From letting strangers rub her feet to pretending to date someone she doesn’t know, Maggie keeps asking herself how far she will go to keep the lights on. “Craigslisted” has a tendency to change its tone from relaxed to tense in a heartbeat. It shines a light on the absurd and dark nature that Craigslist personal ads had before they were taken down in 2018.
In “Craigslisted,” Maggie finds herself without a way to pay for the massive amount of debt she is in and the only way out is to appease a customer base with “unusual” taste. The story, which takes place in 2014, was written by Sharai Bohannon and directed at FC by Teddy A. Rodriguez-Velez.
This show does an excellent job at juggling its method of storytelling. The entire show takes place in one living room but multimedia elements give its story a bigger scope and a sense of a larger world. These parts also help the pacing of the show as the audience isn’t just left in the dark as the actors prepare for the next scene. At some points, it feels as if you’re watching a sitcom and then shift to be far more unsettling, like when seeing people at their most private and vulnerable from behind a closet.
“It has a lot of multimedia storytelling…Tweets, Craigslist, text, blogs. All of that has to be woven into the story. We started collaborating with projectionists to make that as smooth as possible,” says Rodriguez-Velez.
As the play continues, you find yourself worried for Maggie as she gets deeper into the underbelly of her customers’ derangements. But not all are characterized as perverts. One of the most notable characters, “Dave,” just wants someone to watch movies with after a heavy divorce. He tends to bring a lighter comic relief that is a good chaser to some of the piece’s darker moments.
Maggie’s friends serve as the voices of reason and act as a morel compass for Maggie. The actors that portrayed them do a great job at having the similarly uncomfortable conversations one would have with a friend if they started taking on less than favorable Craigslist ads.
“The students were really open to do a new work. It’s really hard to get new work done,” said Rodriguez-Velez. The students both on and off the stage came together to put on a show that is unique to the medium.
