Go
nytheatre.com review by Unknown
August 6, 2007
A pair of women performing conjoined solo pieces sounds confusing, and potentially exhilarating. As Michelle Talgarow and Gillian Chadsey navigate their own stories, they intertwine, and the double narrative becomes singular. These are two immensely capable actors. Talagrow's comic sense is of the more fixed, observant variety, while Chadsey is a motormouth who can't stop running, even when she's sitting down. Their forces combine in a show that's very satisfying from a performance perspective even if it lets down in some of the writing.
Both Talgarow and Chadsey are exploring day-to-day life in Go—the routines we face in the workplace, our love lives, even in public transportation. And at its best, Go confronts head on the things we all think but never say. (A sequence in which the two women place orange stickers all over their bodies in response to things they don't like about themselves is particularly apt.) But other sections of the play merely serve to point out that the women, despite their excellent stage chops, have nothing new to say. The lesson that men like women until those women say "I love you" has been taught time after time after time. People like to procrastinate instead of working? Yep, been there, done that. And a framing device with the women being asked (unheard) questions from an unseen presence fails to pull the evening together. It's an unfortunate letdown.
Still, these are two dynamic and hilarious actors, and their evident enthusiasm is infectious. Go is a pair of solid performances in search of a more convincing narrative.
