Usher Nonsense #51 – Light Raise the Roof
LIGHT RAISE THE ROOF by By Kia Corthron, Director – Michael John Garcés
With Moe Moe Alston, Robert Beitzel, Caroline Stefanie Clay, Romi Dias,
Royce Johnson, Mia Katigbak, J. Kyle Manzay, Chris McKinney, Andres
Munar, April Yvette Thompson, Colleen Werthmann
Set – Narelle Sissons, Lights – Ben Stanton, Costume Design – Gabriel Berry
One of the trade offs of being a volunteer usher and getting a free seat at a show is
that you have to stay until curtain and help tidy up the theatre after the audience
leaves. So when, as in this case, ten minutes into the play you discover that the author
is not going to get any further than wandering around like a tired child with a dripping
ice cream cone, well - you just honker down and wait.
I suppose that New York Theatre Workshop has to stumble every once in awhile.
They have had a fabulous season up until now.
This play is about homeless people. About how they are disregarded, hounded by the
police (or maybe they were storm troopers…hard to tell), and never get a break. They
try to create order in their lives. They even try to build homes. When they can’t make
it above ground, they live in the bowels of the subway system.
That’s it. The end.
There is no news here. There is no story. There is no character that touches us. The
actors say the same things over and over to no end. We start nowhere and get
nowhere. And it all takes place over two and a half long hours. This show made my
face hurt.
The good news is that the audience thinned out considerably at intermission, and we
ushers were able to make a fast getaway. I suspect we all went home and took long
hot showers to wash off the yak.
© 2004 by Tulis McCall
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