A Night in the BRCT Theatre

When you go for a night out to visit the theater, the last thing you usually want are unruly viewers who talk and carry on throughout the show.

Blue Ridge Community Theater’s showing of A Night in the Theatre turned this idea around as you spend the entire show watching an audience. I must take a moment here to congratulate some of the extras in the show, who were not named in the Playbill, on a good job in being a key point of the show without ever uttering a word.

As the show begins, you will find yourself wondering what is going on as you stare blankly at a set of theater seats. The seats soon fill with the shows four member cast, two couples who are getting some ‘culture’ at the playhouse, as well as the extra audience members. The show continues as they crows begins viewing a showing of Hamlet and the two couples turn out to be the type that would make me even want to find new seats. A good romp of comedy rounds out a pretty thin story plot, which the actors do a rather good job of filling in with their own flavor.

I have to applaud these actors on an outstanding talent as they manage to keep up with each other, their own lines, a pretend play they are watching, and managing all this while sitting in the same four seats for the majority of the play.

One actor, specifically, kept drawing me to his side throughout the show. I always point out my favorite character, and, this time, it was Walter Pace, played by Alex Nawrocki. Delivering a performance that I cannot go without pointing out as the funniest character in both spoken and unspoken areas, he shines as the ‘know-it-all’ of the group who likes to sound smarter than he is. He highlights a humor that resonates on several levels, like the idea of what a “Gaffer” is, and adds a little punch with some great physical acting that I didn’t think could come from sitting in a fold-down-theater-seat.

The show only runs for one more weekend so take some time to swing by the Blue Ridge Community Theater to catch a A Night in the Theatre, and maybe you will see someone you remember from the audience on stage.