By Ernest Kearney – Aaron Lyons has shown himself, in past Fringes, to be not merely a performer of solid talent but “a man of the theatre.’ With The Build, (during Hollywood Fringe Festival 2024) which he wrote and directed, we have an introspective and pensively poetic piece touching on the opium of the theatrical obsession.
It is populated by the unsung workers of the dramatic domain, the creative craftsmen who construct the scenery pieces for stage productions.
Four craftsmen, (Matthew Holcomb, Jon Cody, Marcelo Olivas and Adam Ballard) receive an urgent last-minute directive to construct numerous tables for a production scheduled to open the following night.
Told with a haiku-like brevity, what Lyons has created is a very personal and stunningly sincere hymnal to the enticement of the theatre, a piece that while leaving some unaffected will pierce others to their core with its insight and communal beauty.
The only flaw, with the production was in the pacing of the narrative device. These builders are under the gun. They should be ripping across the stage, hammering, sawing, sweating and struggling to achieve an impossible demand — which, of course, is the very nature of theatre — then, the moment Lyons closes, a somber, venerational and sanctified silence would have trembled the heavens with its heartfelt hosanna.
For The Build a GOLD MEDAL.
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The Build
ran during
Hollywood Fringe Festival 2024
at
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