Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

You cannot help but root for these actors and characters

Select elements shine but flawed execution dims Bright Half Life at Diversionary Theatre

Bright Half Life at Diversionary Theatre
Bright Half Life at Diversionary Theatre

Bright Half Life

Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life revolves around the lives of Erica and Vicky, two women who meet at work and eventually begin dating. Over the course of the play they fall in love, get married, have kids, and eventually divorce. But instead of a linear timeline the play jumps back and forth over decades, showing snippets of their moments together. Some of these episodic scenes last several minutes, others mere seconds.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rin Ehlers Sheldon plays the effervescent Erica and Bri Giger an authoritative Vicky. Both actors are on stage the show’s entire hour and twenty minutes. They shift and change to different moments and moods in the blink of an eye. Herculean stamina is required here, with so many transitions.

These ladies should be commended for their efforts, although they seem to struggle at times to capture all the elements they attempt to embody, such as the physical and vocal age of their characters. They also lack an authentic, onstage chemistry as a lesbian couple. Their kisses seem forced, touches prescribed, and conversations come across as at each other rather than to each other. Despite this, the audience cannot help but root for these actors and their characters as we witness both journeys simultaneously.

Bright Half Life at Diversionary Theatre

Transitioning from scene to scene, however, is an nagging issue with this production. Most are accompanied by a change in the lights and the actor’s positions, as well as a rushing sound akin to the audience being sped through time. These effects quickly become monotonous. Director Lydia Fort and her team miss dozens of opportunities to do other interesting things, such as different sound effects or stylized movements. In the hands of an inspired choreographer, more could have been told about the characters and the overall concept by saying more on stage with the bodies in transitions.

The use of a stationary set and one costume per character contributes to laborious transitions. For a play about continuously changing locations and times, changing only select visual elements seems counterproductive and redundant. Moveable set pieces and additional costume elements would have provided more visual opportunities to help the audience follow the story.

Bright Half Life is a refreshing change for San Diego theater. Seeing a lesbian couple on stage as the show’s only two characters, and presenting their relationship as nuanced and complicated while also simply romantic, is tremendously refreshing. Bright Half Life is a welcome play with a thought-provoking concept and story. The production, however, misses conceptual possibilities of a play about memory and how to communicate it best to the audience. It shines only half as bright as it could have.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Aaron Bleiweiss: has guitar, has traveled

Seattle native takes Twists and Turns to assemble local all-stars
Bright Half Life at Diversionary Theatre
Bright Half Life at Diversionary Theatre

Bright Half Life

Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life revolves around the lives of Erica and Vicky, two women who meet at work and eventually begin dating. Over the course of the play they fall in love, get married, have kids, and eventually divorce. But instead of a linear timeline the play jumps back and forth over decades, showing snippets of their moments together. Some of these episodic scenes last several minutes, others mere seconds.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Rin Ehlers Sheldon plays the effervescent Erica and Bri Giger an authoritative Vicky. Both actors are on stage the show’s entire hour and twenty minutes. They shift and change to different moments and moods in the blink of an eye. Herculean stamina is required here, with so many transitions.

These ladies should be commended for their efforts, although they seem to struggle at times to capture all the elements they attempt to embody, such as the physical and vocal age of their characters. They also lack an authentic, onstage chemistry as a lesbian couple. Their kisses seem forced, touches prescribed, and conversations come across as at each other rather than to each other. Despite this, the audience cannot help but root for these actors and their characters as we witness both journeys simultaneously.

Bright Half Life at Diversionary Theatre

Transitioning from scene to scene, however, is an nagging issue with this production. Most are accompanied by a change in the lights and the actor’s positions, as well as a rushing sound akin to the audience being sped through time. These effects quickly become monotonous. Director Lydia Fort and her team miss dozens of opportunities to do other interesting things, such as different sound effects or stylized movements. In the hands of an inspired choreographer, more could have been told about the characters and the overall concept by saying more on stage with the bodies in transitions.

The use of a stationary set and one costume per character contributes to laborious transitions. For a play about continuously changing locations and times, changing only select visual elements seems counterproductive and redundant. Moveable set pieces and additional costume elements would have provided more visual opportunities to help the audience follow the story.

Bright Half Life is a refreshing change for San Diego theater. Seeing a lesbian couple on stage as the show’s only two characters, and presenting their relationship as nuanced and complicated while also simply romantic, is tremendously refreshing. Bright Half Life is a welcome play with a thought-provoking concept and story. The production, however, misses conceptual possibilities of a play about memory and how to communicate it best to the audience. It shines only half as bright as it could have.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Jazz jam at a private party

A couple of accidental crashes at California English
Next Article

San Diego Holiday Experiences

As soon as Halloween is over, it's Christmas time in my mind
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader