THE REVIEW – That Wasn’t It

The German documentary theatre in all of its glory. Important questions, but rarely an answer. Random revolving stage and MS Teams call. These are the words you can use to describe the performance of the play “That Wasn’t It“. I am asking myself a question – how should I actually evaluate a final product that is more of a process rather than a self-sufficient theatre piece. You can understand the intention, from one point of view, though on the other hand a question rises – shouldn’t the creators try a bit more? We are asked to fill in the blind spots, to say our notes, and finally, we are confronted with tough questions of our age (systemic racism, feminism, dealing with the past etc.). Throughout the performance, there are far more moments that lack logic, or that are basically unfilled. For me, it’s this half-hearted acting, where you can’t tell whether it’s stylisation our authenticity. Pacing that never changes, or is inconveniently retarded (spining revolving stage, people walking… why?). Though in each scene is the massive amount of lines accompanied by stage acting, most of the motion variations and choreographies are not tight enough, which is actually detrimental to the actors, so the final product feels confusing. Unfortunately, that massively contributes to the overall impression from the seen “play“. A number of ideas that are just randomly laid out and, furthermore, not followed-through to the end. It almost feels like neither the actors nor the team behind the play stands by it. And though, like I said, it was partially the intention, I cannot rate the result positively (despite the extreme potential of the screenplay, the importance of the theme and the questions raised).

Ondřej Komínek (JAMU)