FringeNYC Previews

A Nasty Story

Produced by Fine Feathered Friends

Author: Sara Jeanne Asselin

A Nasty Story is a darkly comic tale I've based freely on the short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The show proves a simple equation: Theory + practice = humiliation and drunken coma. Meet Johnny Pralines: Young, hip, newly rich. The show opens with Pralines defending his idealistic views about compassion. Pralines claims to love all men equally, be they a "diseased-riddled prostitute" or "drug-addled, knife-wielding maniac." To prove how hip and liberal he is, Pralines drops in, uninvited, to his impoverished employee's wedding party. His attempt to get in good with the rabble goes bad, as he proceeds to insult everyone and ruin a handful of lives. Joyfully overturning the concept of bleak Russian literature, the show is a fast-paced mix of dance, music, and farce.

Most of us claim to be open, liberal and peace loving. Perhaps some of us (me) even listen to the numbing zombifyingly compassionate hum of NPR. But put into practice, could we handle it? Could we really love everyone? Given the chance, would we embrace the depraved, the criminals, the obsequious asses from human resources? Or would we, like Johnny Pralines, spend the entire evening soiling ourselves? Although we seem hardwired for it, societies throughout history have tried to avoid/rework class structure. I'm thinking, of course, of Russian communism existing so harmoniously in theory and so bollixy in practice. A Nasty Story is a snappy look at the destructive results of blanketing ourselves in a shroud of harmony and hipness.

It's another chance to work with the deftness and razor sharp eye of director and Fine Feathered Friends co-founder, Melissa Firlit. We both love the story. How lightly it asks an unanswerable question. Because Firlit and I like to answer serious questions with funny answers, we present this show.

Sara Jeanne Asselin, playwright/performer