Performance Review - Dot - Family Scene Comedy Produced by Colman Domingo

Xuanhao Hu

THE 1041

Prof. Werther

02/29/2016

Performance Review: Dot

Dot is a really impressing family scene comedy produced by Colman Domingo at off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre. This show was full of love and funny and not disappoint to me. It is a story about disputative family members arguing their mother’s dementia disease and spending over Christmas holiday together.  After watching this show, I think the target audience of this play could be anyone especially for whom may have some issues with family. Now I want to tell you something what I see and think in this show.

When I came in Vineyard Theatre, there is a big cloth screen on stage. And a big house with several windows and a gate printed on the screen. I was sitting on the center first line with my friends. Unbelievably, I was so excited about the distance between stage and me because it is about 1meters and closes enough to see any details on stage. At the begging of the Dot, lights twinkled ceaselessly among these windows on screen. Then lights down and everything in dark. After a few seconds darkness, a kitchen appeared in front of audiences. This kitchen given me the first impress is just like my home’s kitchen, which is so real and detailed, as same as common. Then a black woman called Shelly came out and prepared to cook breakfast to her mother. The story started with an argument between daughter and mother. They were talking about the plan in Christmas holiday and other little nothings of life. They performed naturally and reality when I saw mother forgot to turn down gas and daughter got mad because her mother ruined again then she have to throw away and make a new one for her mother. It seems I am one of them and experience their life with them meantime.

There are two scenes totally in this show. After 15 minutes intermission, the second scene came up as a decorated Christmas living room, including large couch located in the center, piano and Christmas tree at different corner of the stage and more bright lights than the first scene. All of these sets are telling audience it will be continued in a happiness and warm environment. In second scene, all characters showed up including two daughters, one son and his gay boyfriend, mother, a neighbor and a foreign servant. However, the beautiful decoration implied actually they all have their own minds and always argue and yell each other. That is an attractive point to me for this show. In this show, everyone has personality and crush with others. When all crushes come up together, the climax part will come. Also there is an important cruel I noticed through this play. It is an old recorder. The mother always hold in her hands and record her voice in case she can’t remember what her kids said few minutes ago. After a big noise argument, all lights turned down except only one light focused on this old recorder which was on table. Meanwhile, it was so quiet on the stage and gay son Donnie played piano alone. This moment I fell in my thinking and enjoyed this literature atmosphere.