Youth Board Review: Intra Muros
by Honour
It’s been a week since I saw Intra Muros, yet I’ve found myself thinking about the play every day since. I didn’t do research on what the play was about before sitting in my seat one minute before it began, but this meant that afterwards I had the pleasure of having a 'lovely, warm stumbling into something amazing and refreshing' feeling. Each character’s storyline is fulfilling to watch and beautifully woven together to form a genuinely delightful piece of art to watch.
I won’t go too much into the story in hopes of others experiencing that warm, gratifying feeling but, in a nutshell, this is Intra Muros; a washed-up director goes into a prison to teach a theatre class with his ex-wife. They are accompanied by a new social worker who makes them aware that only two inmates have shown up for the class. It is agreed that the class will go ahead despite the lack of participants and it soon becomes clear that the four characters aren’t as new to one another as they seem.
As quite a socially awkward person, I have never before experienced being so involved with a play that the rest of the audience melts away until it is just you and the people on stage. This is the exact feeling I had throughout the entirety of Intra Muros. I found myself focusing so hard on the characters that were speaking that everything around them slowly became darker and darker like everything else was being scratched out with a compass.
The four characters were intricately developed, watching each backstory unfold allowed me to descend deeper and deeper into the world Intra Muros created. Although all four characters had me captivated, it was the two prisoners, Kevin and Angel, that buried their way into my heart making me become invested in their characters. I almost fell off my chair edging forward during Kevin’s monologue about his childhood. Both characters were as sweet and charming as they were tough and misunderstood. The only thing that would have made the play even better was if there was a young man up stage left, playing a live score with a beautiful guitar melody, a double bass and a theremin... oh wait! There was. The live music tied the play up in a silky-smooth ribbon ready for the audience to receive.
Review by Honour, Park Theatre's Youth Board
Interested in joining Park Theatre's youth board? Then drop [email protected] a line. You'll have a chance to meet regularly and influence what goes on at Park Theatre, come up with new ideas to engage audiences and review productions. Open to all! No experience necessary.
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