A Paper Orchestra (Studio @ C ARTS C Venues C Aquila) is a one-man show, written and performed by Michael Jarmin, based on his book of the same name. Jarmin is an acclaimed screenwriter with Beavis and Butthead and Rules of Engagement amongst his credits. The show promises to be “audaciously funny yet achingly poignant”. I was intrigued by all of this and had high hopes.
Jarmin explains why his collected writings that made up the book were called A Paper Orchestra, but I have to say I didn’t quite get it. The show explores the way in which adults can treat children (in their best interests) but which upset or even damage those children, leading to repeated “bad” behaviour when these children become parents themselves.
Sadly, the “funnies” in A Paper Orchestra didn’t seem to land with the audience a lot of the time and I found the repeated “aside” method of delivery of those messages quite irritating. Achingly poignant? Hmm, not quite that either, despite Jarmin’s authentic quivering chin at the end.
It was a good starting point: should parents encourage children to stay in their comfort zone and do the things they like best, or take them out of that comfort zone to take up other activities, whether they appear to like them or not? But an hour of a whole orchestra to answer that question? A bit laboured and therefore sadly less impactful in my view. I had had more than enough well before the end.
A Paper Orchestra isn’t a bad show and it highlights the dilemmas faced by most parents, who agonise over whether or not they are doing the right thing and/or being good (enough) parents, some still worrying about it decades later. Do we need to be told that our best efforts aren’t good enough? This is not a show about neglectful parents doing wilful harm to their children, although perhaps the judo Sensei isn’t the best role model, but it might well send parents and grandparents out into the world feeling even more guilty than before. So maybe it’s pitched at those children, perhaps now adults, who feel they were forced into things they didn’t like as kids and to help them see it wasn’t easy for the parents either.
