William Rockett
Professor Charles Crews
Theatre 1310
5 March 2012
Critical Evaluation of 1000 Proms - Gregory S Moss / Dump Monkeys - Jim Tyler Anderson
Basic Story - 1000 Proms
1000 proms opens with a young girl seated at a table, cutting stars out of tinfoil. She is very excited about her prom, and introduces herself by way of conversation. Her name is Sally Carruthers, and she is preparing for her prom. Sally tells us about her life, friends, family, relationships, and prom preparations, all by way of monologue. Her story goes back and forth between pitiful, touching, and infuriating. Her religious views seem to have saved her sanity temporarily, but end up being a crutch for her neuroticism in the long run, justifying her murder of her mother, the destruction of her relationships with her boyfriend and friends, and allowing her to separate herself from her environment through an emotional elitism. You can easily follow Sally’s monolog, it naturally follows from her mother’s bad life choices to her move to a new town. The story wraps up with a bizarre description of what is either sally’s mental breakdown resulting from murdering her mother, or a fire at the school prom that doesn’t burn Sally at all, but simply provides a backdrop for her rapture and salvation by God.
Basic Story – Dump Monkeys
Dump monkeys follows three women in a ‘Sanitary Landfill Somewhere in South Texas’ over the course of an evening. It briefly summarizes the culture, government and policies of a future America in which the old, the weak, and the useless are cast out as exiles. In general, though, it seems to focus more on the interactions of the cast, and life as an underprivileged societal reject. The main characters had to stoop to eating rodents, drinking foul ditch water, and eventually, cannibalism. Pearl brings in a newcomer who’s been wounded, and she faces conflict from the group, and doesn’t receive immediate acceptance. The spotter seems to bring them together as the story progresses, whenever the spotlight comes into their area, they huddle together and forget their differences. In the end, Mabel, who is wounded, sacrifices herself to buy them time, and at the same time, ends her own suffering and saves herself from an eventual slow and miserable death.
Main Characters - 1000 Proms
Sally Carruthers is the ‘heroine’, if you could consider her that. Also prominent characters were her three friends, each of whom had a defining character flaw. Her boyfriend Peanut seemed to be a fairly normal teenage boy, not much was said about him other than his physical desire for Sally. Sally’s mother was very prominently featured as a loose, drunken promiscuous woman of scarce means. She was diseased and seemed hopeless. A’Mari Jo Rocheleau did an excellent job portraying Sally, and she had excellent reactions to the sparse self-narrated comments of the other characters. I was very impressed with A’Mari’s emotional energy, she seemed genuinely engaged. She very clearly communicated a wide variety of emotions and swept the audience into sharing those feelings. Her rage was terrifying, her glee contagious, and her fear was heartbreaking.
Main Characters – Dump Monkeys
There are four main characters in Dump Monkeys. They are: Mabel, a crippled older woman of questionable sanity and possessor of many idioms and idiosyncrasies, Pearl, a stern, serious, and somewhat grouchy mother figure, who looks out for the bunch, Anne, an injured younger woman who is dragged into camp by Pearl. I thought that Mabel was portrayed quite well. She seemed very at-ease, multi-faceted, assertive, and very in-character. She easily slipped naturally between frightened, obstinate, intentionally obtuse, bullying, pensive, and finally heroic and selfless. Pearl’s part seemed somewhat two dimensional to me, but that very well may not have been Christine’s fault. Mabel was the main character, in my opinion, and the show may have been written to allow her to develop depth, and not have the other characters distract from that. Anne was a support character even more than Pearl, but Aimee seemed to fit the part well. She seemed passive-aggressive and somewhat pensive, as I’m assuming was intended. The spotter was more of a prop than a character, but Shauna did well, and the scalping was quite shocking, exaggerated, and thrilling.
Scenic Elements – 1000 Proms
I paid particular attention to the scenic elements of 1000 proms, as this is my main interest in theatre. The set of 1000 Proms was very simple. There was a desk, a stool, and a short set of stairs. The colors were muted, and there was a projection screen at the back that provided context for the monologue, and a very short and rapid-fire still shot slideshow at the end, summarizing all of the events up until that point. The sound was very simple, providing subtle sounds until the end, when the frozen-in-time-disco-ball and warped dance music provided a very surreal environment. In the last scene, the lighting and sound both provided a fire effect, lending Sally’s story about a fire in the school credibility. I thought that the lighting of the whole show was very fluid, appropriate, and not nearly perfect. The lights were always in the correct area, as well as the correct brightness. Bravo!
Scenic Elements – Dump Monkeys
The set for Dump Monkeys was very compartmentalized, and elaborate. It did an excellent job of creating a believable atmosphere that went along with the story. The set piece with the working car door was a nice touch, and was utilized quite efficiently. The moments in the play where the searching spotlight and diesel engine noise denoted people searching for the Dump Monkeys were well put together and very tense.
Conclusion – 1000 Proms
I enjoyed 1000 Proms thoroughly. It was a refreshing and inspiring example of what can be done with a single actor monologue. If you asked most people how exciting a one hour monologue could be, they most likely would laugh at you. A’Mari proved that stereotype to be thoroughly wrong. I was emotionally engaged, and mentally entertained the entire show. There wasn’t a time when I had to manually suspend my disbelief, or attempt to artificially put myself into the dream-state that is theatre consumption. I have recommended it to a couple of my friends already, and will do so again!
Conclusion – Dump Monkeys
I enjoyed dump monkeys. I didn’t have the raving review for it like I did for 1000 Proms, but I did enjoy it. The message didn’t seem completely clear, and I felt that the tension between the characters might have been overwrought. In my experience, adversity makes people closer together and more willing to compromise. Any group of people whose goal is survival generally feel the ‘band of brothers’ effects that many military groups or other groups who frequently see danger are familiar with. Overall, it was a good story, and well done. I would recommend it to my friends, if only because it is paired with 1000 Proms.