TRIBES @ SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY
From the first acerbic piece of dialogue to the final wordless moment, TRIBES is a powerful, moving piece about communication and where one wants to belong in their life.
Director M. Bevin O'Gara is hardly a stranger to contemporary plays with strong choices of words, and her staging of this family dramedy is what anchors the emotional punches.
Set in-the-round, O'Gara is both courageous and unapologetic about how she stages the superior cast. Usually in this configuration the actors are instructed to play to all sides as much as possible. Such is not the case here. The actors carry on with their daily lives as they normally would, and the in-your-face staging allows the audience in on Billy's world, who cannot hear the constant cacophony his family delivers.
As an audience member, we experience what he does--sometimes the characters face us; sometimes not. Just like in real life. We can appreciate (in a good way) his challenges when someone is not facing him and he is unable to lip-read. James Caverly plays the part perfectly. He does not want sympathy and apologizes for nothing. He wishes to be treated like everyone else--the opposite of how his family addresses him. By doing so, they make him feel more like an outsider.
TRIBES makes many bold statements along the way and does not disappoint.
Sometimes what you get is what you hear.
www.speakeasystage.com
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