The Contest

Amanda and Karl are art students who find themselves both in love and competing for an art prize in college. To win means more then just a moment's glory – agents, gallery exposure, and possibly the life they have always wanted. Foreshadowing future events, the students play a game – what would you give to be successful? Your Art? Your life? Your love?

The greatest flaw in this production is its simplicity. The plot is relatively straight forward, and so too the acting; if not a little restrained considering the characters' circumstances. Another problem is that the characters are largely unsympathetic. They are all strained stereotypes—an artist who can't find inspiration, the ambitious career type, and jealous Faith, who completes the awkward love triangle—even Jerome, the art teacher, with a distinctive dandruff problem, offered little more than an amusing snob and some much needed light relief.

The Contest desperately avoids experimentation. The whole aesthetic and mentality seems to be from a bygone era where dinner parties ruled theatrical narrative, and where art is driven by markets and careers.More kitsch than avant-garde, if you don't want to be challenged then give this a try.