FringeNYC 2013: What's Your Opinion on Spontaneous Human Combustion?
The Ryemarian Corporation is interviewing candidates for a new job opportunity. To what extend will these candidates go for employment? Are they willing to turn themselves inside out exposing their true selves? Come and find out. God Bless America. (All female cast)
Show details/ticketing at FringeNYCReview by Case Aiken · August 14, 2013
What’s Your Opinion on Spontaneous Human Combustion?, a new show playing in this year’s New York International Fringe Festival, is the kind of show that can best be described as a chemistry equation: take a single container, mix in a bunch of different elements. As you might infer from the title, the results here are explosive.
The set up, where we find four candidates stranded in a waiting room for a job interview that never seems to happen, is just an excuse to watch these people break down and bare their very souls to one another and the audience, a tried and true format if ever there was one. It’s Waiting for Godot with a tweak. Now, we’re dealing with modern corporations (there’s even some viral marketing material associated with the fictional company of the show) and the interviewees are the stereotypes pop culture presents now of the various women seen in the workplace that are then analyzed and explored.
I found this show solid enough. The script by Sean Behrens creates a great playground for director Matthew Singletary to play in. All four actresses (Jessie Ruffus, Taylor Plas, Kay Capasso, and Sarah Goosmann) put in a fine performance, with character reveals wonderfully catching the audience off guard. Blocking in the three quarters round space is effective. While the show’s roots might show a little, this is an effective piece that I very much enjoyed.
Preview: Interviews with Artists from What's Your Opinion on Spontaneous Human Combustion?
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:
Theater Beats Movies · Kay (Actor)
- Why do you do theater (as opposed to film, or TV, or something not in the entertainment field)?
I prefer theatre because of its ephemeral nature. We are living in a very documented time; we are constantly photographing and recording and trying to capture moments to save and share. I think theatre is becoming a unique experience, because even if one records it and watches it later, there isn't the same electricity one experiences by being there in the moment. - What jazzes you about having a live audience to perform for?
I love that it's never the same. There are different people in the audience and they are all bringing their own energies and frame of reference to the show. Sometimes the whole audience gets the joke, sometimes it's only one person laughing. I love the anticipation of their reactions. - Do you prefer to read plays by yourself, read them aloud, or perform them?
I think all three are part of appreciating the play. Performing is how the play is intended to be done and the fun of living it out fully. Reading plays aloud is a good way to hear the musicality of the play without worrying about the blocking or props. And when i read them by myself, I get to play all the parts. ;) - What moment or section in this show do you really love to perform? Without giving away surprises, what happens in that moment and why do you love it?
The show has a lot of surprises, so revealing my favorite part would be a total spoiler. But the moment I love performing the best allows me to explore a very dark side of myself that I don't get to show very often. - People who like which iconic film would like this show: THE SOUND OF MUSIC, STAR WARS, AIRPLANE, or FELLINI’s 8 1/2?
I would actually have to compare it to Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL: the skewed reality of the workplace, the technology and overpowering bureaucracy. It came up in rehearsal one night that almost all of us had at one point thought of it as a reference point.
All About My Show · Sean Behrens (Writer)
- Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
"What's Your Opinion on Spontaneous Human Combustion?" is the only show at FringeNYC that you don't know whether it is a comedy or a tragedy. We have four character on stage for 30 minutes straight all arguing with each other. In rehearsals I am laughing, then five seconds later I'm cringing in fear. This is how I like theatre, the laughter brings your guard down, then when something creepy happens, the creepiness really hits. And, when you get creeped out, a good joke seems so much more funnier. The multiple swings between being creeped out and laughing is what this play has that no other show in FringeNYC has. - What do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
This show is about the dangers of associating employment with your self-worth, and about the ridiculousness about getting a job nowadays. It is the production's goal for the audiences to take away awareness of how they behave and feel around their jobs. - Why did you want to write this show?
I wanted to write this show to explore and channel all the energy (some of it was negative) about trying to get a job. The hoops an employer makes you go through for months interviewing, then waiting, and you don't wind up getting the job. This is a familiar scenario that most people have gone through. I wanted to give voice to my own frustration, as well as the audience's about the frustration in finding a job. - Who are some of the people who helped you create this show, and what were their important contributions to the finished product?
My director, Sarah Anne Simmons, helped create this show. She directed a staged-reading of this play in January. I added about twenty minutes to the length of the play in the months since. We had a different cast then, we only have one of the original actors from that reading, Sarah Goosmann. With this new cast it changes the whole dynamic, and I was glad to be at all of the rehearsals workshopping and tweaking the play to a point where we have an Absurdist melee on our hands. - Which character from a Shakespeare play would like your show the best: King Lear, Puck, Rosalind, or Lady Macbeth -- and why?
I think the Three Witches from Macbeth would like our show the best. The Three Witches understand the group dynamic as "What's Your Opinion on Spontaneous Human Combustion?" emphasizes. Or Yorick from "Hamlet" (I count him as a character, he's an off-stage character, but still a character).
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