So far, so not so good

We've now been in Charleston since 3 p.m. Friday and just returned to our room from the fourth of nine performances we'll catch during the 2008 Spoleto Festival stay. Unlike most of our Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto marathons past, we haven't really hit a good one yet.

Perhaps it was good that we started with what we hope was the worst, a play called "A Devil Inside." This should in no way denigrate the young actors of College of Charleston who attempted to pull it off, but this may be the worst play I've encountered since "Debunked" at Triad Stage 4-5 years back. Oh, my goodness. I really hated it, and since most of the characters wind up dead at the end, they could have hurried that along and I would have been happy. Dismal.

We then caught some "long-form" improv by a group called the Reckoning, from Chicago, starting at 10 p.m. Maybe I was just tired, but it was merely ho-hum.

Today (Saturday) at noon, we saw "God's Trombones," which told the story of early black preachers and gospel, and how they related the stories of the Bible. It was a good hour and a half show. But it lasted two hours and five minutes.

And finally, we saw "I Live Next Door to Horses," which was sketch comedy by, it turned out, two of the females from the Reckoning troupe. At about 50 minutes in length, so far the best thing we've seen. They were both very versatile, talented, a joy to watch. Fun!