#asolo rep

"Oh, I've got to see that."

So last night I toddled down to the Asolo, and let me tell you something: I had no idea what I thought I was going to see, but it was not that. I'm not opposed to technology in theatre, strictly speaking, but I kind of favor the artistry of hand crafted design. I like the attention to detail in a traditional set. I did not miss it last night. Most of the set was created through digital projection, incredibly inventive use of digital projection, blended liberally with puppetry for some of the fish and wide angle effects. The giant angler fish swimming through the audience had the ladies sitting next to us gasping in excitement.

The script itself was exciting, a condensed, reworked version of the original plot designed to incorporate ocean conservation on a modern scale into the classic story. For most fandoms I'm a purist, (with the exception of comics where everything is canon divergent,) I get really waco when things stray too far from the source material and if you're like that for Vern, you're probably going to freak out. But I felt that most of the changes were in service of making the plot more relevant to a modern audience. Prof. Aronnax is played by a woman, our narrator is a 21st century doctoral candidate procrastinating on his thesis in Oceanography, the plot adjustments exist for either condensation or to allow openings to thread discussions about marine biology with actual scientist in the show's app.

The show has an app.

Post show you can watch video interviews in the app with researchers studying what you've just been watching on stage, and of course take some goofy selfies. It's pretty original, a code on stage allows you to unlock more content inside the app which was fun because it gave you something engaging to do during intermission.

And I've got to talk about the kids, because the production was offering discount tickets to parents bringing their kids to the show. At which point I usually cringe because younger kids tend to get bored fast in the theatre. About a third of last night's audience was under 14 and you really could not tell, the little guy in the row in front of us was about 7 and he came out of the show wide eyed and excited after being nearly silent the whole evening. Which was great to see, you can't love the theatre if you never find anything to love about the theatre. Pretty sure that's going to be a tough act to follow though.

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