Review: Captured by Aliens @ Theater! Theatre!
January 26, 2011 — PDXPIPELINEBy Saundra Sorenson
Reality TV addicts can finally enjoy a good night out with a familiar format.
Theater! Theatre! — the unassuming black box stage on Belmont — is again making modern theater accessible to the masses: The first installment of the four-episode series
Captured by Aliens! is packed with the juicy videotaped confessions, high drama, short fuses, and romantic intrigue we've come to love and expect from "reality" procedurals — just, y'know, in space. And in a winking nod to reality TV's M.O., each episode starts from a scripted series of events that direct improvised scenes between the players.
All the reality TV archetypes are in place, including the gold-digging diva, the lusty airhead, the buttoned up late-bloomer, and the lothario with limited game. They're all old hands at the reality game, as each of the three women and three men has won a previous reality-based competition. Now, kidnapped and transported to an alien planet falsely called Santa Barbara, California (my alma mater! —and it really is alien) the crew has to seduce, befriend, and backstab each other in order to claim the title of Best Human Ever. With a fumbling guest host who himself seems only vaguely human, and a series of questionable challenges (from a standard "box of hats" improv warm-up to a coitus competition) the six contestants keep their eyes on the prize, undeterred by their extraterrestrial surroundings.
Will front-runner Jackie retain her bouffant crown? Will the Slaughterhouse 5-esque alien obsession with human behavior make for compelling TV? Put it this way: you can tune in to see how Snooki's arrest for public intoxication plays out…or you can swing by Theatre! Theatre! for the next three installments of Captured by Aliens!—where the cast has much better timing.
"Captured by Aliens"
A new improvised serial from the team that brought you Fall of the House
Directed by Bri Pruett
Produced by Action/Adventure Theatre
Theater! Theatre!
3430 SE Belmont Street
Portland, OR
Tickets: $12 per episode, $2 off for every previous episode seen; $30 Four Week Pass; Fridays are always Pay What You Will | Buy tickets online here
WHEN:
Episode Two: January 28th-30th
Episode Three: February 4th-6th
Episode Four: February 11th-13th
Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30pm, Sundays at 8pm
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Saundra Sorenson
Saundra Sorenson is a professional writer and freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Willamette Week and many other publications. She was the 2008-2009 editor of Finder and blogs under the radar about life in Portland. You can find her at saundrasorenson.com/blog and on twitter @PDXLadyfriend
