Overcoat - Overblown?

I went to see The Overcoat at the Citadel today with my Mom and AM. I had heard a lot of good things about it so I was really looking forward to it, but I was a little underwhelmed by it. It was done really well, and it was a really cool concept (no talking) but to me was not much more than a ballet. Like I said, it was really well done, but.... hmmm... Okay, maybe if I sort out what I didn't like:
  • The first act was too long and too repetitive. With a show like this everyone was really focused in the audience. We didn't need to see "the man" get bullied twice at the office to get the idea. Several other bits were too long and needed a good editing. AM postulated that perhaps it was to accommodate the music since it was apparently a specific choice.
  • I didn't like that "the man" doesn't get the overcoat until so late in the show. It makes its appearance in the last moment of Act I. Although the making of the coat was one of the coolest sections of the play, I think if they had taken out the second "bullying" section at the office they would've gotten to the coat sooner and had a little more time with the coat. Then the first Act would've ended even more positively, which bring us to the next point...
  • The guy has the coat for far too short a time. He doesn't have it long enough to really make it a part of himself, so it is gone too quickly. He needs to fall farther and from a higher height. It was too rushed a rise and descent.
  • Finally, the end just happens - poof! The music doesn't support the end so the audience as a whole was kind of confused.
  • Oh yeah, I hated the words on the scrim crap at the beginning. We all had programs - we didn't need the movie credits!

Yeah, it is hard to think about this one. I was disappointed, but I don't know if it is because I had high expectations. It was very well-done. There were just things that I felt were wrong with it.

Comments

Annemarie said…
Hey Kristen! I saw The Overcoat here in Toronto a month or two ago at the CanStage theater. I went Gwynneth who had gotten some free tickets. Given Gwynneth's gentle and sometimes vague nature, I didn't even know what I was going to see until we got to the theater. I had zero expectations and I found it alot more interesting than I think I would have if I knew what it was going into it. I had the same impression that the depiction of the importance of The Overcoat to be weak, but this thought occured to me in the middle of the performance & I thought it was due to my struggle with the unexpected mime aspect of the play and rationalized the problem away by internally filling in alot of back story on my own. I think it would have bothered me more if I wasn't attributing the problem to my own perceptions.
What I found interesting was the movement which seemed distinctly different to me as mime rather than dance/ballet. (I can't explain how, but I really felt a difference). It was interesting, but I don't need to see another one.

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