My overall impression
Feeling Feeling.
This review first appeared on ArtsBeatLA.com
Review by Pauline Adamek.
“Feeling Feeling” is a slightly futuristic story about two couples, written and directed by Sarah Doyle.
First seen bopping away enthusiastically to dance music, vivacious Darla (Kendall Carroll) is generally cheerful until the slightest misfortune reduces her to floods of tears. Her slightly Neanderthal boyfriend Dave (Jonny Loquasto) doesn’t really get what sets her off, and doesn’t seem to care. His various sports injuries also inhibit their sex life, which bothers him less than it does Darla.
Although they seem into each other, Darla insists Dave go to therapy to learn how to feel and, in turn, gets a chip implanted in the back of her head to control her heightened emotions.
Meanwhile, Darla’s best friend Tully (Camellia Rahbary) has problems of her own, raising a child on her own while her boyfriend serves time for drug conviction. While Tully struggles, Darla becomes detached and obsessed with career goals and her new, younger ‘boy-toy’ boyfriend.
Writer/director Sarah Doyle uses the Olympic Games broadcasts to chart her story in four-year increments to good effect, but the two stories don’t gel as well as they could and the play ends abruptly.
