THE THINGS WE DO BEHIND THE SCENES at Ad Astra

As a reviewer, I love to go and support independent companies and their new works. Hence, I was very exited to go and see Ad Astra's The Things We Do Behind the Scenes, written by John Caswell. However, it was the first time that I've ever walked out of a show halfway through the first act.

Dramaturgically, it was a mess. There was no clear story and characters were the embodiment of the word cliche. Although the cast showed promise and were trying their best but they, unfortunately, had nothing to work with.

The behind the scenes footage and interviews that were shown on the television screen at the back of the stage had no purpose in the narrative. I've thought a lot about it, but I still can't comprehend why it was included. Not only that, but the creative roles that were explored weren't actually factual. For example, a stage manager is not in charge of sourcing licensing for the music the director wishes to include in the show. The footage then continued to misrepresent each role on the creative team, morphing the stage manager role into a producer role, not to mention how the director was depicted as a whiny teenager who had no idea what they were doing.

In this show, there was nothing to capture the audience's attention. It was a work in progress and it didn't land.

Rating: Inapplicable

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