what do you mean @ Spotlites (The Merchant's Hall)

The title of the play is appropriately put as a question – what do you mean. The show will have the audience continually questioning the title as well as its bizarre, supposedly ‘humorous’ scenes throughout its duration.

A young, stupid boy has somehow managed to wriggle a timeslot in a festival for theatre, without having yet written the play that he is to put on show. As the characters that help him pull the show together gather on stage, the piece becomes a play within a play: the playwright is somehow able to manipulate the dialogue of each person through magically typing the text out on his computer screen.

For what appears to be a promising concept, the execution of the idea does not fulfil the play’s potential. The characters are too exaggerated to be relatable to the audience. The volume is above the level for comfortable hearing. The excessive amount of groping and nudity are not in any way appropriate to the scenes or amusing in any shape or form. They are more disturbing than entertaining.

Towards the end, jokes are made about how the play within a play is so bad that the only review it receives is an unmitigated disaster. This knowing gamble does not pay off; it would have been wiser of the writer to ensure that the play was a complete and utter success.