FringeNYC 2013: Whammy! The Seven Secrets to a Sane Self
The agony and ecstasy of self-help get a delirious makeover in Whammy! Part 1960's dance party and part Nietzschean nightmare, Whammy! probes the American fever dream where Dr. Phil, Diazepam and daily afflictions smash into sexual addiction, suicide and The Shirelles.
Official production websiteShow details/ticketing at FringeNYC
Review by Collin McConnell · August 16, 2013
“Life is a confusing mess.”
Perhaps that sounds a bit banal, but Whammy! takes this idea and violently smashes it open, exploring the desperate loneliness in all of us, without remorse. After roughly one hour and ten minutes, this play left my head and heart spinning, unsure of how to continue viewing the world. Beyond all technicality of skill (of which here there is an incredible abundance), HotCity Theatre of St. Louis packs a hell of an existential punch to the gut – or a hell of a punch to the existential gut, I’m not sure which. In a word, the emotional experience of Chuck Harper’s piece is endlessly fascinating.
Or: it’s good. It’s really good. And it works.
The premise is simple: five individuals who need help go about seeking it, with (or maybe without) the help of a doctor, who, it turns out, could use a good deal of help himself. The story is not linear (and it’s pretty easy to give up looking for a “plot” within the first few minutes), but that doesn’t matter. The characters still clearly develop as they slowly reveal themselves. And at the end of everything (not just this play, but everything), that’s what matters – the people.
This set up brings up a startling question, though: if none of these people, including the doctor, are “healthy,” are “sane,” are “fine,” who is?
“I’m never going to be fine.”
Nope. Never. This world is a terrifying place to be a human (it is a terrifying place to be anything, really), and Whammy! does whatever it can to remind us. One particularly striking moment of this revolves around witnessing a car crash. The inability to articulate one’s self over the horror, mixed with others’ immense apathy, is so jarringly realistic in a style that is so removed from that of realism, suddenly I become aware of how difficult it is to not just witness the accident itself, but to watch how others deal with it. We want so desperately to connect, to feel, that feeling something for someone else is not necessarily about the other, but about the self – it’s selfish.
And that is OK. Sometimes it is going to be all about us. And sometimes, something magical happens and we care so deeply that no matter what we do, how much we listen, how much we try, we just cannot be close enough. Whammy! tackles both the unavoidable selfishness and the surprisingly complete selflessness we move between with such vigor, there is little room for middle ground. This, of course, makes for very difficult, and very compelling theater. Shifting between unabashed humor and deadly, painful truth is a rare treat in any production, on which this play thrives – nothing here is made easy, and that’s the brilliance behind it.
The ensemble of this play is wildly talented - Maggie Conroy, Greg Fenner, Anna Skidis, Mikey Butane Thomas, Jeff Skoblow, and Harper all are wonderful. And it is not about sharing the spotlight so much as supporting the individual moments – doing what serves the story, not what serves the ego.
This play is for those who hide from themselves and the world around them. This play is for those who struggle to see the joy in the revealing of pain. This play is for those who cannot help but constantly need to love. This play is for those who think they’re fine.
Because this play is about love – loving others and loving yourself – and just how great that can be, and just how awfully difficult that can prove.
Preview: Interviews with Artists from Whammy! The Seven Secrets to a Sane Self
We're asking artists from each show to answer questions about themselves and their work to help our readers get a detailed advance picture of the festival:
Journey to FringeNYC · Jeffrey Skoblow (Actor)
- Who do you play in this show, and what was your key to unlocking this character/these characters?
I play Dr. G, a sort of ... solitary character. I played him in the previous production / version of "Whammy!" in St. Louis two years ago, a role developed improvisationally by another actor in a yet previous version. I find Dr. G and "Whammy!" in a continual state of unlocking, revision, and development. I am still finding my keys. - What are some of your previous theater credits? (Be specific! Name shows, etc.)
I've played Lenny Bruce in "Lenny" with the Arts League Players of Edwardsville (IL), a community theater group, as well as Claudius in "Hamlet," Malvolio in "Twelfth Night," and major roles in "Awake and Sing!" "Arcadia" and "The Real Thing," "The Seagull," "Oleanna," and "Tales of the Lost Formicans" among many others over a quarter century; and Roy Cohn in "Angels in America," and Luka in "The Lower Depths," among numerous roles in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville theater productions. - Why did you want to be part of FringeNYC?
Why would one not want to be part of FringeNYC? To me it looks like enormous fun and excitement of all the right kinds. I'm from New York, though I've lived far away for 35 years, so for me this is also a chance to see lots of friends and family, and soak up the city in a way I don't often get a chance to anymore... - What was the most memorable/funny/unusual thing that has happened during the development and rehearsal process for this show?
We are laughing our heads off almost continuously in rehearsal as we work with utter seriousness to co-ordinate sequences of bizarre or ridiculous gestures, movements, twitches, expressions...with great precision... and to understand the emotions that shape them and are shaped by them. That's what I'll remember most, I think. Also how the show keeps changing under our feet (literally). - Now that you’ve played this role, which Shakespearean role are you ready for: Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Juliet, or Puck?
I would love to play Lady Macbeth.
All About My Show · Chuck Harper (Director)
- Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
My show is the only one in FringeNYC that features a 1960's Beach Blanket Bingo-esque dance finale set to "31 Flavors" by The Shirelles. - What do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
Whammy! is about the lengths that people will go to to "improve" themselves. It is a good-natured exploration of self-help and group-therapy. It is about how every single person among us has their own secret tragedies, and about the crazy, and sometimes hilarious, things we do to bury these tragedies so that we can play well with others. When you walk away from "Whammy!" your mind will be a joyful mess. You will either want to go find a monastery to join where you can think about how hard it is to be a human, or you will want to go find some loud, upbeat music so you can dance it out! - Who are some of the people who helped you create this show, and what were their important contributions to the finished product?
My primary collaborator on this show was choreographer Mikey Butane Thomas. Whammy! is built around a series of dances (or Movement Activities, as he prefers to call them) that riff on the idea of how individuals deal with the necessities of social groups. These Movement Activities are rowdy, thoughtful, passionate, and frequently hilarious. The movement in the piece is almost always group-related and serves as a balance to the spoken sections of the play, which are almost always solo. This is fourth production we have collaborated on and the second original work that we have devised together. The finished project is something of genre-buster; its not dance, its not a play, its a little of both and a little something more. When I don't quite know how describe it, I feel that we are on the right path. - Tell us about the process you used to achieve your vision of this play in this production.
Whammy! is an original devised performance. It began with the idea: What would happen if you took the world of self-help and group-therapy and smashed that together with Stanley Kramer's comic masterpiece Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. We began with the choreographer building a series of short movement sections that riff on these ideas. We then began researching self-help books and scouring them for text that we felt would illuminate these pieces. The cast kept dream journals during initial rehearsal period, and these journals provided the content and imagery for structured improvisation which we used to create the connective sections of the play. The world of Whammy! is not realistic. Through dance and dreams we worked to create an alternate logic which would apply to the performance and to the world of the play. - Are there any cautions or warnings you’d like to make about the show (e.g., not appropriate for little kids)?
Although there is no nudity, Whammy! contains a (comic) scene in which the entire ensemble engage in group sex with a human-sized banana. It is not appropriate for little kids.
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