One Saturday in August of 2010, I was having lunch at Panera with my then-girlfriend now-wife. We…read morewere discussing our plans for the day, and what we could do in the evening. It so happened that my eyes fell upon a pretty grim and ominous looking poster tacked to the community billboard at the back of the Panera.
"Twilight of the Gods - Great minds die alike." A play by a new theater company in Nashville called Blackbird Theater.
Curious, I looked it up on my phone and found it interesting enough that I bought us tickets for that very night.
Since that first night, we've seen 3 other productions by Blackbird Theater: Arcadia, Magic and their current production, Amadeus.
Blackbird Theater is a Nashville theater company by Greg Green and Wes Driver. They bill themselves as theater for the "intellectually adventurous," - in other words they specifically select plays that are challenging - in their dialog, in their ideas, in their acting and also in their production. From my experience they certainly deliver on all these.
Production quality:
From their very first play, I've always been impressed with their production quality. From the stage, to the props and wardrobes, to the acting - they've always have managed to create scenes specific to their era and to the mood.
Acting:
They've also been very skilled at finding impressive talent for their roles: In Twilight of the Gods, they had to cast for Mark Twain, Rasputin, Annie Oakley, Nietzsche and more. When you've got characters who are so well known to the public, it's easy for them to appear as caricatures, but in every case I've found the roles to be very convincing.
Play selection:
While I've missed two plays out of the 6 shows they've now done, from the 4 that I've seen I would say that while I definitely appreciate the plays they select, they are also not for everyone. As I mentioned, they select plays which tackle difficult material - philosophical, scientific, mathematical. That being said, the plays are far from being college lectures - they are entertaining, they are emotional, and even thrilling.
As an example: The first play they had put on, Twilight of the Gods, was written by themselves (Wes Driver and Greg Green). It's a murder-mystery with notable Victorian people as the main characters. To put it brief: Clue for Grown Ups. The premise is that a wealthy intellectual is able to find historical luminaries reincarnated into present day people. With some convincing, he is able to transform these people back into their former selves - upon which they take on the appearance and mannerisms of the figures. The man's goal is to create a more enlightened age by specifically choosing a set of people who were experts in their own rites, and can discuss issues in a productive way. These discussions begin to be interrupted as the people are suddenly killed off - one by one.
I managed to catch their current production, Amadeus, on opening night. Having seen the film, I wasn't sure what to expect. To put it simply, I was blown away. It was profound material and delivered better than Hollywood. For a play to span more than 30 years of time means a lot of scenes, and for characters to age. The actor who played the lead role, Salieri, was incredible as he transitioned back and forth between the young Salieri to the old. Most importantly, they managed to capture the mood, music and emotion of the story in a way that was deeper than the film (I could hear sniffles and tears of the audience).
My major criticism unfortunately is with the venue - Blackbird Theater has all its shows at Lipscomb's Shamblin Theater. The theater itself is not bad: I like its proximity to some restaurants and coffee shops you can visit during intermission, and the main area is set up with circular tables that give the stage production more depth as those at the tables often feel more immersed within the play. What is really problematic for me are the chairs - which is not something I'd normally complain about. Shamblin Theater's chairs are awful - they are stiff, and upright in such away that three-quarters of the way through the production, you find yourself with a stiff lower back, and neck. The chairs are so bad they can sometimes become distracting, as you can't find a comfortable position.
All in all, I'll finish off by saying that I look forward to future productions by Blackbird Theater, and there's a lot that can be said about a theater company when my only complaint is with the chairs. I encourage everyone (even those who may be intimidated by the idea of "intellectual theater") to give Blackbird Theater a shot - they're a small, local theater company that puts on high quality productions with ticket prices far less than what you'd find at TPac.
