Bottle Can Draft: Where *You* Know Everyone's Name
By Jocelyn Geboy in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 17, 2005 6:12PM
Site specific theater? Whatever do you mean? Bottle Can Draft is the latest offering from the Sandbox Theatre Project , and it brings together the elements of actors, audience and space in a way that breaks out of the constraints of the way we normally see theater.
The idea of site-specific theater is to bring the audience to the actual location of the play. Where does the play take place? Take the audience there. The company has done a play in an actual apartment (Where We Live), and is now bringing the audience to the local bar (Matilda/Baby Atlas).
Chicagoist went to the see Bottle Can Draft on opening night and was immediately caught up in the buzz of the room. The bar was closed to the public, but was filled with what would soon be the audience and the cast. Drinks were being served, and we arrived just in time to order something off Matilda's very high-class bar menu (a chicken-mushroom-wine sauce pasta dish which was DELISH). People were talking and mingling and there was no real difference between a bar open for business on a Monday night and this pre-show, except for there were lots more people and there was excitement in the air, rather than the doldrums that would have settled on the three or four people that would have been settled on their stools, drinking away the effects of a Monday.
It was interesting to watch various members of the audience start to notice that there were people in the crowd that were dressed alike and hear them puzzle aloud as to what that might mean. As the bartender yelled out "last call for drinks before the show," Chicagoist was immediately thrown back to many late nights of drinking where last call was bellowed and many negotiations had to be settled. Tabs. Phone numbers. One last dash for a drink.
Set in an actual neighborhood bar, the play takes a look at three characters in their mid-20s and their very real-life worries, struggles and frustrations -- jobs that are unfulfilling, trying to find someone to be with, worries that they aren't being with/who they really want to be. There are three sets of actors playing the same set of people, all with different twists. All who weave in and out of each other's lives and within the same space -- the bar in which the audience is sitting -- at high tables, at couches, at the actual bar.
As the action started, we were served our pasta, the jukebox roared to life and we were given another drink. Lines of dialogue were not spoken for at least two whole songs, so it was interesting to watch audience members go from "at attention" to "has the play started?" and start to talk amongst themselves. The bar atmosphere started to return, with people eyeing the 'stage' area, but starting to engage in conversations. I started singing along with the music at one point, much like I have done on many occasions in many bars.
There were some outstanding performances by Cliff Chamberlain (Dick), Andy Carey (Mikey), and Anne Adams (Suz), all who transcended the world of acting and made me believe that they were really existing in the world they had created for themselves. Calvin Marty, actor and real-life bartender at Matilda's, gave one of the night's most classic and unrehearsed moments when he told a woman that the bar was closed as she walked back through the scene after going to the bathroom. It was clearly an improvised line, but it was completely within the bounds of what was happening in the play, and he stayed completely in character. The audience was right with him.
Chicagoist sat down with Justin D.M. Palmer, the Artistic Director of the Sandbox Theatre Project, for a few hours this weekend and discussed how this show came together and how Sandbox collaborates to write, perform and direct site-specific theater (as well as get people to hook them up with apartments and bars). Look for the interview in the next few days.
Bottle Can Draft plays again tonight. Doors open at 7 and the show starts at 9. The show runs every Monday through November 7th. Seating is limited, so call 773-456-2329 to reserve tickets (Suggested donation $15).
images via www.sandboxtheatreproject.com