2024 Audience Reviews

Company: Theatre On The Rocks
Show: A Horse Walks Out Onto the Stage and Dies
Venue: Phoenix Theater

Hilarious & Heartbreaking

Well, that was a surprise. Even after reading the (very accurate) title and thinking I knew what I was in for, this hour-long emotional roller-coaster had me on the edge of my seat. Sam Sweere gives a remarkable performance in the title role of the unnamed horse, who initially starts to regale the audience with a fantastically funny over-the-top and absurd autobiography. In a remarkably meta twist, a farmer appears and foreshadows the future, reminding the horse of the show's title (and the audience's complicity in coming to such a show!) Suddenly the fourth wall is shattered and the horse and the audience are in this together as the horse wrestles with his mortality. There is some audience interaction, which Sweere navigates with a skilled improviser's aplomb, leaving space for a slightly different experience at every show. One particularly deft device makes everyone aware that the clock is ticking, adding a pot-boiler intensity to proceedings. Plus, he finds clever ways to involve everyone (including the theater's tech folks and the lady videoing the show) that brings a charming meta tongue-in-cheek self-awareness to the performance. The show allegorically examines issues of self-worth, kindness, and how an exceptionally ordinary life can be seen as well-lived in an earnest, almost painfully honest way. Sweere's performance is captivating, embodying a cornucopia of emotions far outstepping the Five Stages of Grief. He really shines in the subtleties of the performance -- shrugs, sighs, well-timed looks of appeal to the audience brings more life to the character than the words on the script. Heavens, I almost forgot he wasn't a horse. Lest you think this show is a downer, it most definitely is not. While it tackles deep existential questions, it does so in such a fanciful way that we end up laughing at the absurdity of it all. I bet that many in the audience will leave smiling with contemplative moments reminding us to be kind, love deeply, and really live life. I sure did.