Bearing Bad Theatrics

Location: Budapest
September 17, 2010
Adventure #31

On Friday night I went to a play. It wasn't just any play though - it was a really, really, really bad play. Probably the worst performance I've seen in person. This British musical production visited Budapest just for the weekend - too quickly a time for its reviews to catch up with its ticket sales. Instead of its regular lead actors, it featured a couple of Hungarian replacements whose voices couldn't choose a key and who barely had their lines memorized. Not to mention that we were supposed to be watching a movie set in London, and the thick, Eastern European English accents weren't helping one bit to set the scene.

Speaking of the scene and setting, that was a blunder too. The play was supposed to center on a staged assassination of Britain's king in 1605. But, the writers tried to make it funny by adding anachronistic references, such as cell phone use, Twitter feeds and TV newscasts, yet the modern technology was so ubiquitous that the play might as well have been set in present day. Also, promotions of the show promised me Rocky Horror Picture Show type humor and bawdiness, but instead, it was just raunchy London humor with too much groping on stage.

If the play "Better than Sex" ever comes your way, I wholly recommend skipping it. Unless of course, you are getting paid to pen a scathing review, and in that case, I say "Enjoy!"