A.T.A.T.A.
No professional would be so foolhardy. Yet an analogous disaster-in-waiting happens in professional theater all the time. Anyone can put words on a page, and unfortunately just about anyone does. And with the abundance of inexpensive rental spaces in Chicago, it doesn’t take much to become a “professional” theater.
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Jennifer Verson, author of Rubicon Theater Productions’ A.T.A.T.A. (which stands for “A Tragedy and Two Acts”), seems to lack the basic skills required to make a piece of writing dramatic. Her two-hour drama wanders, rambles, and most problematically wallows in superficial despair. But it doesn’t communicate theatrically. It’s like a piece of music that neglects to use sound waves.
Fundamentally, Verson does not allow her play to develop. Instead of moving forward into new territory, as any performance must, the play continually doubles back on itself, revisiting in the second act the struggles and tensions that were presented in the first.
