It all matters... all the pieces are important...

I went to see A Pair of Threes last night out in Sherwood Park at Festival Place. My best friend and several other friends were involved in the show. The first act was a One Act called Three Viewings and the second act was a One Act called Three Hotels. In total the plays were comprised of 6 monologues. Overall the evening of theatre was good. There were lots of laughs and some poignant moments. However, the evening really showed how everything matters; the acting, the directing, the space and the playwrighting. Of all the components, the acting was the strongest, but there were challenges in the playwrighting that didn't necessarily serve the actors well. A bit stronger direction might have helped, and some better staging to deal with the lack of depth to the space. The shows were clearly well-cast, which is often 90% of the directing, but really the biggest challenge was overcoming some of the stilted writing of the first 2 monologues. In the second show, I was puzzled by the accent choice of one of the actors (I might ask about it the next time I see him, as I had trouble figuring out where he was supposed to be from), but the blocking issues that we experienced in the first show were resolved. The set was different and allowed for a higher positioning of the actors. But the evening showed, that not even really good actors can overcome flaws in the script. I am glad that they had a good turn-out. That was the benefit to the smaller space, even if it meant compromised sight lines.