THE SHADOW BOX

BY ED BRUCE edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

A play by Michael Cristofer at the Las Vegas Little Theatre 3920 Schiff Dr Las Vegas Nv 89103 www.lvlt.org

This is a strang one and most of it probably is my fault ! They started on time, great acting, interesting story, not too loud or too dark....none of the big three negatives to start. Now we opened with a monolouge and an actor talking to God, or a family member or some mysterious voice and I went to sleep ! At intermission I awoke, finished the sudoku thinking they were not telling me the story or I wasn't getting it but what the hell I will stay and tough it out....good decision.

Most of the time DEATH does not play well....it did here tho and I am really glad I stayed....they told the story, acting was extremely good and they got the story to me.

A quote from Elisabeth Kuble-Ross, M.D. is contained in the actors edition of The Shadow Box, and says everything about what this play means to me: "There are five different stage that a person will go through when he faces the fact of his own death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages will last for different periods of time, they will replace each other, or exist at times side by side...But the one thing that usually persists through all these stages is hope." There is the play and there is reason why you should stay awake and read the program.

LVLT does not do the run of mill cannon of plays...this one won the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony ....Paul Newman directed this for TV...Joanne Woodward starred in this...hell what more credibilty do you want...you should see and stay awake...second half acting was sensational and gave me a great story.

Next up here April 2-18 Mainstage, a comedy...I am going !

At intermission I was at D and finished at A- 90