Cosi's In A Critical Analysis

I have seen a good amount of plays in a number of different venues but this is the first college performance I have ever experienced and it surprised me, both because of the acting and portrayal quality. It appeared that Louis Nowra, Cosi’s playwright, was trying to challenge our perspective of “insane” people and get across the message that they may be more alike us than we are willing to believe. The director, Steven Pearson, seemed to be trying to convey this message with the simplistic approach to the set and really trying to get the actors with connect with the audience and make us feel for them. I think they cast and production team were able to execute the play and portray the message quite well and I left feeling like I really did understand what the playwright was trying to tell the audience, in a sense. In a play such as this, where the director and playwright want the audience to really feel connected to the characters and their stories, it is imperative that the actors are able to portray their characters effectively. …show more content…
Personally, I felt like there was a mixed bag of talent in this cast with some standing out more than others. For example, Matthew Cavander, who played Roy, was notably talented in his ability to quickly establish his character and connect to the audience through his convincing portrayal. There was not a point in the play where his performance brought me back to reality and made me feel as though I was watching a person play a character, rather than just watching the character act out his life. An actor like this is so important to a director and playwright trying to convey a specific message. On the other hand, Donavan St. Andre more monotone and expressionless portrayal of Lewis drew me out of the play, failing to make me feel as connected to him or his story. Yet, that may not have been the worst thing because the whole point of this production is for you to connect to the “insane” characters and be able to put yourself in their shoes and feel their emotions. Overall though, I think that the way each character was depicted was imperative to the message and I think the actors did an effective job of helping the narrative along. Another element that I noticed was the simplistic set design. I have attended many plays with extremely elaborate set that draw you into a another world and make you believe you have stepped into an alternate reality but for a play like this I think an intricate set design would have been amiss. As previously discussed, the whole idea of this play is to get the audience to focus on the characters and what they are going through, the simplistic set, designed by Baxter Engle, allowed the actors and characters they were portraying to really claim the stage and shine. Without the distractions of big sets and complex backgrounds I could really focus on watching the actors and how they used the stage space. I was able to notice smaller things like when actors who were not in the forefront of the scene would be still deep in character, acting out nervous ticks and what not. I firmly believe that the design made by the set designer and director alike to stick with a minimalist set and let the actors