Baltimore Center Stage: Men On Boats

One thing that is certain about Men On Boats, there are none!  This satirical and comedic retelling of the fabled John Wesley Powell Expedition of the Grand Canyon builds off of the real life, ill-conceived, and mostly unnecessary journey in search of something that was already well known.  The real life adventurers are all played by women to give this version of events a decidedly feminist edge, while providing a true-ish narrative found in the journals of Powell himself.  Every thing is fair game for the lampooning from absurd superiority of the white settlers over the Native Peoples to a passing hint at his fluid situational sexuality.

The cast was all new to me and an utter delight.  With no obvious leading roles, the ensemble rather works like a finely tuned team of athletes passing the ball back and forth and never missing the shot.  From the first stab at the river, the play was thoroughly entertaining and more than a little informative.  Finding myself in an elevator at the parking garage after the show with a pair of other theater goers, I comment, "Interesting way to learn history..." and they chuckled and agreed.  One of the chief reasons that the show was enjoyable was that the actors themselves appeared to be having fun, too.

The set was simple mainly being a gorgeously rendered backdrop with a series of simple props that the actors constantly rearranged to convey changes in location.  The costumes were a odd mix of period-sort-of and St. Vincent de Paul clothing center.  But it worked. Around for one more week, a fun distraction from the pre-holiday stresses.