WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2023 • 9
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Rice Players’ ‘Boeing Boeing’ to take off at Hamman Hall HANNAH SON
FOR THE THRESHER Behind every crash and burn fiasco is a series of bad decisions — or, for the Rice Players’ production of “Boeing Boeing,” a collaborative theatrical team. The student-run theatre company’s latest show follows Bernard, who is secretly engaged to three different flight attendants. When all three fiancėes somehow land in his Paris apartment at once, Bernard must try to dodge the consequences of his affairs. “Boeing Boeing” opens on Feb. 24 at Hamman Hall, kicking off its two-weekend run from Feb. 24 to 26 and March 3 to 5. Tickets are free to all audience members. While a classic farce, “Boeing Boeing” is also “brilliantly” human, according to director Eric Domuret. “It doesn’t take itself too seriously,” Domuret said. “It’s a comedy, but it does tap into the truth of who people really are. Otherwise, what would we be laughing at?” Domuret is the founder of performing arts company Apprentice Productions. His work includes numerous directing and playwriting credits in addition to extensive teaching experience. Student producer and Rice Players coordinator Bria Weisz said that Domuret’s involvement in the show is a unique feature of the Rice Players’ mission to provide professional growth opportunities for students. “Having a professional director allows us to provide students with valuable networking for the future, especially if they want to pursue theatre as a career,” Weisz, a Brown College senior, said. Alongside Domuret’s directing, students fill the remaining production roles. Stage manager Parker Blumentritt said the production team is pulling together the set design in less than a
MICHELLE GACHELIN / THRESHER The Rice Players’ production of “Boeing Boeing” opens on Feb. 24 at Hamman Hall, kicking off its two-weekend run. month due to restrictions on Hamman incorporate gender-conscious casting. Despite this, Domuret said that casting Hall’s availability. “The set is one of the biggest ones “fell traditionally this time.” “We found ways to think more [the Players] have done,” Blumentritt, about gender a Sid Richardson and queerness College junior, in the show. said. “Farces are With blocking, generally more we’re allowed c o m p l i c a t e d We formed a conga line. to have more because the I’ve never done anything agency,” Weisz playful acting said. “The way pairs well with a like that for a show. It we deliver lines very realistic set. might be the show I’m and stage scenes And with all the most proud of that’s with a particular motion, there’ll happened at Rice so far. intentionality be fun colors and helps shape the [lighting] cues Matthew Alter way we interpret we’re still ironing WIESS COLLEGE JUNIOR the work and adds out.” Such creative decisions are essential new moments between characters.” Weisz said that the Players wanted to to all areas of production. Although licensing for “Boeing Boeing” prevented showcase the humor of the original text the Players from changing the pronouns for a modern audience. “We were impressed with how fresh of any characters in the script, both Domuret and Weisz spoke on wanting to a lot of the comedy felt, even though
‘Boeing Boeing’ was written in the early ‘60s,” Weisz said. Likewise, actor Matthew Alter said he believes that the familiarity of his character, Robert, grounds the show. “[Robert] is not a paragon of virtue,” Alter, a Wiess College junior, said. “He does things that the audience hopefully won’t like. But there is character growth — an arc that they can find joy in, if not relate to, by the end.” Alter said that “Boeing Boeing’’ is a standout in his Rice theatre career, and credits Domuret’s directing style as key to the generative atmosphere behind the scenes. “[Domuret] gets us to play on stage. Once, he had us actors do whatever we wanted in a room. It was a mess by the end. We stood on the tables, threw around chairs. We formed a conga line. I’ve never done anything like that for a show,” Alter said. “It might be the show I’m most proud of that’s happened at Rice so far.”
‘Dump month’ is back: Throwaway films to waste your time driving the story forward. The film uses so few tools to keep the audience engaged but is overall very successful, crafting an incredibly poignant story. However, this also results in some of its downfalls. The dialogue often sounds so unrealistic that it is difficult to conceptualize any real person genuinely stringing those words together on the spot. It also seems to struggle with tone during some events and scenes that are jarringly different from what was occurring just moments before. Even so, the film was clearly very meticulously crafted and wellreceived by audiences. This, in addition to the amount of time it spent on the festival circuits, makes this film decidedly not a dump. COURTESY WARNER BROS
BASMA BEDAWI
FOR THE THRESHER January has historically been known as a “dump month” in the film industry, where movies that will likely have lesser box office or critical success than other works slated for the year are “dumped” into theaters. However, with the rise of streaming and the fall of movie theater culture, many argue that dump month is no more. To determine whether this month in the film industry is as consistently disappointing as ever, I reviewed four movies released in January. “A Man Called Otto” “A Man Called Otto”’ is an American remake of a Swedish film of a Swedish book titled “A Man Called Ove” (I don’t know why they changed his name either) that tells the story of an unlikely friendship between grumpy old man Otto and his new neighbors.
Despite a few cringe-worthy scenes about “kids these days” and heavily relying on performances from Tom Hanks and Mariana Treviño, the movie is so sweet. Once you understand what is happening, you can see the plot coming from a mile away, but the story itself is still heartwarming. Considering general box office success and a positive reception from the public, I would say that this one is not a dump. “Plane” “Plane” is the story of a pilot who partners with a prisoner to save his passengers after crash-landing on a small island of the Philippines. By the 20-minute mark, it is incredibly easy to predict nearly every plot point, but unlike “A Man Called Otto,” they don’t deliver these points well at all. There are definitely attempts — some more successful than others — to be inventive with camera work and shocking
moments, but none of this was enough to keep it from being, frankly, boring. Efforts are made to use score to create suspense, but you can’t create something that is simply not there. This makes the movie overall mindnumbing, in addition to every character being one-dimensional and story arcs being incredibly forced. I will give this one points for being the only film I reviewed that wasn’t a remake or retelling, but considering how derivative and forgettable it was, it had to have been a dump. “Women Talking” “Women Talking,” based on the 2018 novel by the same name, depicts a meeting of women within a small Mennonite community deciding how to respond to a series of attacks on the female members of the colony. The vast majority of this movie focuses only on this meeting, with dialogues, monologues, and flashbacks
“House Party” January was the month of remakes. “House Party” is a reboot of the 1990 original, which tells the story of two club promoters who decide to throw one last party at LeBron James’ house (who produced this movie). I absolutely did not want to watch this one because I could not imagine it being anything worthwhile. However, this movie has many strong comedic hits and amazing chemistry between nearly every combination of characters. It was riddled with cameos that were handled very well, a difficult task to achieve, with little feeling overly forced. The film leans into absurdism — maybe a bit too much at points — and by the end I wasn’t sure if it was real or a shared hallucination between me and LeBron James. “House Party” brought back much of what made ‘90s comedy so charming, even ending with a blooper reel. However, it was received with overall mixed to negative reviews with many perceiving it as an unnecessary, worse version of the original. This movie was likely a dump, but I think people should watch it anyway.