Generation Hot: Program C - Riotous

Having seen one of the other shows in this series, I came to this show with great expectations. I was nearly bouncing in my seat to see another one. I even brought a friend this time! The show was comprised of two different plays, starting with The Lilacs That Come a Month Early Are Still So Beautiful and followed by Cosmic Justice.

The Lilacs That Come a Month Early Are Still So Beautiful starts with a man named The Last of His Kind moving through a blue sheet that I thought was water, maybe. As the story progresses several women tell awkward stories of how they feel responsible for not saying anything and just allowing the decline of the climate. The message was relatively clear but none of the characters seemed connected to each other. It was as if four separate plays were fighting for space on a stage. As my confusion waxed, my excitement waned and I realized this wouldn’t be the show I was expecting. To be fair, I thought the acting was good and the individual scenes mostly made sense, but as a whole piece strung together, it was very chaotic.

After that, the audience was asked to leave the stage so that they could set up for Cosmic Justice. As we re-entered the room the energy picked up a million-fold and we were propelled into a courtroom game show between the last three humans and a race of aliens who were voting whether to bring the humans to their safe haven planet, Neverland, or doom them to life on a dying world. Each audience member is given a poker chip to vote with, and the debates begin!  All of the characters in this show are hilarious. We, the audience, are the alien jury, our pretentious President the prosecution, and the three everyday humans we picked up before Earth’s final volcanic eruption were the defendants. Now that’s what I was hoping for!