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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2006 > July > 24
Monday, July 24, 2006
Got ‘It’?
The hit of the summer theater season?
Daniel MacIvor’s “In On It” now getting a sleek and smart production by the Dirigo Group and director Lowell Bartholomee. Of course, we can thank Ken Webster of Hyde Park Theatre for making us here in Austin MacIvor fans, Webster being the one to introduce us to the Canadian playwright’s intense, thoughtful, dialogue-rich dark comedies.
Now, Bartholomee hands us a whip-smart, yet sensitive, production of MacIvor’s 75-minute script that knits together multiple narratives — a dying man trying to set things straight, a pair of lovers trying to make it work and two men trying to make a play — into a seamless whole.
Austin Chronicle arts editor Robert Faires plays the gamey That One with a brilliant combo of verve and complexity. Veteran actor Scotty Roberts plays the more reserved This One with depth. And as This One and That One struggle with their relationship and This One’s play, they struggle to find ‘It.’
What is ‘It’? ‘It’ might be anything, MacIvor suggests, from a desired object (like those eBay commercials) to something more elusive like happiness, contentment, inner peace.
You decide.
Scotty Roberts (left) and Robert Faires in “In On It.”
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