Live Performance1_ Paul Ahn
For my first live performance I went to the street Hongdae, it is a street near an arts university. This street has numerous small theaters that is run by soon to be acting university students that takes on productions, so it is relatively cheap but at the same time you can expect a good solid performance. It was my first time viewing a small theater so I was a bit nervous as well. The whole theater was a size of a medium sized lecture hall so the stage was right in front of the audience. As the seats started to fill in you could tell that with this close proximity the reaction of the audience seemed really crucial and naturally the ability to control general mood of the crowd. The production’s name was “Boing Boing”. When I saw the name it was just silly and odd. After enjoying the show I still don’t know why the name is “Boing Boing” but it was a great show. The genre of the show was a farce, every since I’ve saw “Noises Off” I’ve wanted to see what it was like to see a farce in live. The premise was about a dentist’s office with a cheating patients, shady customers, noble thief, and an empty headed nurse. Each time a character got their time the amount of actor to the audience interaction was large. They would do a lot of monologues, sometimes not only to the general audience but to specific members of the audience. In some ways it almost seemed like a stand up comedy. It had a smaller set than “Noises Off” since it only had one floors and two sets of doors but the lighting seemed great. Each time a character would appear and reappear the lighting would capture the right moment. The timing for each light to appear on the actor was a lot more crucial than I had expected.
Sometimes the actors would give ad-libs. I’m guessing this is possible since it was a small theater and amount of restrictions and set elements were smaller. A lot of the ad-libs they give were comical dialogues that were related to current trends, such as jokes recently used by a famous stand up comedian. As the story progressed the crowd was more immersed into the play and actors minimized their interaction with the crowd. Due to the comical nature I could tell that actors sometimes still surveyed the crowd for a minuscule moments from time to time. Also there were few blunders during their physically taxing scenes where, for example, a character would have to trip over an open window while another one comes in through a door right next to it. The actor tripped over the window in a rush and missed the timing with the other actor. There was a silence where everyone, including the audience knew that he had messed up but the actor was able to just run with it, commenting on the terrible resources they are provided when setting up the stage which made every one laugh.
Similar to “Noises Off” their dialogues were fast paced, witty, logically misleading but at the same time all coming together. Less of a riot and less complicated but still impressive. What impresses me with farce is how complicated the plots are and how much practice they would have to go through in order to get the timing right. Of course other genre is as difficult as farce but something about the chaotic nature of farce that makes me really think they are performing with a bomb in their pocket. It is so fast paced that if they loose the trail even for momentarily the bomb would go off.