The Great McAnigan stands up to the name
The Collective Project has once again stood up to its promise of bringing Atlanta audiences Atlanta born, and oh so great, productions. The Great McAnigan opened this past weekend and the premiere of Dave Lauby’s theatrical treasure was well received. It was funny. It was heart warming. It was incredibly entertaining and thought provoking as all the greats are.
Directed by The Collective Project’s artistic director, Sean Haley, the play centers around Andrew McAnigan (Weston Manders) who from birth has been a very talented fella. He cures ailments, fixes the unfixable, memorizes math, and continually exceeds all expectations. Except for one. His dream, beyond all dreams and abilities, is to be a poet. But unfortunately for Andrew, his poetry lacks.
The Great McAnigan is one of those contemporary works that has the ability to stand the test of time. Lauby has written a work that is reminiscent of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth and will, with continued productions spanning the nation, have the same timelessness that Wilder’s play maintains. The range of emotion and theatrical methods creates that unique experience that you can only have in the theater.
The playfulness that Wilder used in The Skin of Our Teeth is the same techniques that Lauby used. The vast coverage of time and events. The minor breaks and breakdowns of the fourth wall to give the audience that brief interlude to story. The mocking of the very thing that is occurring on stage. And of course the most major pause to theatricality was the planned, staged and scripted stop to the play itself and the return of character to actor and then back again. If Lauby does not love Wilder’s play as much as I do, and used this love to create his own inspired work, I would be shocked.
The cast – Weston Manders, Brandon Partrick, Blaire Hillman, Mary Russell, Corey Bradberry, Matt Bartholomew, Christen Orr, and Amanda Lindsey – depicted rural England and London in the middle of America’s South so perfectly. This play required so much energy and quite a bit of role switching. Like usual, The Collective Project’s choices in casting added to the written word and allowed for audiences to truly enjoy this enthralling production. This company always seems to capture what it means to be timed perfectly and engage audiences in a refreshing way.
With this production The Collective Project introduced a new, yet classic, structure for revenue. And of course this blog could not be more understanding. They took from old buskers (street performers) who reveled in the idea of coins hitting a hat or other object to collect their earnings, and began the “see the play before you pay” ticketing technique. Essentially they are trusting in the fact that this play is as great as the namesake McAnigan and audiences will pour out their pockets afterwards. And they are not being presumptuous.
The Great McAnigan is running till June 22 at The Goat Farm. For reservations and information, visit thecollectiveprojectinc.com.
