Stream of Consciousness: The Verge of Insanity, August 26, 2005, The Houston School

This show was my first exposure to the dos chicas theater commune. The subtitle of this program is "An Assemblage of Playlets by Local Scribes in Need of Therapy." The show consisted of 11 short stories, and I won't even attempt to describe them all. It was all narrated by Captain Snappy Pants, who discoursed between the stories on such subjects as sex and retribution. If you haven't gotten the picture yet, this is not your typical play, and that's what I liked about it most. The performance space was tiny, probably the smallest black box theater feasible. The actors were great, although some were better than others. I think the most interesting section was "A Time to Confess," in which some disaster has occurred in an apartment building, and three of the tenants are stuck within speaking distance. We never got to see the two men, and we only saw the woman as a sillhouette, pacing back and forth with her cane. Not being able to see the characters, I was forced to focus on the voices. It's a bit like dancers dancing without music.