© Jill Usdan

Master collagist Charles Mee celebrates love, sex and the joie de vivre in Fetes de la Nuit, this time  presented by WeildWorks at The Ohio Theater. Mee is no stranger to plays about relationships and how culture molds the different ways we approach love, loving, and being loved. For example, in his play Big Love, fifty brides flee their grooms and seek refuge in an Italian villa, mixing pop culture with tradition and texts from different classics. In Fetes de la Nuit he reinvents and updates a style that used to serve as entertainment for Louis VIX at Versailles, into a modern day somewhat stereotypical look into Paris, romance and a lot of sex.

Mee’s writing leaves a lot of room for directorial interpretation, something that director Kim Weild takes advantage of a good deal, sometimes to the play’s disservice. There is little attention paid to text, and a whole lot of attention given to imagery and creating “moments,” leading the audience into a sluggish evening. Unfortunately only the externally obvious was accentuated in Fetes de la Nuit, a play that possesses  a cosmic amount of subtext and depth. In spite of all this, the eager ensemble was able to have certain moments of honesty, with stand-out performances by Luis Moreno, Jodi Dick, John McGinty and Khris Lewin.

WeildWorks production of Fetes de la Nuit was easy on the eyes, but lacked the decadence and liveliness of a modern day Paris.

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