“Cannibal Galaxy: a love story”
REVIEWS
Charise’s play, “CANNIBAL GALAXY: a love story” received its world premiere at The New Ohio Theatre in NYC on June 8 – 17, 2018.
Produced by the all female-run company, Between Two Boroughs and directed by Jenn Haltmann, the play was an EST Sloan Finalist, it was workshopped by Fault Line Theatre, and it received prior production at Xavier College.
“It’s a surprising exploration of the impossible space between us. It’s a harrowing look at how the everyman deals with self-implosion after an unexpected catastrophic supernova-style life event. While our “cannibal” galaxy devours the smaller ones in its orbit above, America seems to be eating itself below. The play questions if our violent collisions and interactions permanently leave vast distances between us that can never be traversed. It’s a riveting work where both the micro- and macrocosm share the stage, where the milky way feels present in the room as well as the smallest human quarks, leaving us clinging to the gravitational force field of…love?
The opening scenes made me think of the Mad One’s Miles for Mary production where the everyday “mundane” dance of the average worker is elevated to definitive narrative. However, in Cannibal Galaxy: a love story, just as you get comfortable with the characters, their foibles and celebrations, the play sky rockets you into another dimension entirely. Space expands and we lose the secure footing of the naturalistic and move into another reality.
[This] production...is a discourse on our own hunger – for connection, for belonging, for filling the empty space within. Cannibal Galaxy: a love story operates like the Mars Rover collecting data about the surface of things and hinting at the caverns and mysteries that lie undiscovered beneath.” — Jacquelyn Claire, Stage Biz
“Well-produced, well-acted...[Greene’s] characters’ candid discussions excavate spot-on truths about our current society...
Cannibal Galaxy tackles familiar ground in a new way, and director Jenn Haltman and her team use this unique script as an impetus to create an unusual and innovative
theatrical experience that stays in your memory long after the lights come up.” — Adrienne Urbanski, Theatre Is Easy
Cannibal Galaxy blends together both larger humanistic themes and more intimate, personal ones. It explores the importance of curiosity as explored through science, and whether our destructive societal tendencies are innate or controllable.
It explores the difficulties of constructing our personal identities, and how much of that requires accountability only achievable through socialization. It blends the small everyday anxieties of defining relationships and finding connection, with larger issues of cultural patterns of violence issued upon the innocent."-Chris Behmke, My Entertainment World