Review - Six Characters

I just want to quickly state that the UWM labworks production of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author is definitely worth seeing.

These students might not have the training or the polish that UWM mainstage productions have, but some of them have more rawness and passion than i'm used to seeing out of UWM actors. Especially noteworthy are Tommy Stevens, Callie Eberdt and Max Hultquist, but singling them out is a bit unfair, because others' roles were much smaller or intended to be less passionate. These students have committed more deeply to their characters and to this challenging play than most of what comes out of UWMs programs, and it pays off, making this a truly effecting and successful adaptation of Pirandello.

Ben Wilson's inclusion of Milwaukee-specific lines in the script also rung true to frustrations with the arts in milwaukee. It gives me hope that at least some students going through UWM's program won't be so easily carved into banal clones for shakespeare and broadway. It's really too bad that the staging of this over 100 year old indictment of bad theatre is still relevant today, and that UWM's choice to produce it stinks of hypocrisy.