shadow box play review
“THE SHADOW BOX” by Michael Christofer
On the night of the 28th of November 2013, I had the chance of watch some of the third year Lasalle theatre students produce and perform Michael Christofer’s “The Shadow Box”. Despite having very little knowledge of the play itself, I thoroughly enjoyed the play and was kept engaged throughout.
“The Shadow Box” revolves around three main terminally ill characters, Joe, Felicity and Agnes, who had to deal with the fact of not being able to live much longer. It also involves their family and friends facing the inevitable death of their loved one. The play addresses the theme of death and the idea of seizing the day and living life to its’ fullest, otherwise known as ‘Carpe Diem’. Keeping within the genre of realism, the play uses dark comedy to emphasize and enhance the message of the play - ‘to grab onto life and live it with all your might’.
The play was held in the Creative Cube and the space was set up with blocks of different heights, distinguishing the three individual spaces, as well as a void-like segment placed center up-stage. The space showed the cottages of Joe’s, Brian’s and Felicity’s, from stage left to stage right respectively. The void-like space had a swivel chair with a spotlight on it. During the play, the different characters had a chance to sit on the chair and discuss their current situations with numerous voices that encouraged each of them to express their emotions. This gave the audience an insight into their personal feelings and thoughts of their condition. Even though the set was not exactly the most extravagant, it had basic set pieces such as a couch and a table that made it unambiguous to the audience that the play was set in their cottages. I felt that the set was enough to inform he audience of where the play was set in and what really mattered was the content and acting of the play.
What had kept me engaged was how strong the relationships between the characters were and how I
On the night of the 28th of November 2013, I had the chance of watch some of the third year Lasalle theatre students produce and perform Michael Christofer’s “The Shadow Box”. Despite having very little knowledge of the play itself, I thoroughly enjoyed the play and was kept engaged throughout.
“The Shadow Box” revolves around three main terminally ill characters, Joe, Felicity and Agnes, who had to deal with the fact of not being able to live much longer. It also involves their family and friends facing the inevitable death of their loved one. The play addresses the theme of death and the idea of seizing the day and living life to its’ fullest, otherwise known as ‘Carpe Diem’. Keeping within the genre of realism, the play uses dark comedy to emphasize and enhance the message of the play - ‘to grab onto life and live it with all your might’.
The play was held in the Creative Cube and the space was set up with blocks of different heights, distinguishing the three individual spaces, as well as a void-like segment placed center up-stage. The space showed the cottages of Joe’s, Brian’s and Felicity’s, from stage left to stage right respectively. The void-like space had a swivel chair with a spotlight on it. During the play, the different characters had a chance to sit on the chair and discuss their current situations with numerous voices that encouraged each of them to express their emotions. This gave the audience an insight into their personal feelings and thoughts of their condition. Even though the set was not exactly the most extravagant, it had basic set pieces such as a couch and a table that made it unambiguous to the audience that the play was set in their cottages. I felt that the set was enough to inform he audience of where the play was set in and what really mattered was the content and acting of the play.
What had kept me engaged was how strong the relationships between the characters were and how I