How (I think) I've turned a rom-com into a pseudo concept piece

So, as you know, comedies are not usually my thing. So when presented with the opportunity to direct the lovely Clink, a new romantic comedy about youth and expectations, I looked for ways to innovate the means of telling the story. The play centres around 3 scenes in a public place -- the couple's wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, as well as the ceremony. The play has the typical lines interacting with other people in this public space, but lacks the characters to populate it. This sort of trope often gets under my skin, so I thought about how best to overcome that hurdle.

Bingo! If we stage this in a somewhat immersive fashion, using a thrust theatre space to create intimacy, and actually engaging the audience as the side characters in this family, we have a unique opportunity to create an audience experience unlike that which they'll get in a typical proscenium staging, therefore increasing their connection to these younger characters whom some older audience members may not identify with.

Thus the idea to stage Clink in thrust was born.

Now, when most people see and or stage a piece in thrust (at least in Winnipeg) they use the typical proscenium means of actor positioning, and then either just shove the actors really far upstage, or render the side sections "cheap seats". I don't ever feel these are the solution, so rather played with an almost cinematic style of staging, where each audience position will see a face in a given time, but it may not be the face of the actor speaking. It could be the actor who is being spoken to, or spoken about. What results is that depending on where you sit, you may sympathize with a different character in the story, and it may change somewhat for you versus a friend who sat on the opposite side.

Does it work? I think so, based on some audience feedback -- those who were willing to suspend expectation. Curiously the staging asks the audience to do what the characters are asking their families to do -- release expectation and accept them on their own terms, for what may be a bit non-traditional.

Come see for yourself how my little experiment has worked. I assure you the 4 young actors are worth the show, even if you find the experiment failed.

Detailed show times available here, including tonight at 8:45.