I really wanted to love this production. The show displayed great promise and I was fully prepared to book in at the Hotel De L’Avenir, but it failed to reach expectations.The concept of creating a ‘caberet of vignetttes’ and integrating all the characters by having them stay at the same hotel is a clever concept. It provides a wonderful framework to really explore character work. But a showcase like this only works if you can execute everything to the same high standard – whether it is mime, singing or dancing. I fear that Alexis MacNab tried to do too much and it did her a disservice.Her character work is where her strength truly lies, and where she seems most at ease in her performance. In particular Josephine, a café performer, was my favourite. There was vulnerability when she sang in her Alanis Morissette-esque portrayal, and her storyline was heartfelt. In another character MacNab explores a silent character with mime, but she does not succeed in the art form. Mime is a very difficult area of performance and requires great expertise, and really should not be attempted unless it is anything but perfect.The shadow puppetry, which I hope was a projected live feed and not something pre-recorded, complimented the French romantic aesthetic of the production. Although, at times, some of the imagery is confused when scale is deliberately distorted, and the execution is clumsy. The French maids, who were obviously there to provide comic relief, at first, seem a clever device for the production. They would introduce the audience to the different rooms by changing the door signs, dusting and presetting the minimalistic staging. The climactic tête-à-tête between the two maids, which focused solely on the position of a chair, was funny but seemed oddly shoe-horned in. It broke the theatrical form, as it didn’t result in the presetting of the following scene, for which the chair had to be removed.Hotel De L’Avenir has moments of beauty, but its main failing is the fact it fails to reach its potential. And it really does have potential.
