IT IS WHAT IT IS (Covid & Cigarettes/Aurora Theatre)****

 

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHw92erCCYo&list=PLwhWmWJPoEmF8P780nCvmV74Zv_kK-FGQ&index=1 

Available until: Unknown

Aurora Theatre had planned to celebrate their ten-year anniversary by having actual people in the theatre. We all know too well why that didn’t work out. But they have produced a series of thirteen short plays on their youtube account under the name of Covid & Cigarettes. The reasons why they needed to turn to online audiences are sad, but it does mean their work is now available to people not just in Hong Kong, where they’re based, but all over the world.

So here is a production by a theatre in Hong Kong, featuring people from the USA and reviewed by a guy from the UK.

It is What it is is quite difficult to categorise and I might be getting it completely wrong, but I’m inclined to call it part-comedy, part-horror. Comedy because Michael Donohue has written a very witty script which is very well-performed by his cast. Horror because the way things were in the USA until recently, it could actually have happened.

The play is set in a TV studio. A live broadcast is going out to the nation. A cure has been discovered for COVID and a doctor is going to speak about it.

It’s a very difficult subject to write a comedy about and it could easily have crossed a line and gone horribly wrong, but it’s delivered in a responsible yet very funny way. Director Christy Green makes host Rolanda Richards into the focal point of the play – she’s the one who’s side we are on.

Sarah Wun plays Rolanda brilliantly, effortlessly capturing the style of a TV host but also showing Rolanda as a human being – an intelligent and moral person who cares about what happens on her show. Phil Morris, newly-appointed head of the COVID task force, is all smirks and insincerity in a great performance by Roger Hendrick Simon. Brian Nee plays the role of Doctor Nick, who has done all the research into this new cure. Caterina Foti plays characterful guest Marie.

It is a sensitive subject and not everyone will be ready for a COVID comedy, but it’s good-hearted, fun and a chance to see some very talented performers.