Kite's Book: A Review
After a strong opening to the 2011/2012 season with the enjoyable Kiss Me, Kate, 6th Street Playhouse continues with the West Coast premiere of Robert Caisley’s Kite’s Book: Tales of an 18th Century Hitman. Unfortunately, what should have been an exciting play, turned into a disappointment by the second act.
The play starts with a prisoner about to be drawn and quartered, then jumps back in time to show the audience the events that led up to the opening scene. Through multiple scenes spread over two acts, the audience is given a view on the public’s fascination with courtroom drama and what justice really is.
A great deal of the production was good. The costumes were beautiful, and the set was very pleasing on the eyes. The set was especially great for having an clean and simple design that kept some of the central themes of the play visible at all times. The lighting did a decent enough job of setting mood and directing focus, though a number of cues had odd timing to them, which made a few scenes drag.
The entire cast did an excellent job with the script and direction they were given. Each seemed well rehearsed, thought out, and researched. Rahman Dalrymple deserves special recognition for not only his wonderful chemistry with everyone in the cast, but his excellent stage combat (led and choreographed by the talented Clint Campbell and Marty Pistone, respectively).
What let this performance down (which was a surprise coming from the usual excellence 6th Street brings), was a combination of the play, and the directing. According to the Author’s notes, the play is supposed to be an exploration of media sensationalism, the public’s fascination with high profile cases and justice (as inspired by the O.J. Simpson trial). While this is a noble aspiration, in execution, the play comes off as being far too heavy handed and preachy. In addition, the multiple jokes and gags that used the fourth wall breaking aspect of the play became old and tired after many repeats. In the first act, this was bearable, and even entertaining. By the second act, the themes and jokes became so heavy handed, it felt like the audience was being beaten over the head with them. Also confusing was a particular scene partway through that showed two separate sad events happening simultaneously. Considering that the audience had already been told or shown what was going to happen, the scene felt ridiculous and completely unnecessary. When considering the aspect of direction, it is possible that many of these problems could have been the result of director Craig A. Miller, which is even more of a curiosity. His direction in the previously mentioned Kiss Me, Kate was excellent, and made the older musical seem fresh and exciting. It would be interesting to see this play done with a different director, and possibly in a different area (than middle-class, liberal, suburban Northern California) to see if the themes and messages of the play come across any differently.
If the second act had stayed as strong as the first, this would have been an easy recommendation for a night out. Unfortunately, the heavy-handedness drops this down to a “pass”. However, a majority of the audience seemed to disagree, and got more vocal with their applause as the show went on, so your mileage may vary. In fact, a request for the audience to decide the fate of a character was met with loud cheers for death, which was more than a little shocking, considering the tone and message of the play.
Kite’s Book runs at 6th Street Playhouse in the GK Hardt Theatre from September 30 to October 23. Tickets run $15-$35. For tickets and more information, visit www.6thstreetplayhouse.com