Cody Daigle's review of the AUI/UL-Lafayette/Festival International production of KALEIDOSCOPE:

Kaleidoscope begins with an accident: a spaceship hauling lumber across the cosmos explodes, sending a handful of its passengers hurtling through space. They’re a small brace of survivors – it’s suggested there were others who died in the crash, but only these six escape – and they are connected only by radios that are soon to run out of power. All that’s left of their pre-crash lives are the voices of their fellow shipmates, and each is hurtling outward into his own oblivion.

The play is an adaptation of two radio plays by Bradbury also calledKaleidoscope, done by the show’s director, Nathan Gabriel. The adaptation is smart – just the beginning of a slew of smart choices made by Gabriel across the production – and it cleverly honors both the piece’s radio beginnings and its new stagebound life. This isn’t an easy feat, but Gabriel has found a way to make the play’s aural landscape as evocative as its visual one.

The ensemble of actors do fine work across the board. Their relationships with each other, and ultimately their relationship with their inevitable ends, are clear and fleshed out. The stakes are high, and no one (thankfully!) reaches or showboats with their limited time on stage. Two performances are particularly effective. Vince Barras, as Hollis, has the show’s biggest role and serves as its de fact conscience. He’s genuine, warm and affecting, particularly in his final moments.

The show’s standout performance was Chris Matochi’s as Stimson, the one survivor who’s not handling his end with grace. The part is small – although he lasts longer than some of his companions, Stimson isn’t given a lot of text – but Matochi fills it with a rich energy that’s deeply affecting. His death is the most painful to watch, and his departure was the only one I felt in my gut.

What’s impressive about Kaleidscope is its restraint. Gabriel wisely chooses to hold back from unnecessary theatrics and bold, overstated gestures. His touches are small, quiet and powerful – small lights going out on each of the actor’s costumes signaling their demise was my favorite – and his artistic team followed suit. Brady McKellar’s costumes were simple yet evocative. Travis Johnston’s lighting design was spot-on. And the show’s music (Max Richter), sound design (Jack Klotz and Gabriel) and video design (Lisa Marie Patzer) were impressive and understated, honoring the show’s 1950s science fiction sensibility without resorting to camp.

The whole enterprise is impressive, and it’s encouraging to know that folks like Gabriel and McKellar, both newish faces on the UL Performing Arts faculty, are helping to steer local theatre into its future.

Kaleidscope invites us not only to consider the vastness of the universe but also the uncharted distances between people. In that distance, the play seems to say, our inability to connect honestly and completely with the people around us keeps us untethered, alone. And the play seems to say that it’s not our joys but our regrets that keep us company once all the lights are out. And once the silence is descending, with whatever courage we have left, we should send those regrets out into space, as a fevered cry in the dark. 

---Cody Daigle

Kaleidoscope continues its run at Theatre 810 through the remainder of Festival International, beginning at 7 pm every night and will also run May 3-6, again at 7 pm.

http://acadianatheatrehappenings.blogspot.com/2012/04/theatre-review-auiul-lafayettefestival.html

It's definitely time to make plans for Festival International, and create a custom schedule.  Don't forget that the AUI/UL-Lafayette/Festival International production of KALEIDOSCOPE is listed there as "THEATRE"! And after it's on your schedule, visit here to purchase your tickets online or call 484-0172 to reserve your seats.

Kaleidoscope, directed by Nathan Gabriel, written by Ray Bradbury
A co-production of Acting Unlimited, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Festival International de Louisiane


"They fell... they fell as pebbles fall down wells. And now instead of men, there were only voices. All kinds of voices, disembodied and impassioned in varying degrees of recognition... and terror."


Celebrated sci-fi author Ray Bradbury's Kaleidoscope is the story of astronauts who are thrown from their ship. As they fall through the vastness of space, they talk to one another through their headset radios. Each one deals with the certainty of death in his own unique way and learns what secrets lie in the hearts of those they thought they knew best. This production is a radio-theatre hybrid, adapted for the stage from an old-time radio scripts.

This production marks for the first co-production for these three groups.

Theatre 810 is an intimate venue, and there are three ways to purchase tickets for this show:

1. Purchase tickets here  with your Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express card.

2. Purchase tickets in person, at the door. Box office will open an hour prior to curtain. Due to limited seating, AUI/AURA cannot guarantee that seats will be available for purchase at the door for each performance.

3. Reserve your seats by phone at 337-484-0172. Our box office staff will hold your reservation until the night of the show, and you can purchase your tickets when the box office opens. Our box office only accepts cash or check at the door. Reservations are held until 10 minutes prior to curtain, then they will be released to patrons on the waiting list. 

For any questions, call 337-484-0172. And we'll see you at the show!

This is our very first Improv show at Theatre 810, so come out and support the Stage Monkeys!