Sunday, 4 May 2014

Blogologues: Review a Sketch (Task 2)

The sketch that I have chosen to review is "20 Guys Trying to Bang a Total Psycho on OKCupid". This is the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMP-anxaOxU.

The material for this Blogologue was collected from an application that can be downloaded on smart-phones called "OKCupid". This app allows you to connect with random people that live near you, so that you can initiate multiple conversations and eventually take it to the next level (dating/going out). The main girl who was acting in the sketch created a fake, wacky OKCupid account in real life in order to get the words for the production's script. Her username was "Marlababy" and she had a dog named Booty, she was looking for men from the ages of 26-72, she really liked movies, and her profile picture consisted of only her shoulder, which shows no sign of whether "Marla" is even attractive or not. The sketch is then followed up with a series of random men rising to the occasion by trying to get Marla to go out with them, even though she is a complete nutcase and they do not know what she looks like.

The staging of the sketch was pretty neat and simple. There was a projector in the background that showed Marlababy's profile, but we can only really see her profile picture and username to give us an idea of what the app looks like. They also use it to show the different points that Marlababy has answered (for e.g. you should message me if...). No other props were used as they were not necessarily required. There was normal, white lighting and the clothes they were wearing were ordinary as it suited the various situations. No sounds could be heard, besides the audience's laughter.

I enjoyed seeing how Marla dealt with the different conversation prompts that were sent to her, which is essentially the entire sketch. It just goes to show how desperate some guys really are and how the world is gradually turning towards online dating mediums, which I personally find rather obscure. The voices that they used suited their personalities really well and they used enough gestures for their individual roles. They used the term "hot-pockets" during their performance, which I quite do not understand. Other then that, everything was clear. One minor change I would like to make to the sketch is the colour of their clothing. Most of the cast members were wearing pink and it seemed a bit too monochromatic. A bit more variety would have been nice to see.

From this sample, I generally feel that the reviews of Blogologues are fairly accurate. For example, as mentioned by the Huffington Post, I agree that their use of virtual/web media in live theatre is very effective and attracts a great number of people, as technology has become a developing necessity in first world countries. However, I do feel that some of the reviews were a bit exaggerated. The Observer: Betabeat, stated that Blogologue performance made them laugh relentlessly, but I do not entirely agree with this, as I only giggled a few times here and there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMP-anxaOxU

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