Grand Slam Theater

I suppose you are going to get tired of me writing about the phenomenal theater in Panama. I can't help it...it is just stunning.

I saw "The Beauty Queen of Leenana" last night and I was blown away with the acting. Or should I say the lack of acting. When actors move beyond "acting" into the assimilation of the character so they become the character, it gets outrageous!

And it was outrageous.

The play, set in Ireland in 1989, is about a 70 year old mom who is mean, manipulative, cunning and, of course, CRAZY! And her 40 year old virgin daughter is equally crazy and, as it turns out, homicidal. It was a black comedy...made funnier by the once-in-a-lifetime performance by the old lady who is actually 76 years old.

I have seen Susan in several roles over a couple of years. She is a top notch actress with plenty of experience. In the past she has been from good to excellent. Last night she transcended excellence and moved into the phenomenal!

With my limited experience in theater, I am realizing more and more that the part makes a huge difference in how well an actor does on stage. It takes a perfect storm of writing, the actual part, directing, the actors abilities and work-work-work-work-work...to make a once-in-a-lifetime performance.

Rare, very rare.

That is what we saw last night. It was so good it moved me. Not because of the emotion in the role but the actually perfection of the acting.

Somehow she put together a palsied yet sane, sly yet drooling, addled yet wicked and absolutely hilarious, sloppy eating, food spitting character. With facial expressions to die for!

She turned a depressing, black comedy into a comedy with an edge.

Bravo Susan!!!

The 3 other cast members did great jobs. Just not roles of a life time.

They put this play together in 4 weeks. How in the hell did they do that? I asked my friend Jim, the director, how they did it and he told me they practiced a lot. I've been in his previous plays. We practiced a lot with a 6 week schedule. I can't imagine how they crammed all that rehearsal into 4 weeks.

I tell you, we have some potent theater here.

If you want to read a review of the play and see a couple of pics, follow this link: http://www.boqueteguide.com/