The show begins with the description of assorted deaths. “If you could see how it was going to end, would that make it easier?”
The set is simple and the actors themselves create water and the clockworks by their well choreographed dance/blocking. Missy Lilje is credited with “movement” and created lovely flowing pictures. Chelle Peterson’s costumes are partly period, partly fantasy/fairy tale. Movement and costumes create a living set against the practical, backdrop construction by Scott Crandall.
Not unlike Over the Ledge’s Elephant’s Graveyard, Failure's plot is relayed through assorted narrators. Both shows are symbolic, poetic, profound — in a sort of removed “storyteller” manner. Failure is not a “Musical!” musical, but features several songs, such as “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” that add to the mood.
Director Andy Callis’s notes explain that though “failure, loss and death seem to be the main facts of our lives, there is something else: it renews, it flows, it lives. And it is in the title.”
Failure: a Love Story continues through Sunday - one weekend only - all shows at 7pm in the amphitheater behind Dart Auditorium. Take a minute to stroll up behind the audience and enjoy the lovely Japanese pond/plantings.