I attended the production of A Behanding in Spokane on September 25, 2015. The play, written by Martin McDonagh, consist of four characters: Carmicheal, Mervyn, Toby, and Marilyn. Carmicheal has been searching for his missing left hand for 37 years. Toby and Marilyn, a bickering couple/weed dealers, sell Carmicheal a hand. Lastly, Mervyn is the hotel clerk/boxer shorts guy. This production had an extremely realistic elements. In terms of the set, the hotel was dingy and clearly in a bad neighborhood. There were blood stains on the carpet, the wallpaper was very dated, and the bed was torn and strained. I enjoyed the set dressings of the hotel; such as, the room number when you opened the door, the hangers in the closet, and the hallway area. These elements really tied everything together and allowed me to embrace the Behanding world. Another realistic element that I enjoyed was when Mervyn enters and switches on the …show more content…
It made it look like Mervyn really turned the lights on and not the light board person. I also took interest in the foreshadowing that was caused by the gradation of the light changes from the scenes with Mervyn and Carimicheal to the scene with Toby and Marilyn being handcuffed to the radiator. The light slowly shifted focus from being mainly stage right to being mainly stage left, where the radiator is located. I found it appealing that the lights were clueing the audience in on the action that is to take place in a bit. Lighting also drew the audience to Mervyn, during his monologue, and away from the radiator by placing a spotlight on him. The intend of creating a new space and getting the audience to forget that they were technically still in