Dante
By Kaitlin Phillips
Presented by Peanutfish Productions
Factory Studio Theatre
Tue July 7 @ 1:00pm
Thu July 9 @ 7:45pm
Sat July 11 @ 5:15pm
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Reviewed by Daina Valiulis
Dante is a play about the poet. Living with his wife/girlfriend Laura, Dante is dealing with a severe case of writer’s block. To help, Laura sends bits of his poetry off to be used as commercial jingles. Beatrice, Dante’s muse, shows up out of the blue and the love triangle is complete.
This production was needlessly nonsensical. A love triangle being the oldest story in the book, it takes some pretty innovative thinking to make it interesting, which these guys unfortunately fail to do. Confusingly, Laura kept talking about how she inspired 300 of Petrarch’s poems, and later reveals a previous marriage and that she’s leaving Dante for their accountant. Not a minute earlier, she was begging him not to leave her for Beatrice. Beatrice is another puzzle: Is she dead? Is she an illusion? Is she real?
The acting left much to be desired. Forrest Seamons played Dante like a pole: he hardly moved and his face failed to expressed any emotion, making it difficult to buy the idea that these women would both be into him. Kristan Brown (Laura)’s theatricality worked for the character, but in contrast, Beatrice (Caitlin Goldie) was stiff and smug.
Dante is a confusing and pedantic production. If you happen to miss this one, don’t worry: there are other fish in the sea.
