~Friday~ Bob and I saw the 12th annual “10 x 10 in the Triangle” tonight at the Arts Center in Carrboro, which consists of 10 Actors, 10 Directors, 10 Plays, 10 Minutes (Each).
I’m going to attempt to give a short synopsis of each of the plays, and then I’ll share Bob’s and my ranking of the plays. We ranked the five before intermission against each other, then the five after intermission against each other, and then all of them together.
- My Name is Yin
A writer tells the tale of some hikers coming across an “art installation”—which consists of a dozen or more pair of shoes, all with butter in them—in the middle of the woods.
- will/did/is
Two time travelers meet on the subway. One has arrived too late for a conference that the other one attended, and has been riding the subway since looking for other time travelers.
- New Year’s Eve
A crotchety old man in a nursing home tells it like it is—or like he sees it is, to a very funny nurse who is doing everything in her power to keep his spirits up—as well as her own.
- What You Don’t Know
Two Department of Transportation workers wax philosophical about telling the truth or making up something more pleasant with regards to roadkill they’re picking up, because it has a name tag with “Buttons” on it and the phone number of Buttons’ owner.
- The 5564 to Toronto
A man who gets notifications about terrible events that are about to happen tries to convince a lady in a bus station that she shouldn’t get on the 5564 bus to Toronto.
- Fruit
A country boy joins the service, where he finds a fruit—which is one big juicy metaphor—hanging from the ceiling over his bunk.
- A Gun on the Table
A long-married British couple sit in their living room—she’s knitting and he’s reading the newspaper. Suddenly, he notices a revolver on the coffee table that’s between them, and they have the most marvelous conversation about what it is and what it means.
- Zero Mile Mark
A Lesbian couple on a post-breakup hike with a feisty tour guide contemplate what it takes to “go on.”
- Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde
A comedy based very loosely on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with multiple roles, across genders to two actors.
- Detective Stories
Intermission
Three or four detective stories, each with the deceased sitting at the table dead between the detective on one side and the suspect on the other.
At the intermission, Bob and I ranked the five plays in the first half as follows:
| John | Bob |
|---|---|
| 1. New Year’s Eve 2. What You Don’t Know 3. The 5564 to Toronto 4. will/did/is 5. My Name is Yin |
1. New Year’s Eve 2. What You Don’t Know 3. The 5564 to Toronto 4. My Name is Yin 5. will/did/is |
At the end, we first ranked the five shows in the second half as follows:
| John | Bob |
|---|---|
| 1. A Gun on the Table 2. Detective Stories 3. Fruit 4. Zero Mile Mark 5. Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde |
1. A Gun on the Table 2. Detective Stories 3. Zero Mile Mark 4. Fruit 5. Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde |
And then, we ranked them overall, irrespective of which half they were in, as follows:
| John | Bob |
|---|---|
| 1. A Gun on the Table 2. New Year’s Eve 3. Detective Stories 4. What You Don’t Know 5. The 5564 to Toronto 6. Zero Mile Mark 7. Fruit 8. will/did/is 9. Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde 10. My Name is Yin |
1. A Gun on the Table 2. What You Don’t Know 3. New Year’s Eve 4. Detective Stories 5. Zero Mile Mark 6. My Name is Yin 7. Fruit 8. The 5564 to Toronto 9. will/did/is 10. Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde |
We’re obviously not theater critics, or there really just is no accounting for taste. Here’s a review from a professional critic, whose favorite play of them all was the Dr. Jekyll and Little Miss Hyde, which we both consistently ranked near the bottom.