It was and it is still a mystery to me, even after attending the play, why Lucy Thuber has chosen this title.
Is
Scarcity the name of a village in rural west or a synonym for a situation. Is it maybe both?
I went well prepared and with a certain confidence to attending the play. Here is a brief comment by me: You have to know that I followed the play from the beginning; read almost all the reviews and even made fruitful attempts to improve my English.
I had heard that the Atlantic Theatre Companies Stage 1 was situated in a former church, a small one, and I was curious to see the place. What I found was a very pleasant and intimate 'little' Theatre.
Once we were all seated. The lights went out and
Scarcity began. As there were no curtains to fall to mark the change of scenes, they used light and music to do so (remark of the author: impressive choice of music).
I didn't know what was meant by the term "Rural west" and somebody had to explain it to me. As a girl from abroad and especially from the south of the Netherlands which is very country like, I recognized a lot in their release (story).
The cast was well chosen and their performance was vivacious and real. Although the story was a sad one (there was a lot in it to make you do some serious thinking), there was a lot of laughter among the audience. Some scenes were brought in a way that you could react either shocked, sad and horrified or amused; last because of the actors' performance. Is it not better to laugh about ourselves and our imperfections than rather to stick in a mood of sorrow and pity and become a sourball?
My fear that I would not understand what was going on was completely groundless. I could talk about the content of the play, but I will not do so. Let's face it, words and the brief description I would come up with (that due to my imperfect English) will not honor this play as it deserves to be honored. The play had everything love, sadness, roughness, hopes, loneliness even sex and for a brief moment there was tenderness. When the lights went out at last for a brief moment, there was nothing but silence and then there was an eruption of applause, standing ovations and enthusiast clapping.
We were a group of 7 ladies -- all fans of Michael T. Weiss -- and we were all waiting for him to come out after the show . There were more people waiting for the actors to come out. Some other fans of Michael, family and relatives of Meredith Brandt (Rachel), fans of Kristen Johnston (Martha) and other cast members.
Shortly after the play they came out one by one. Michael (as always) left the theatre last. He was pleased to see so many people waiting for him, talked to each of us and was as polite as always. Unfortunately all good things have come to an end and this story of mine has one too. Michael T. left soon and left us behind at the gate, some of us talking about the play, some waiting for their feet to come down to earth so they could walk away and carry on the day as 'nothing' special happend ... the hell did ... Scarcity happened.
Author: Maria A. de Wilde
