nytheatre Archive
FringeNYC 2002
SHOW REVIEWS ON THIS PAGE: Downsized, Binoculars, Flux, Cause For Alarm, It's All About Me, Me: A 5woman Show, Out To Lunch, Minimum Wage, The Rape Of The Lock, Pissing In The Wind, EROStudies, Nascendo
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DOWNSIZED by Derak T. Bell |
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Writer/director Roberto Marinas' Downsized is funny, moving, and
ultimately unsatisfying. It’s set in the office of CEO "Teddy" Canton
(Michael Todd Wynn), to which two competitive young execs, Denny Cobb
(Derek Straat) and Candice Ashley Walden (Cynthia Segura), have been
called at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. They fear they are about to be
fired. But Teddy has other things in mind, an extended, alcohol-fueled
bonding ritual in which the three of them will "really talk." In a
series of seven scenes linked by blackouts and a series of radio news
broadcasts we follow them through an alternately hilarious and
disturbing dark night of the soul. Initially playful in his lunacy, Wynn’s Teddy has the makings of a fine comic creation, repetitively glad-handing his protégés, barricading his office in a mountain of pizza boxes and going toe to toe with Denny in a contest to see who can name the most porn sites. But the hijinks give way to the despondency of a man who has lost his humanity. Derek Straat is well cast as Denny, his arrogant prettiness and hyena grin making it clear that he’ll do anything to advance himself. It is only when he makes unnecessary takes to the audience and cartoonishly shifts his eyes that he loses focus. Cynthia Segura’s Candice, though tight-bodied and driven, seems to be the least defined of the three, disappearing into the role of scowling referee as the play progresses. In the end Teddy tells the execs that his desk is cold, but his hand is warm, and if he presses his palm onto the desk, it leaves a perfect impression. As the moisture recedes he hears nothing. It’s the only calm he gets. It is a clear poetic moment, and the closest I came to caring about these people. Shortly thereafter he pulls himself together, introduces himself to Denny and Candice yet again, and walks out the door to the strains of Pink Floyd’s "Money," leaving me with the feeling that I had made a long journey just to get back to where I began. |
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BINOCULARS by Julie Congress |
I know Binoculars is a commentary on the aftermath of 9/11, but
I’m afraid that’s about all I got out of it. Set in present day New York
City, Binoculars tells the story of Jack, who is positive that his
co-worker is the same man whom the news has identified as being a
terrorist. (They share the same name and probable Arab ethnicity.)
Jack’s fiancée, Illana, thinks Jack has gone crazy, especially after he
obtains a pair of binoculars and begins spying on this man, who lives in
an adjacent apartment building. Illana blames the media, specifically
the station CNM, for brainwashing him and tells Jack that this is why he
shouldn’t watch the news. Parts of Binoculars appear to be parodies, specifically scenes dealing with Sheila, the CNM news anchor. However, these satirical scenes certainly don’t feel like any news I’ve ever watched: Sheila begins telling little jokes and adds humorous remarks in the middle of a supposed terrorist attack. Eventually, Binoculars resorts to derogatory, possibly offensive stereotypes of Jews and homosexuals in a vain attempt to get laughter from the audience. I am sure that writer Larah Bross has a point to make with this play. Unfortunately, I really don’t know what that point would be. |
| FLUX by Sharon Fogarty |
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Flux features good actors in difficult roles in an intellectually
driven play with so many words and so little emotion. The talented and
statuesque Kathrin Kana plays Jane, whose sexy laughter and
seductiveness make it believable that Tarquin, nobly played by Elliot V.
Kotek, a handsome and charming actor with an endearing perpetual slump,
picks her up at a bar and takes her back to his apartment. The couple
enter drunk. Jane gets drunker and becomes grotesque. Tarquin sobers
painfully as the date goes on and Jane quickly transforms into a dose of
poison come to visit. They flirt over admittedly cliché questions. Jane insults Tarquin sexually and makes lewd comments about getting into the sack more quickly. At last, there is a touching moment when Jane talks about a man she loved, then quickly dismisses it as a lie. This game continues, peppered with jokes about rape and incest. Even if Jane were the victim, any compassion the audience might have for her is used up in the first hour. Author Tony Dunham does well in torturing us with the mystery of why this feminine monster won’t leave, until it is revealed that Tarquin has written a book on women that Jane is determined to punish him for. Terry Burstein’s artful, minimalist direction is decidedly non-physical until the end, and claustrophobic in that the couple rarely take their eyes off each other in this spacious loft/theatre. Burstein’s staging, together with Sarah Martin’s comfortable, tasteful apartment set and Rachel Oftedahl’s deceptively soothing lighting, turn a funny and sexy one-night stand into the world’s worst date. Dunham and Burstein succeed in showing the ugliest feminist next to an ignorant chauvinist and make us remember them painfully. |
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CAUSE FOR ALARM by Natily Blair |
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Performcat and David R. Gerson produce a refreshing and delightful
whirlwind of a play. Cause for Alarm is a wonderful,
non-linear ride. Plot is not the strong point of the piece, and
seems peripheral to the language, which is crisp and tasty like
a potato chip. It has a unique and pleasantly surreal tone, and
while it flirts with being overly clever it doesn’t cross the
line too often. Writer Jenny Schwartz brings a refreshing and distinctly feminine sensibility to this offbeat universe. The dialogue channels both Christopher Durang and Edward Albee—funny, direct, and quick, with a lingering aftertaste of sincerity. Director Ken Rus Schmoll does a beautiful job of orchestrating humanity within insanity. These people may be crazy, but for the most part, they are authentic and it's a blast to watch them freak out. The play loosely follows Margaret’s (Maria Dizzia) journey away from the madness of her boyfriend, her coworkers, and her psychotic mother. Dizzia doesn't overdo the simple language she is given, and the result is lovely and grounding amid chaos. Her journey isn't really what keeps you interested, though—it is the velocity of the playful language. Annie McNamara steals the show as Margaret’s coworker, Candace. She delights as she prattles about her former boss, challenges people about her weight, and scolds herself for asking people where they bought things. She's ferociously funny as she chucks her doughnut across the stage in a fit of hysterics. Hope Salas brings frightening and overworked energy as Margaret's mother. You can see why her daughter sticks with brevity. Dan Johnson brings about giggles both as Dr. Strongman and the eight-year-old son of Margaret's boss, Peter (Gibson Frazier). Patrick McNulty impresses in a short epilogue, as does the short and sweet stockboy, Frank (Karl Herlinger). Cause for Alarm will tickle you and leave you with some touching and beautiful lines that stay with you on the way to the nearest Krispy Kreme. |
| IT'S ALL ABOUT ME by Jaene Leonard |
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Until you learn to humiliate yourself, you’ll never work in The Theatre.
This was the pearl of wisdom handed down from the only acting teacher
Tonya Canada ever had—during a class she took so she wouldn’t talk fast
at work. Despite swearing off theatre games and animal exercises, here
she is in her own show at the Theatre for the New City Cabaret. It’s
All About Me is a 45-minute one-woman yarn about the events which
led her from Oregon to Yale to New York City, and her constant struggle
to both pursue her art and pay her bills. And, despite the proselytizing
teacher’s wariness, Canada is quite comfortable—and engaging—on the
stage. The most colorful stories are those that come from Canada’s stint as a Portland Oregon Rose Festival Princess—one of eleven high-school girls regularly pimped out as a novelty act during the summer jamboree. These stories, punctuated with projected slides, paint the picture of a young girl who enjoys being part of the show, especially to the tune of sharing Pepsi with handsome famous people like Richard Dean Anderson ("MacGyver") in tight jeans and Ray Bans. I have to admit I wanted to know more—more about the illuminated dress that hangs on the stage, more about Canada’s years at Yale, and more juicy details about the date she had with Robert DeNiro (Bob). But Canada’s teacher would be proud. In addition to her storytelling skills, Canada and her director seem to have learned one of the hardest tricks of the trade: how to leave ‘em wanting more. |
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ME: A 5WOMAN SHOW by Joanne Joseph |
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Yes, it's "about me" times 5. An interesting take on personal theatre so
frequent at fringe festivals and elsewhere. Five actors (from Los
Angeles) perform in a collage of fragments—wants, fantasies,
complaints—about, I think, the search for a coherent sense of life. The
separate stances enacted are "Star," "Insecurity," "Bitch," "Head" and
"Heart." These, as expected, will converge into one whole being at the
end of the hour. It is up to you to decide if this is enough—if this is
a complete picture of life, for you, at whatever stage of life you're
at. Choreography (well-designed and executed) and songs are interspersed. The show opens with a shaky home movie of "Me" at age 6. Scenes follow that are blackouts, flashlight-lit, everyone prone on the floor, everyone standing all-in-a-line, sitting on two prop boxes, or framed center stage for monologues in front of a spot-lit egg-shaped frame. My companion was most taken with "Insecurity" played by Andria Regan—she did poignantly convey the internal struggles that manifest in self effacing behavior. "Head," played by Collette Winn, maintained the no-affect control, face, body and voice, needed for that aspect. "Star," Alana Burton, complete with sparkles on her face and glitzy costume, fulfilled all the requisite attributes: svelte, lively, talented, sexy, winning. (My idealistic companion felt she pushed, "sold it" too much, but I think Burton nailed it, as more Liza than Uta.) "Heart," played by Kendall Wilson, provided well-needed contrast to the others. The casting fortuitously gave us the range of the tall, the thin, the heavy, the gorgeous, and, lastly, the swish. "Bitch," portrayed by Lalo Vasquez, the only male figure, is intended to blend into the collective "Me". His concerns deal with the ins and outs of gay relationships, and one's position in the straight world of now. He confronts the audience more directly than some of the others. The show's concept does not permit much of a moving story line—collage, fragments, prevail. Life issues are raised, but some are missing, of course. We hear and see the questions about sex, trends, popularity, coming of age, mainstream expectations—all personal, no looking at world crises. The piece tries, I think, to construct a person from fragments, in today's world. Go see it and see if it succeeds. The energy is high, and the audience was entertained. |
| OUT TO LUNCH by Martin Denton |
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If you are wondering why we have the New York International Fringe
Festival, see Joseph Langham’s Out to Lunch. Here is a gutsy,
adventurous new play with a big cast and big ideas, that almost
certainly wouldn’t be produced anywhere else, and that absolutely
deserves to be seen. It’s a fancy, wildly subversive, brazenly
political, dada feast; thing “Laugh In” meets Horse Country meets
The Chairs meets - I don’t know - Jerry Springer? Out to Lunch
is smart and shameless and sassy and inventive and raw and anarchic and
disorganized. What more could you want from a FringeNYC show? Out to Lunch is ostensibly about two “campers” - a pair of geeky losers who spend their entire Sunday parked at a table having a relaxing brunch. These two are out to lunch in both senses of that phrase; they are the play’s Vladimir and Estragon; or perhaps they’re stand-ins for us; perhaps not. What they are for sure is clueless and inert, and as they go through the same motions of eating and drinking that they execute every Sunday, and repeat the same conversation, they are blithely unaware of the chaotic - apocalyptic? - shift that’s going on around them. Which includes, in no particular order, a waitress who takes off all her clothes, a restaurant manager who dreams of being a ballet dancer; a visit from the restaurant’s fearsome owner, who wears a crown and whose arrival is heralded by a pair of sexily clad women; and a psychopath with a gun who turns up on more than one occasion hoping that he’s arrived at a suitable destination for a massacre (“Is this an elementary school?” he asks our hapless heroes at one point. “Is this the Olympics?”). It would be frightening if it weren’t so funny; or is it the other way around? Langham captures the irrationality of this particular moment in our history with remarkable incisiveness. Very particular, I should add: there are lines in Out to Lunch about Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to ban smoking in restaurants that suggest Langham has been writing new material as recently as yesterday. Out to Lunch features eleven actors , the most memorable of whom is Clint McCown who plays the improbably and absolutely accurately named JesterDishwasherFrenchCook. See Out to Lunch. It will make you laugh, and make you think and generally unsettle you. As I said, what more could you want from a FringeNYC show? |
| MINIMUM WAGE by Andrea Somberg |
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Cross Fast Food Nation with "Saturday Night Live," add some
a capella music and a whole lot of humor, and you’ve got Jeff
and Charlie La Greca’s Minimum Wage, a rip-roaring
musical experience. And make no mistake, this is an experience.
Audience members are expected to participate fully as they learn
the Happy Burger oath, sing the Happy Burger anthem, and join in
the all around Happy Burger fun. Kevin Scott directs this smart, witty, and highly original musical in which employees of Happy Burger, a fast food chain with a Big Brother-type CEO and a disturbing dystopian motto, initiate the audience into the wonders of hamburgerology. The employees’ dreams go beyond flipping burgers, though—they long to enter and win their town’s a capella singing contest. The cast (Paul Ashley, Jennifer Heaney, Harold Lieman, and Charlie and Jeff La Greca) sings its way through composer Sean Altman’s wonderful musical creations with skill and enthusiasm. The music is upbeat, the lyrics are hilarious, and the group sounds so good together that, by the end of the play, their dream of winning the a capella contest doesn’t seem so far-fetched. If I were to make one complaint about Minimum Wage it would be that it’s a bit short on plot. (I’m thinking, in particular, of a very random, albeit admittedly hysterical scene in which the cast reenacts Godzilla). Most of the time, though, I was too busy laughing to care. So clear your schedule, skip your dinner plans, and come join the crew at Happy Burger for a great theatre experience. You’ll walk away with a tune on your lips, a smile on your face, and, best of all, a pain in your stomach—not from too much fast food, but from too much laughter. |
| THE RAPE OF THE
LOCK by Alyssa Simon |
| The Rape of The Lock, A New
Play is an inventive twist on the play-within-a-play concept. In it,
a group of actors rehearsing The Rape Of The Lock written by
their tyrannical director Alexander Pope, set the plot in motion for
revenge in a fashion a la Pirandello Taking oft-used themes such as the
playwright’s frustrations with actors who refuse to be puppets and who
try to re-write the script, playwright Paul Hagen uses Alexander Pope’s
words as metaphors for stereotypes of theatre personalities. Aiding Hagen beautifully in this task is costume designer, Everett DiNapoli. He has created hilarious costumes spanning theatrical styles from satyr plays, opera, melodrama and even a wink to Hamlet with the black-clad David Giambusso playing Sir Plume. The cast is excellent and though I had trouble hearing a few of the actors, it was not because they don’t thoroughly understand their roles. It seems more of a timing issue in group scenes that will only get tighter as the show’s run progresses. Individually, the comic timing is spot on. Micah Bucey as Alexander Pope is the perfect embodiment of the director from hell. Mandy Olsen as Belinda, the berated leading lady, shows great range, from self-absorbed diva to real depth of anger and feeling when called "just another pretty face." Liz Miller, playing the part of Thalestis, has a strong presence on stage, and David Giambusso has a wonderful ability to convey humor in a natural and unforced way. Ann Courtney plays Belinda’s vengeful and jealous sister Clarissa and Christian Bester is the scheming and seductive Baron. They have a great scene together that is beautifully choreographed. The director, Paul Mazza has a great eye for stage pictures. The actors portray archetypes from the Tarot, a ship at sea, and a dictator on his throne (with five cast members as the throne), using movement that also covers operatic gestures, a soft shoe vaudeville number and classical poses from the Restoration and Shakespeare. The set is designed by Joe Galen, who also plays the Narrator; Bill Bowen designed sound; and director Paul Mazza designed the lights; all contributing to a well-thought-out and unified artistic vision. |
| PISSING
IN THE WIND by Lee Ramsey |
| The aptly named Pissing in
the Wind, at an endless 55 minutes, is more an extended acting class
exercise than a play. It is in fact more an extended exercise in
self-indulgence. The two performers that make up the cast, Norwegian actress Anna Eline and Josh Bloch, who I assume is Canadian from his program bio, also co-wrote the play. As there is no director credited, I assume they also directed the piece. They might have benefited from bringing in some collaborators. The play tells the story of Samantha and Alvin, a dysfunctional brother and sister each trying in his or her own way to escape the memories of their bizarre childhood in a broken home. In a play within the play, which is set at the end of World War I, we meet Simone, a French peasant girl, who is confronted by Jurgen, a wounded German soldier. To tell any more would give away the entire plot. The best I can say about this production is that Eline gives us two interesting and distinct characterizations, displays a great deal of charm, and does excellent French and American accents. Bloch does not fare as well. He gives us one rather generic characterization, displays very little charm, and does an awful German accent. |
|
EROSTUDIES by Saviana Condeescu |
| If you didn’t manage to
go to Greece this summer and to spend your hot nights dancing in taverns
under the rain of carnations, don’t feel sad, you have a chance to get
more than that: the EROStudies performing package, a show that
captures both ancient and (post)modern Greece flavors. This production of THEATRON (Greek American Performing Arts Center) is an up-lifting, thought-provoking and beautifully-done dance-theatre piece which may bring into your mind and soul big words like catharsis. Euripides Laskaris’ directing has succeeded in creating poetical, deep, and sometimes even funny episodes—erotic flashbacks in the darkness of the stage/memory. The choreography signed by Tzeni Argyriou interweaves Greek folk dance with accumulations of violent-soft movement in an attempt to play with the concept of falling. "Falling in love" translates in the body-language into literally falling onto the floor, smashing into walls, jostling into each other. The video part reminded me of one of my favorite films, Cinema Paradiso, where all the previously censored kisses are edited in a unique cinematographic sequence of hundreds of lips-touching moments. The imagery of EROStudies relies on dark-light, black-white, red-pink binaries in a mixture of traditional and fashionable, folkloric and trendy, tragic and comic, sacred and profane. Even Eros, the God of Love who directs the light spots on couples or solitary cavorting dreamers, wears red braces and has the mundane appearance of a bartender. Indeed, the whole show builds this kind of "bridge-braces" between nowadays and mythology, the result being a wonderful artistic experience that speaks tenderly about the performed-by-everybody act of Love. |
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NASCENDO by Anthony Pennino |
| Alina Nelega’s Nascendo is
set in Romania in a maternity ward during the last days of the Ceaucescu
regime. The shift of Eastern European nations from totalitarian regimes
to nascent democracies and the resulting chaos for those societies has
provided a great deal of material for the dramatist. Timberlake
Wertenbaker with The Break of Day, David Edgar with Pentecost,
and, in particular, Caryl Churchill with Mad Forest have all
embraced this subject matter and penned artistically successful works.
Alas, Nelega and her play cannot be included with this august company. Three women—Rita (Alexandra Price), Ina (Marissa Afton), and Dutza (Adile Istarki)—are all patients at the hospital. Rita, a gypsy, has already given birth to a boy at the start of the play. Ina, a more refined woman of Hungarian ancestry, is having complications with her pregnancy. And Dutza, a teacher, has her baby during the course of the play. They are tended to by Marta (Alice Spivak), a midwife, and Valentina (Addie Johnson), a doctor. When the coup against Ceaucescu begins, the ward is invaded by a Young Man (Lee Matthews). Is he a revolutionary? A mad man? A homeless vagabond? Or just a professional liar? The play as written is muddled and overburdened with metaphor. Nelega frequently touches upon interesting ideas—such as Rita’s discovery that she can sell her child to a rich Westerner, or the ethnic rivalries between the women—but she never focuses on any long enough to be satisfying. Erica Kylander-Clark’s direction could have been a great deal tighter. The actors in general never convince that they are citizens of a dictatorship. Nonetheless, Istarki has some powerful moments of a mother in distress, and Johnson presents a realistic portrayal of one of the regime’s doctor/functionaries who has turned her heart to ice in order to continue to just do her job. |
