Mixed feelings about this one. On one hand Curtains Call has some great ideas that it succeeds at, on the other, though, such a large part of it remains a little too flawed in my opinion.

For starters, I must say the presentation is awesome. There are moments that carry a simple, but really effective quality that borders on cinematic. The bleeding scene and some of the transitions between the "real world" and the "world of the play" are highlights really made an impression on me. In its current form, these moments are few, but it was fun experiencing when they came.

Where I take most issue in this project is the writing. As far as ideas go, the way the story handles with real world/play world parallels is good, but when came to the writing of said play I found it lacking; a problem stemming from the fact that  it failed to convince me it is one.

Narration and characters try and persuade the reader the text is dull and awkward, but frankly, I find it all just standard. A lot of seemed to me much more at home in a fantasy novel than a play, giving me a strong disconnect regard what I'm supposed to be watching and what's actually going on. I particularly find a missed opportunity in having prose narration in "play world" when have said narration be something closer to stage directions. That, I think, would've naturally injected idea that the reader is experiencing a performance into the game itself, making it more unique as well as assisting with lessening the fantasy novel vibes. All these missteps I find so important because the play is a massive chunk of Curtains Call.

Now, I will say I had more of a pleasant time with the "real world" sections. While they're not perfect (with them being mired with imprecision and a emotional speedrun), I think that comes from it having to share the spotlight (heh) with the play rather than a problem with the sections themselves. On a larger scope, these two aspects would compliment each other better (and there are attempts of doing so here), however as it exists now, I found one of those (what I think is the weaker of the two) to be undercutting the other.

So, yeah, mixed feelings. The presentation is fantastic but Curtains Call is dragged down with what I find to be writing  deficient in execution. With more polish and a larger word count, I believe it can make good on these excellent ideas. Then again, it is not done, so maybe we'll see a better version of this some day.