Whore at the Impact Theater in Berkeley. One of my classmates, Jai Sahai, was in it, so my other classmates and I went to check it out.

Good stuff, this show. It was written by John Ford in the early 1600s, so it comes across basically like Shakespearian English. Considering that, they did a great job putting a modern spin on this and keeping us interested.

Things that were awesome:

• The opening scene! With a modern hip-hop-esque song playing, the play opens with different characters in their own moments of time: the hitman/bodyguard is on his knees praying with rosary beads, a couple is having an affair, the lead female (Annabella) is pulling petals off a flower one by one. It all syncs perfectly with the music and feels like you're watching a modern live music video, especially when Annabella unexpectedly bites the head off the now-plucked flower on the last beat of the music.


• The chemistry of the two lead characters! Considering this play is about incest and love between a brother and sister, it would seem tempting to present this in a spoof way or have a couple "winks" to the audience. But not here. These characters act their hearts out until the passion they feel for their sibling is on par with Romeo and Juliet or any other epic couple. They handle the intimate bed scenes surprisingly well and do an amazing job of making us feel their passion for each other even in scenes where they're physically apart. Impressive stuff!


• The concentration! This theater is actually in the basement of a pizza/beer/sports place in Berkeley that is full of college kids. On the plus side, you can eat pizza while you watch the show. But at the same time, tons of noise and footsteps from above pour into the theater despite their best attempts to soundproof it. Therefore, major props to the actors of this show who were not only able to do challenging, emotional material and stay completely in character, but also able to pull our attention away from the college kids above and into every moment of this play.


• Jai! Not being biased because I know him, Jai completely stole this show in every possible way. He transformed his slow-to-mature character, who is being forced by his rich uncle to court Annabella, into a modern teenager straight off the streets of Oakland. With modern slang, modern movements, and a thoroughly impressive amount of energy; he springs off walls, bounces while playing video games, and jumps around in place, completely capturing the energy of puberty in a way to rival even the teens in Spring Awakening! It's an amazing performance and when he becomes the accidental victim of a poisoned dagger meant for someone else at the end of Act I, the entire audience is shocked to think we'll have to sit through Act II without him (I heard many audience members actually voice this complaint). Also, Jai does amazing death scenes, so it was great to see him get to do one in this show.


• The gore! This show has it all when it comes to violence; guns, knives, stabbings, knife fights, poison, hair pulling, and even a bloody heart on a dagger that drips blood onto the stage! The special effects were absolutely unexpected and impressive considering the low-budget feel of the rest of the show (check out the dagger-across-the-neck effect they handle so realistically here).
  
  
  
  I also loved how the director decided to handle the growing number of dead characters. The first woman to die at the start of Act II gets politely placed in the corner of the stage by the hitman/bodyguard. As the show continues, he keeps literally piling bodies in that corner, and it's a great visual since they then spend the rest of the show lying there dead. Nice job on the part of those actors who have to stay in place where they're dropped for the rest of the show!


• The extras! In a brilliant move, this director chose to add a whole string of young men to this cast who are not in the script. They have no speaking part and their entire job is to appear, one after the other, in every scene with the older mother. Each time, one of them stands near her, and often massages her neck, but they never speak. Basically, they just represent a string of "boy-toys" that the mother has and is constantly refreshing. It's so creative and effective and hilarious. Nice work!

Wow, I had a lot more to say about this show than I thought when I began writing this. :)

In terms of what didn't work in this show, I think Jai's character was SO strong and entertaining, that every scene he wasn't in felt a bit like a let-down. Also, he was the only character that was significantly "different" in the way he delivered the old-English dialogue. It would've been fun to see a few other characters tweaked (accents? pacing? mannerisms?) to add more variety and modern-flare to this show. But otherwise, it was definitely well acted and an impressive undertaking. Great job!