Escape Plan

I've heard of plays boring someone to death -- but I'd never seen it actually happen, until Friday night.

Went to the Mark Taper Forum at the Music Center to see "Lewis & Clark Reach the Euphrates." There's an interesting concept behind the show: how the pioneering spirit of the United States (represented by Lewis and Clark) continues to affect our foreign (and military) policy today.

In the show Lewis & Clark themselves detour through the Spanish-American War, Vietnam and end up in Iraq. Sounds interesting, huh?

BORING! Talk, talk, talk. This show is awful. The playwright didn't do anything with the concept.

During the first act I watched as the people sitting around me slowly dropped off into sleep. (At least that was fun.)

And then about an hour into the show there was some sort of commotion behind me and a voice called out, "Is there a doctor in the house?"

More commotion -- but the actors kept on going with the show even though the house lights had come up a little bit.

A woman in front of me nudged the VERY young man sitting next to her and said, "They need a Doctor, GO!" (During intermission I heard him talking to the folks he was with and it turns out he's a psychiatrist.)

With the show still running, theater staff carried the person out of the theater and I saw the paramedics on their way in during intermission (which seemed like a really slow response, by the way.)

Unfortunately for the show, this episode was the only interesting drama of the evening.