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	All Style, no Substance


	Too many characters, unclear action spoilthe broth in HorseChartās Īnoirā play ĪDark Raptureā


	ćNobody actually sets out to write a bad play,ä my writing mentor recently told me. But, he and I both know that there are a plethora of bad plays out there. Dark Rapture is one of them. This attempt at theater noir, a cop off of film noir, was poorly written and a bad choice on the part of HorseChart Theatre Company. This confusing take at a mystery takes the audience all over the world in search of Ray (Brett Aune), who Hollywood thugs claim has faked his death and stolen their money. Itās a hard-to-follow, overly complex story and not even worth paraphrasing, but in all fairness: Ray is still alive and running for his life. But he is somehow unbelievably found everywhere he goes by the thugsā henchmen. When he is eventually cornered, his ruthlessly unfaithful ex-wife saves his life, and some of the characters arenāt who you think they are. One critic friend of mine noted the playās ćsimilarity to L.A. Confidential.ä Well, I loved that movie, and I thought it was well done, but that was film.

This is theater and is nothing like the aforementioned film

On the way out, someone ventured to call it clever, but they must have missed all those B-rate, Eric Roberts movies on HBO that Iāve seen.

This overdone, irrational storyline is summed up by the terrible, cross-dressing lounge singer who sings Jimmy Buffet songs at intermission: something so horrific you would rather listen to Burt Bacharachās Greatest Hits 100 times over before seeing it again.

The all-around mediocre performance was below HorseChart standards.

DO IT!: Michelle Kaye stars in the HorseChart Theatre Companyās confusing Ītheater noirā play Dark Rapture. Performances are through March 21 at The Acoma Center, 1080 Acoma St. Tickets are $15.
Information: 478-0755.


	Company founding member Scott Blackburn played a disappointingly stereotypical homosexual character. Philip A. Russell was stiff and an absolute bore ÷ no matter which character he was playing. The supporting cast was very mid-grade, and the patchwork of a script didnāt help. One major flaw in the material lays in the skipping nature of the play. It goes from California to Cabo San Lucas to Northern California to Los Angeles to Seattle to San Francisco to Santa Barbara to Key West ÷ gasp ÷ and thatās just in the first act. The short, awkward scenes donāt allow the audience a chance to get to know any of the characters, especially since many of the actors are portraying two characters and the differences between the two are minute. Talk about confusing? I hope Boulder playwright Eric Overmyer has learned that complex scripts with a lot of characters are not always the easiest to follow. As an amateur playwright, I have learned some of the ups and downs of playwriting. I learned one thing while writing my latest three-character, bestial one-act. One of the characters is a dog, and I learned that a dog is hard to cast in performance. Itās the sign of a truly talented playwright: the ability to write an easy-to-follow, generously cast play. A talented playwright? This, I am not. This, Overmyer is not.