Thanks to Dan for this information!
The Long Season
On Friday I went to see “The Long Season” at Perseverance Theatre and the more I reflect on it the more I like it. The play, under the direction of Peter DuBois, was written by Chay Yew with music by Fabian Obispo.
The story is really what shined for me, I thought it was well guided and explored a good breadth of themes without becoming stretched too thin. Paolo Montalban let hope and innocence shine through in Allos and his charisma really made the character likeable. Melody Butiu played as Belen, a character who had lonely crumpled dreams and the demeanor of a forty year old woman you might find somewhere in the haze at the back end of a dive bar. The really great bits of acting were done by Bernardo Bernardo who is apparently the Filipino version of George Carlin. He played a more serious role here as a man bent and changed by love, time, and dreams of a better life.
The thing I really liked about this play is that Perseverance chose to explore a bit of the Filipino history here in Southeast Alaska. They do a great job of sharing Alaskan Native culture and it’s nice to see them recognize the importance of the Filipinos to the development of our community as well.
Story… check. Acting… check. Music… uhmmm. yeah.
Unfortunately this was a musical that didn’t really need to be a musical. The songs lacked identity and didn’t do much for the story but make it run longer than it needed to. I suppose it offered a chance for the characters to think aloud but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t have been explored with staging or dialogue. It felt more to me like one of those unneeded layers of creative glaze that gets put on just to be sure it has some critical acclaim or artsy stature and I don’t know that any of the songs would stand alone.
It could be I’m just grumpy because they didn’t have cookies at intermission. Who eats biscotti? It’s like gnawing a dog biscuits.. trust me I know.
The play is worth seeing but twenty-two dollars can also buy a good book and a whole bunch of cookies.
Paolo Montalban website: http://www.ePaolo.com