nytheatre Archive
FringeNYC 2003
SHOW REVIEWS ON THIS PAGE: The Situation Room, Staggering Toward America, Hysterical: A Short History of the Vibrator, Caresses, Unidentified: The Farmington Armada, The Writer's Mind, Greetings From Planet Girl, Tri-Sci-Fi: A Chillogy, Who's Not Ready Holler I, Penguins, Puppies and Porn, McBeth—Over Two Million Slain, Natalie
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THE SITUATION ROOM by Joseph Langham |
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The Situation Room is so very aptly titled. We enter into the
tidy yet tiny Bottle Factory Theatre and find ourselves in a room with
the possibility of many diverse situations. There is also a ton of
file/record boxes. For anyone who has ever filed for a living, this room
is a freaky nightmare. Four folding metal chairs, a table with the
standard lamp swinging over it, a typing table, and a TV on a metal
stand fill out the rest of the mood-appropriate set design. It turns out
to be a freaky nightmare for our characters as well. Or is it? Here we meet our six characters in search of a missive. Sorry, couldn’t resist the absurdist pun. Actually, they seem to be more in search of the exit. We are apparently witnessing the inner workings of the amazingly perfect, absolutely infallible US Central Intelligence Agency. We meet the facilitator, Mr. Franks, the researchers, Dr. Rose and Dr. Gmatt, Secretary James (Secretary of ???) and the Stenographer. The sixth character is the silent messenger who seems to singularly possess the power to shift reality, as it is known in the Situation Room. The silent ones always say so much, don’t they? The play is rife with darkly humorous protocol and policy. Basically, our characters are trying to find an effective way to strike terror in the hearts of our enemies by "adjusting" (which is the new protocol term for killing) innocents, allies and enemies alike. Whatever it takes to drive the bad guys into submission. They also spend an abundance of time tentatively and hilariously titling the many ridiculous projects. While most performances maintain an even keel, two actors really stand out. Ted MacLeod delights as the overly frustrated and enthusiastic Mr. Franks, and Bristol Pomeroy’s portrayal of the confused Dr. Gmatt really shows an actor with a strong understanding of what it means to be absolutely and unwaveringly in the moment. Garrett Kalleberg has written a play in the vein of the absurd that can best be described as a play for a thinking audience. If you don’t enjoy using your noggin in order to keep up with the progress of an intentionally repetitive play, go see one of the many musicals FringeNYC has to offer. If, on the other hand, you enjoy brilliant mental exercise, that likely will be doomed forever to the great, greasy off-off way, go see The Situation Room. It is dark, funny in an internal way, and very, very spooky. |
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STAGGERING TOWARD AMERICA by Christopher Moore |
Staggering Toward America is the fascinating
story of Rik Reppe’s journey from California to New York in the wake of
September 11, 2001. The stated quest of his trip is to discover for
himself the meaning of America. It is a staggering question, but Reppe’s
performance does not stagger at all. Written with intelligence, humor, and great affection for his subject, Reppe’s story unfolds swiftly and with increasing urgency. Omitting autobiography, he presents a collection of diverse and colorful American characters responding to the tragic events of September 11. The portraits emerge almost like Norman Rockwell images painted by Andy Warhol. Reppe richly employs the symbols of America, whether it be the flag, the lemonade stand, or the "Star Spangled Banner" in a way the I’ve never experienced before. Both respectful and cynical, he arrives at a new form of patriotism that is richly authentic and well-observed. It is a unique picture of America. A self-admitted cynic, he avoids exploiting the emotions of September 11, yet ultimately communicates a message of optimism and courage. He finds an answer to his question, but that is incidental to the journey itself. At turns charming, insightful, and always amiable, Reppe seamlessly weaves together a cross-country journey over a swift 90 minutes, building toward a surprising and unexpected conclusion. However, what gives weight to the performance is not simply the September 11 connection, but rather the details and personal investment with which Reppe tells his story. He is a dynamic storyteller. Director Jack Rowe ensures that the significant shifts in the story are clear without being too obvious, and the pace of the production is always spot on. As a performer, Reppe is comfortable with his audience and material. Indeed, it is his lack of "performance" that lends even more power to the production. While I wish that there might have been more autobiographical material included (for example, what did his wife say as the journey went on?), this observation is meant only to encourage a talented writer and storyteller, who deals successfully with one challenging question, and appears more than able to handle many others. |
| HYSTERICAL: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE VIBRATOR by Ivanna Cullinan |
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Not only does Hysterical: A Short History of the Vibrator provide
background on the device’s origin, this show raffles one off as a door
prize at every performance. That’s one of many fun elements within this
amusing piece. Hysterical seeks to answer why the vibrator was
"developed for home use before the vacuum cleaner." It also covers
medical history, basic Freud, the intricacies of marriage, difficulties
in patent protection, and women’s rights. This may sound like too much
for a show that runs one hour and fifteen minutes, and actually the
show’s got too many platforms going at once. Yet despite these polemics,
the exuberance carries the show through to its finish. It starts with a bit of a lecture by Frances (Andrea Caron), who I thought was simply a narrator. Then about two thirds of the way through the piece, she suddenly becomes one of the characters within the story line. Her commentary is humorous and bright, it only becomes a bit of a harangue when the character is forced to do double duty. Frances never quite fits as she flits back and forth between being a character and being a mouthpiece. The story centers on Foster (Allyson Wood), a doctor, and his wife Nellie (Lani Hansen). He and his boisterous obstetrician friend, Charles (Emma Palumbo), invent the vibrating device. Foster is firm in his conviction that the "hysterical paroxysm", (a.k.a. orgasm), is entirely separate from his somewhat limp grasp of proper conjugal relations. The sexually excitable Charles disagrees, but together they work on a mechanical resolution to "relieve" the hysteric patient. Both doctors are played with some very funny stereotyping by two women in drag (whose hair is tightly confined in buns). They are very exaggerated characters and alongside the narration, seemed to be moving the play in a political direction. This makes the more naturalistic depiction of Nellie jarring; presenting Nellie as more human may be meant as a sane contrast to the truly hysterical behavior of the men, but as the other female is not played in the same style, this inconsistency confuses what the play is trying to do. My frustration with the play is that in trying to cover so many arguments, it kept getting in the way of its own story. Hysterical is a good piece and amusing. You will laugh, enjoy yourself, and you may win a vibrator. But oh, this show could go so much further with a bit more emphasis on technique. |
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CARESSES by Seth Duerr |
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Catalan writer Sergi Belbel's Caresses is a stark and
enigmatic cross-stitching of eleven extremely upsetting views of
relationships. Belbel offers spectacularly interesting and three-dimensional characters, and places them in extreme situations that range from the erotic to the macabre and everything in between. The structure is fascinating, with each of the scenes depicting two characters, one of whom gets to go into the next scene, so that every actor is in two scenes of the play (with the extra character from the first scene arriving in the final scene). This works, as Belbel is questioning not only the duplicity of people's relationships, but also of the individual people themselves, as they are slowly revealed for what they are in each of their second scenes. Director Adam Eisenstein lives up to the challenge of presenting the world these characters live in, as well as their relationships. However, Eisenstein seems to have difficulty with the author's taut language, and subsequently has problems integrating it into the character's mouths. What saves this production, and why, ultimately, you should go see it, are the actors. To highlight a few of the performers and their respective work: Barbara Bruno soulfully presents a woman tragically attached to the past with an unfortunate inability to reconnect to a time that was happier; Al Choy masterfully paints a portrait of a homeless man who lives to cause other people agony and is seemingly untouched by anything emotionally until his prized possession is stolen and he lets out everything he's been holding inside; and Crystal Williamson gives an utterly heartbreaking performance in the final scene as a woman who is forced to steal money from her son (played with variety and surprise by Christopher Burris) and comes to terms with both her son and herself upon the discovery of her theft. Scott Ashley's lighting design is specific and well engineered, and Stage Manager Rosela Moseng and her crew make transitions with astounding efficiency. John London has written a lucid translation of Belbel's play. |
| UNIDENTIFIED: THE FARMINGTON ARMADA by Jeff Lewonczyk |
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Any evening of theatre that employs an anthology format is bound to be
uneven; it's inherent in the premise that different writers working
towards a common goal will have differing levels of success. All the
more disappointing, then, when the level of writing in such an evening
is consistently quite high, but let down by spotty performances and
uninspired direction. This, alas, is the case with Unidentified: The
Farmington Armada, an anthology of short plays regarding an
unexplained rash of UFO sightings in 1950s New Mexico. The writing on hand, while tending primarily toward the comic, shows great variation. Scott Baker's "Armada Bar" is a surreal vignette about a mysterious man tending bar in the middle of an empty field; "Worse Things Than Aliens," by Jeff Resta, shows a shrewd housewife exploiting the sightings to preserve her domestic tranquility; Jeff Hudson's "Alien Variations" depicts a saucer sighting getting caught and chewed up by the circuitous verbal routines of an aging lesbian couple. These stories, and many others, recount with delicacy, wit, and tenderness the straits of common people working their way through a profoundly uncommon situation. Unfortunately, many of the playlets come across as only too common and, even worse, boring. Lisa Gardner (who added new pieces and adapted old ones from the project's original production in New Mexico last year) and co-director James Heatherly seem so confident in the strength of the writing that they haven't given the actors much to do. The subtlety required to bring some of these little gems to life is almost entirely absent, leaving the stage feeling nearly as barren as the desert in which the action takes place. An example is "Eleanor Unbound," by Charles Pike (the originator of the project), a split-stage tale featuring a husband in a bar and a wife at the hairdresser's, both describing an inexplicable incident involving their cow, Eleanor. The dialogue is brisk and overlapping, as it should be, but all of the performers overcompensate by starting at fever pitch, leaving them with nowhere to go. The result is exhausting where it should be entertaining. In the end, many of the performers acquit themselves well, but not enough to make the stories soar. The piece as a whole seems intended to evoke our shared humanity; instead, this production evokes the difficulties of sharing good material with an audience. |
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THE WRITER’S MIND by Ivanna Cullinan |
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The Writer’s Mind is a program of three short, very funny plays
by Dennis DiClaudio. His dexterity with words creates a world as off
kilter as Fred Astaire dancing up a wall and across a ceiling, and just
as delightful. The plays are directed with speed and simplicity by
Leonard Kelly, and produced by Michael J. Ewing, who is everywhere in
this production. He first appears as A Guy, the hapless date in "Harelip and Sputnik." Guy has never learned to operate well in this world. The reasons for his inability are honestly sad, yet utterly disrespected and become very funny. Put it this way: sometimes there are things about your date that shouldn’t be known too soon. Guy shows an astonishing commitment to this date and its ever-spiraling horror. A Girl, played with unrelenting drive and verve by Amanda Schoonover, is a force with whom to be reckoned. Kellianne McCullion is the waitress forced to endure that reckoning. "Scenes From the Life & Times of Little Billy Liver" is my favorite of the three. An almost Hogarthian progress, this rise-and-fall style story had me groaning, laughing, and anxious to see what happened next. Little Billy’s noble, sacrificing mother (McCullion), a trucker with a heart of gold (Brad Panosian), and a crotchety garage owner (David Dallas) shape the first portion of Billy’s life. Although all are wonderful, David Dallas is especially strong, using his comedic skills with material that is so wrong to make it so very right. As the story proceeds, Michael J. Ewing is great as the savvy and ruthless talent agent. Schoonover’s photographer exploits her camera in such a way as to put Austin Powers to shame. The pickup, played by Nick Battiste, explored all the envy and adulation of fame. This is a cautionary tale that proves the value of a great supporting cast. "Writer’s Mind" is the revenge of the writer, delivered with great skill by Michael J. Ewing. No one is safe in this megalomaniacal fantasy—audience, actors, directors, or critics. The writer gets to speak, and oh, does he have some bottled up resentments to let loose! It is a very funny piece and the audience seemed to enjoy it enormously. The Writer’s Mind is a great laugh with a wonderful cast, just see it. |
| GREETINGS FROM PLANET GIRL by Paul Hagen |
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"You’ll be singing this later," Dorothy Dwyer promises the audience
during Greetings from Planet Girl’s fabulous Freudian finale (a
Calypso sing-along that sends up everything from Moulin Rouge to
dear old Sigmund’s thoughts on the female genitalia.) She’s right. I’m
still humming the song, even as I write this. But let’s rewind: when you land on Planet Girl, you’re greeted by a truly heinous attempt to parody Star Trek. This sketch is a good example of the weaker points of the evening—they’re parodies of parodies—too far removed from the object of ridicule for the jokes to land on target. Fortunately, they beam out of Trek territory post-haste and the other flat bits are surrounded by mountains of chuckles, giggles and even the occasional guffaw. The rest of your time spent on Planet Girl is divided into two camps of comedy. In this corner, we have hyper-post-feminist comedy: blatant discussions of vaginal difficulties (you’ll never look at Glade air freshener quite the same again!) and abandonment of shame—like The Vagina Monologues with teeth (and, oh, that last comment will be so much funnier once you see the show). In the other corner, the Planet Girl girls have a great deal in common with the boys of Monty Python: high-brow, intellectual humor mixed with low-brow, crowd-pleasing shtick. Add a touch of surrealism and a generous dollop of music, and you’ve got good-time sketch comedy like the heart-wrenching saga of the Dish and the Spoon, a criminal game of bingo, video-dating with Susan B. Anthony, and my new favorite song—with its irresistible chorus of "Nobody wants to blow George W!" Margaret Ann Brady, Jan Davidson, Dorothhy Dwyer, Lucy Holstedt and Julie Perkins are the funny and fabulous citizens of Planet Girl (also its creators: as the program puts it, "All material writ by them what performs it"). As for my visit there, any planet which I leave with two ribald songs about genitalia (technically one about genitalia and one about fellatio) stuck in my head is definitely worth the splashdown. |
| TRI-SCI-FI: A CHILLOGY by Gregg Bellon |
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"Lost and Drifting," sings Rod (Stewart Gregory), the cadet, in
Part Three of Adair Productions’ Tri-Sci-Fi: A Chillogy. And
Rod… I second that emotion! Composer Edmund Cionek and
lyricists Albert Evans, Patti Wyss, and Dennis Deal (who also
directs) present this post-modern trinity of new musical works,
all linked through the theme of science fiction embodied by the
ubiquitous lyric, "walk on into futurity." Whether quoting
directly from Thoreau’s Walden, sampling snippets of Ed
Wood, Jr’s dialogue, or genetically splicing Star Trek
with Gilligan’s Island, this group succeeds most in their
cleverness, ambitious, and musicality, but unfortunately
underachieves on stage, notwithstanding some wonderful
performances. The opening piece, "Henry David Thoreau: One Step Beyond," presents Thoreau’s Walden through the paradigm of alien-abduction phenomenon. Henrietta Davidson (Patti Wyss), an alien-abduction victim, theorizes that Walden contains the classic "7 Signs of Alien-Abduction." Meanwhile, Torrie Henry (Margaret Dorn), "1960’s Greenwich Village composer," pens her own Walden-as-alien-abduction treatise as a Dada-esque avant-garde musical. Monte Wheeler gracefully succeeds in realizing the satirical Thoreau with a booming baritone and comedic timing to match, but overall, this first piece fails to deliver. Next comes "Ed Wood, Jr: The Sinister Urge" based on the eponymous movie director and his stable of rejects, both human and celluloid. Adding Cionek on synthesizer and Paul Cohen on saxophone, the orchestrations finally come to life and showcase some of the finest grooves of the entire evening. Monte Wheeler as Wood and Christi Moore-Leslie as Dolores Fuller shine with fine voices and comedic conviction. The stand-out number of the evening, "Angora," rings out with all the fervor and ecstasy that Wood himself reserved for the long-fibered rabbit hair. Glimpses of the ingenuity and cleverness of the creative team peek through, teasing us during this second act. The final piece is "SPACE: an Opera in Capsule Form." Presumably set in the 1960’s during the space race and resplendent with Cold War allusions, "SPACE" does little more than allow Paul Cohen to flex his baritone sax chops. Director Dennis Deal appears as The Captain, a Shatner-esque drunk, on a cosmic journey with Vera (Margaret Dorn), "a beautiful scientist," and Rod (Stewart Gregory), "a space cadet." While I commend Gregory for some fine comedic moments of his own, his work is little consolation for the overall feel of either "SPACE" or Tri-Sci-Fi as a whole. Cionek and his collaborators certainly keep the comedy and levity at the forefront. But with the director also performing in two of the three pieces, I wonder how much this limited the vision and execution of the program in its entirety. |
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WHO’S NOT READY HOLLER I by Dan Asher |
| Ever wished you had the power to just
disappear? Or maybe you would prefer the power to be a fly on the wall
of your boss’s office, or ex-lover’s bedroom. I always imagined, if I
was ever presented with a newly emancipated Genie’s three-wish offer,
that I’d use the first to stuff my wallet with cash, the second to drop
twenty un-wanted pounds forever, and beat the Genie at his or her own
game, by asking for three more wishes. The power to disappear wasn’t wished for, but is innate to Susanne, the main character in Who’s Not Ready Holler I, The Hunting Village Theatre Company’s contribution to the 2003 FringeNYC. The action takes place in and around Susanne’s basement workshop, possibly a metaphor for her subconscious, where she encounters different friends and family, at different times in her life. Inevitably the conversations all go awry, and at some point, Susanne pulls her disappearing act. It is not clear how or when she realized she could disappear. Writer/director Peter Zablotsky fails to get his story or cast to make us understand why Susanne needs to disappear at these most tense and uncomfortable moments in her life. These are times when she has the most potential to clarify and strengthen relationships, and most importantly, to make some amazing, unforeseen, personal discovery. But Susanne uses her gift to cop out and flee the scene. It is an interesting premise for a story. Uses for this, or any super human power, for good or evil, are endless, but they are largely unexplored in this piece. Instead we get Susanne… angry at the world, and unappreciative of her magical ability. To the actors’ credit, their voices were not lost to the boundless space of the Washington Square United Methodist Church, but none of them managed to flesh out their characters enough to make me care where Susanne actually went when she disappeared. |
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PENGUINS, PUPPIES AND PORN by Dan Asher |
| Penguins Puppies and Porn lists
itself as a night of two one act plays. It is actually three separate
pieces, each having a loose relation to one of the objects in the
evening’s title. The first, called Law of Life, takes place in a Manhattan taxidermist’s studio, where proprietors George and Martha debate such high concepts as the natural world’s role in mankind’s day-to-day operations, and the element of cruelty in the process of natural selection. I have never seen a taxidermist’s studio, but at lights up I was sure that set designer C.D. Christian had done his homework. Surrounded by stuffed and mounted animals, George (Josh Peters) asks Martha (Chantel Cherisse Lucier) "What happens to the carcasses of penguins?" A legitimate enough question for you and I to ponder, but it seemed strange that someone in the profession of carcass restoration wouldn’t know. The conversation winds its way to Mother Nature’s cruel-to-be-kind behaviors such as, how and why does a beautiful mother hawk decide which of her children to feed, and which to eat herself in service of Nature’s bigger purpose? Some interesting writing and brain-teasing material from author Rhea MacCallum, but it doesn’t carry a thirty-minute piece without more interesting characters. The evening continues with its Puppies portion, a series of short vignettes, called "12 Billion," canines being the common thread. It opens in a doctor’s office, where an expectant couple has come to see a sonogram, and have a fight over whether or not they will keep the child. The argument is a gem. Playwright Nicol Alexander pens a hilarious domestic dispute, and actors Beth Hope and Craig Butta do a terrific job fighting as only a couple whose fetus has the head of a dog can fight. (It turns out she is a porn star, he is her pimp/manager, and she did some scenes with a German Shepard.) The next scenes follow a serial New York dog killer from his rampage to his arrest and interrogation. His justification for all the doggie homicide? This country’s willingness to spend $12 billion on food and medical expenses for dogs, while American children starve. The dialogue, acting, and directing in this section is banal, and any momentum it does gain is interrupted by unnecessary, unexplainable blackouts. In the finale, Porn, we are in God’s waiting room where sick Long Legged Lizzie has come to beg God to return to earth and help us all. Actress Chantel Cherisse Lucier’s character work is excellent. At one point, I felt claustrophobic and panicked at her embodiment of the human race’s final stages of its debilitating, terminal disease. |
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MCBETH—OVER 2 MILLION SLAIN by John Jordan |
| What do you get when you mix Ronald
McDonald, Colonel Sanders, The Burger King, The Fry Guys and a couple of
Hamburglers, and then have them speak from Shakespeare’s Macbeth?
Not much, besides a few yuk yuks and a lot of indigestion. Ideal Theatricals and Director Kevin Shinick have a very interesting concept with McBeth—Over 2 Million Slain. That is, set the play in the fast food industry and turn it into a "timely compelling satire." However, the final product’s ingredients contain major inconsistencies. Who exactly is this Macbeth? A farmer? Or Ronald McDonald? Who are The Fry Guys supposed to be? According to the press release, The Fry Guys represent supernatural government forces. I still don’t get that. There are several different acting styles, genres, and accents utilized on one stage. One minute, the "protagonist" is having a very serious Shakespearean moment; the next, he is fencing The Burger King, or MacDuff if you will, with a Spatula. There is a very unnecessary, unfunny bathroom scene, with a bit of "can you spare a square?" business. Stolen humor does not an original satire make. There are funny moments, most of which are sight gags unrelated to the Macbeth plot. However, I could not break away from the fact that converging these worlds just does not work. Kevin Shinick plays Macbeth as if he were not part of a satire and not wearing a Ronald McDonald outfit. On its own merit, it’s a good performance—just not a match for its surroundings. Craig Dudley provides the most entertaining performance with his Porter. Dudley also doubles as the Colonel Sanders-like King Duncan, giving an adequate performance, which basically sums up the rest of the cast. The scenic design by Michael Allen is very simple (four easily-movable stairway cubes), which works extremely well, especially for the FringeNYC. The costumes by Christine Field are simply out of this world, most notably Ronald McDonald and The Burger King, especially The Fry Guys. |
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NATALIE by Kate Ward |
| So handsome, so talented: Greg Bratman and
Tommy Dewey are all over the place in Natalie: a Mop Story, and
they are so much fun to watch. We are never quite sure why Natalie has surrendered her cherished son to a Pennsylvania orphanage. Equally mysterious is her decision to board a transatlantic freighter from England to reclaim him (don’t they have airplanes?). And we know little of her feelings as she becomes the target of a There’s Something About Mary-esque obsession. She is a silent enigma underneath her platinum blond locks. Poor Natalie. She’s only a mop after all. She’s also a great plot device. Conceived and performed by Bratman and Dewey, Natalie is basically a sketch show linked together and propelled forward by the title character’s urgent quest. A tortured sea-captain, a villainous ex-husband, and a dockworker poet are just a few of the off-the-wall characters improbably invested in Natalie’s return to New York Harbor. The show is a cheeky travelogue in which everyone learns a little something about life, love, and loss. "Everybody’s got scabs, boy. Just be glad they’re on your shins," says a desperado cowboy to his precocious young charge. The production feels like a raucous senior class revue in the hands of sophisticated comedians. Bratman and Dewey jump from thickening subplot to even more thickening subplot with boisterous enthusiasm, producing a delicious mix of dry absurdism and well-timed slapstick along the way. They both shine. Oh, yeah, and they’re both really good-looking. Although a certain meandering silliness is part of the show’s appeal, it could use some tightening up, especially in the beginning. The ironically sentimental back story wears a little thin after the introduction of the umpteenth character. Also, they could be a little more prudent in their irreverence. I heard a few whispers in the audience after an unfortunate, "Let’s roll!" Director Merry Alderman has done a fine job in shaping this show. With design consultant Sarah Krainin, the team creates a number of distinct worlds without which it would be impossible to follow the plot. Composer David Turner helps rev up the action with a hilarious musical-theatre send up that rivals any number from Forbidden Broadway. Bratman and Dewey are funny. They’ve got it. Let’s hope they work hard and continue their collaboration. |
