de Chardin Project: learn something and you'll want to know more
When I write a review for the Fringe, I like to go in cold. I try to know as little as possible about the work I am about to see. I like to be surprised when the actor or actors walk on stage (or run) and start to tell me the story. I love that moment when you don't know what it about to happen and, as the performance unfolds, you get a sense that you have missed out on something. That happened to me when the Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Project started.
The play retells the life story of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest who grew up in France in the late 19th Century. He spent his life committed to the Catholic Church but also to paleontology and geology. During his career he played a role in two major discoveries - those of the Peking Man and the Piltdown Man. As you can imagine, this would cause conflict with the Church and the play follows de Chardin during his life as a boy until his death in 1955. I enjoyed learning a lot about de Chardin and it encouraged me to head out on to the Internet learn more about his contributions to the world of science.
Overall, the performance was great. The set was sparse and well used. There was a tendancy to "phone it in" a little bit here and there but one didn't really notice it all that much from the actors as they were committed to giving the story the respect it needed. I mean, it is a show afterall and doing something like that night after night could become a little tiring. Overall, good performance all around. The company that put this piece together is The Quickening Theatre Company (there can be only one!) and I certainly knew nothing about either them or de Chardin and I am glad I know them now. This play hit me with a double punch of what I like: to be surprised and to learn something.
Oh, wait, I will mention the lanterns that the performers used should really be junked and replaced. The stupid things kept going out and the actors did their best to keep them alive but, in the end, they upstaged the show a bit.
Go see it, you won't regret a moment.