Monsters & Zombies & ???'s

After world-renowned artist Maya Akhet is commissioned to create a painting for the lobby of a global-securities firm, she loses her head, gives up on her medication and outwits the corporation’s lawyers, before wreaking havoc in her studio with a sawed-off shotgun.

Sounds like a pretty good story for a play, huh?

That's what I thought when I first received my tickets to the Alley Theatre's World Premiere of "The Medusa Body".

Unfortunately, by the time Robin and I made it to the theater on Sunday night,

• the name of the play had been changed to "The Monster At The Door"
• the playwright had experienced a dream where all his characters were in Japan while Godzilla was attacking
• and as a result, the whole thing was rewritten into a surreal story of: "Meteors are falling, Sirens are calling, and priceless works of art are disappearing from the global headquarters of Connor Fergueson and White, a securities firm with blood on its hands. In this darkly funny play, five very different people are drawn together as the world around them crumbles, and their dreams of health and prosperity are threatened by something terrifying, just outside their door."
• oh, and White is no longer at the firm...it is just Connor & Fergueson

Even as the dramaturg instructed us about our cell phones being turned off and unwrapping our candies before the show began, he let us know that the play had changed even that very afternoon during rehearsals.

So, even though I think I would have preferred the first draft...I can't really say whether or not I would recommend it...because I am sure it has changed even since we saw it.

There is one part that kind of 'got to' me. I think it was a little worse than I had thought at first...because last night I dreamt that my whole family was being pursued by zombies! And I don't even watch those kinds of movies!!!!

If you would like to see The Monster At The Door by Pulitzer Prize winner Rajiv Joseph just go here to buy tickets.

And by the way, neither one of us got it! I guess I am not as 'artsy fartsy' as my husband believes me to be!