2008 New York International Fringe Festival Reviews
The Fabulous Kane Sisters in BOX OFFICE POISON
reviewed by Nancy Kim
Aug 13, 2008
When a number of headliners at Pilkington's Promenade in Pocatello, Idaho are found dead on the premises, proprietor Pice Pilkington seems more concerned about booking the next main attraction than finding the murderer. Nonetheless, the Kane Sisters, a gorgeous pair of identical twins with a burlesque act, are sent over by their agent without much advance warning. A kooky ensemble of third-rate variety acts are possible suspects until they, too, start dropping in this campy, fast talking, pun-overloading, gender-bending, flesh-exposing mystery comedy.
Marc Geller and Bill Roulet are the writers as well as the aforementioned Kane Sisters (Geller also takes on directing duties, making him a triple threat in this production). As Lana Kane, Geller is tall, lean, and attractive; while Roulet is not quite any of those things—picture Danny DeVito in a dress—as Nova Kane (character names are not spared from the many puns). Despite the physical differences, the rest of the characters continually remark on the uncanny resemblance of the sisters and will misidentify them throughout the show for the audience's amusement. And while Nova is sweet and dim, Lana is dry with pitch perfect deadpan delivery. Many of the best lines in the show go to Geller, who inserts enjoyably groan-inducing sexual innuendos at almost every opportunity.
The rest of the company, though, do have their moments, including an all too familiar husband-and-wife Shakespearean couple (Patrick McCarthy and Sheila Stasack) who give us an unfortunate scene from Romeo and Juliet. Also, gold-digging Pansy and fitness instructor Buster Hyman (say this full name out loud), performed by Marta Reiman and David A. Rudd, are physical comedy wonders. The cast also looks great in Jennifer Kirschman's costumes.
A small bit of choreography in one scene and the outlandish unveiling of the murderer contribute some of the burlesque aspects. In a future reincarnation of the production—there should be one for sure—it would be wonderful to ante up the sexiness with some more of the burlesque, because Geller moves like a dream.
Written/created by: Marc Geller and Bill Roulet
Directed by Marc Geller
Presented by Red Light District
MY SALVATION HAS A FIRST NAME: A Wienermobile Journey
reviewed by Zachary Fithian
Aug 12, 2008
Robin Gelfenbien had the enormously hard task, for a year, of getting people to take the Wienermobile seriously. The anatomical implications of this particular American icon are hard to ignore, especially when it is parked on the side of the highway near the exit for the lovely town of Intercourse, Pennsylvania. For most of us, the Wienermobile is, at best, a passing fancy. At worst, it is a giant, well, you know. For Gelfenbien, it is most certainly no joke.
In My Salvation Has a First Name, Gelfenbien tells her all-too-true story, a sad tale of teasing and ridicule at Syracuse University. She was Jewish, a tad awkward, and she bore a striking resemblance, at least to the boys from Syracuse, to an actor from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. (And, no, I'm not talking about Phoebe Cates.) She had, too, an almost unhealthy obsession with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. Her fantastical notions of becoming a Hot Dogger (Wienermobile driver to the layman) were not, well, normal. But, unlike all of us normal folks, she would eventually get to realize her fantasy.
With her one-woman show, Gelfenbien takes her place among such monologuers as Eve Ensler, Vanessa Redgrave, and Billy Crystal. Though her life may not possess the same scope as Crystal's or Joan Didion's, Gelfenbien is beyond endearing, and she makes the most of a story that, like the Wienermobile and all the hot dogs it stands for, has very little actual meat. Gelfenbien shows such passion that you can't help but root for her. She's fearless, really, willing to compose songs and dance sparkly dances to get the job of her dreams.
As a storyteller, Gelfenbien has very wisely accepted the notion that, when it comes to ridiculous and funny, you can't beat real life. "I couldn't make this stuff up," she says, as she stands looking at actual pictures of herself at graduation—in a cap and gown complete with Wienermobile tassel. This self-deprecation and the wealth of hilarious anecdotes that necessarily arise from driving a 27-foot hot dog are the bread and butter (or relish?) that Gelfenbien uses to craft such an entertaining night of theatre. You'll surely enjoy yourself, and you'll get a hot dog whistle!!!
Written/created by: Robin Gelfenbien
Directed by Jeremy Gold Kronenberg
Presented by Hot Dog Productions
Dreadful Penny's Exquisite Horrors
reviewed by Jo Ann Rosen
Aug 13, 2008
FringeNYC offers all sorts of surprises. In Dreadful Penny's Exquisite Horrors, a series of cabaret/circus-type sketches written by Alexandra Herryman and the ensemble of Tantalus Theatre Group, the surprise comes in the form of noir-ish and violent subject matter.
The performance begins with Dreadful Penny, an evil emcee who is "intent on drawing the hidden monster out of each audience member, thus bringing them under her dominion, ultimately devouring the world itself." This mission is, thankfully, too ambitious, or I might have found myself in the middle of a Zimbabwe- or Darfur-lookalike—much more than I had bargained for when I entered the Spiegelworld tent. A magician, a dancer, a singer, a heroine, and a freak assist Dreadful Penny in tapping into buried, dark desires.
It begins innocently enough. Jennifer R. LaTurner gives Penny an evil swagger. As one of her minions, Audrey Klein's singer is menaced during her performance, and blinded by flashing lights. Toni Machi, as the magician, interacts with the audience with a polished card trick and a modified rabbit trick, but quickly reverses the tone by inserting a six inch nail through her arm. Machi moves with confidence throughout. Amy Sherman is a sadistic heroine, and Mike Simmer is convincing as a freak longing for love. Erin Rigik, dressed in a kimono, performs a tortured strip tease, struggling with increasing frustration at removing her bindings: obi, kimono, garters, and stockings. Most clothes removed and exhausted, the character collapses, clawing at her arms and drawing blood. But to what end?
The troupe claims to appeal to an audience's deepest desires—assuming those desires are dark, naughty, and/or violent—as Penny asks, "How far are you willing to go to get what you want?" For some, it is drawing blood—thankfully, not real, but the demonstration made me gasp. For others, it's body and soul. They up the nastiness ante with each sketch. To make this work the story must be very strong. However, there is no plot, only an increasing amount of horror and humiliation. If the troupe intends this to be tongue-in-cheek, there must be some humor, however dark. Gratefully, the actors are not entirely into their roles. For that, I was actually thankful. In the end, I was simply uncomfortable.
Written/created by: Alexandra Herryman with Ensemble
Directed by Glen Cullen and Parrish Morgan
Presented by Tantalus Theatre Group NFP
Becoming Britney
reviewed by Robert Weinstein
Aug 12, 2008
If you've even glanced at the headline of a newspaper or the cover of a glossy magazine in the last ten years, the contents of Endless Supply Productions' musical Becoming Britney will come as no surprise, even in the midst of the liberties the show takes with the context.
A bald Britney Spears shows up at a rehabilitation center called "Promises, Promises," which bills itself as a "PR fixery and Spirit Spa." It is a spa that caters to the young, the beautiful, and the mildly troubled. The group sessions, all conducted in song, are guided by a woman called "The Moderator" who in true Oprah fashion (or is it Kabbalah? Scientology?) dispenses pop culture platitudes designed to lead these lost souls on the path toward personal contentment. At her first appearance, Britney is asked to recount her tale.
It's all there: her humble beginnings, growing up poor under the stern rule of a domineering mother; the chastity of her Mouseketeer years (keep an ear out for an invisible Christina Aguilera cameo); her sudden breakout into international stardom; her relationship and public breakup with Justin Timberlake; her courtship and eventual marriage to Kevin Federline ("You and I will fly on gobstopper wings!"); the birth of her two children; the dissolution of her marriage and her pantyless descent into the barber's chair.
It's a production ripped straight from the headlines, brought to life by the wit of Molly Bell and Daya Curley—who wrote the book, music and lyrics—and the virtuosity of its phenomenally talented cast, who dig into their multiple roles with smarts and vitality. The ensemble plays well together, shifting effortlessly from role to role. Director Daya Curley elicits fine performances from all involved: Riette Burdicks plays Britney's mother as a gum-chewing hurricane; Keith Pinto endows K-Fed with a whimsy Mr. Federline would be wise to take note of; Sean Grady morphs nicely from character to character, and his brief stint as a homeless man actually made me queasy; someone should give Carrie Madsen a starring role in her own sitcom tout de suite; Alison Ewing dazzles in everything she does; and Molly Bell forgoes the flattery of imitation and creates a Britney as a force of nature, a dim queen of all she surveys who thrives on the surety of her fame. In a clever bit of staging, Bell lip-syncs all of Britney's recorded "hits" (Becoming Britney contains 13 original songs—the "hits" are interpretations) but don't be fooled. Molly Bell's got a strong set of pipes. She can also dance. And act up a storm. She commands the stage.
Becoming Britney bills itself as a "snarky musical adventure" and I have to disagree. It's a production that oozes sass but lacks bite. It says nothing about the sensation of her fame, offers little insight into the forces that guide her popularity, and the characters sometimes lack dimension and drive. It's an enjoyable interpretation of her life as distilled through a conventional musical form, but to achieve a level of snark, it needs to sharpen its teeth.
From the program notes, I gathered that it is a piece that has developed over time and its inclusion in the New York International Fringe Festival marks it as a work in progress. If so, I look forward to seeing what it becomes.
Written/created by: Molly Bell & Daya Curley
Directed by Daya Curley
Presented by Endless Supply Productions
Trees Like Nails
reviewed by Edward Elefterion
Aug 13, 2008
There's a body in the woods behind the 7-Eleven. Various characters discover or are related to her. Ultimately, her demise at the end is supposed to be poignant, but Trees Like Nails never penetrates the clichés that make up its world. Though described both as a drama and a comedy, it is neither moving nor funny.
There's not much of a plot to Trees Like Nails. In fact, the title is the only really intriguing element of the production. I can't tell you what it means but it's an interesting simile. I can tell you that playwright Will Snider is interested in familial relationships, with two pairs of siblings making up four of his six characters (seven if you include the body, who does occasionally stir and moan for help). Snider also seems to be interested in violence, as there's a good amount of stage combat required of the production. But neither theme is ever developed. Maybe Snider's stereotypically dreary suburb is the overriding theme that is supposed to hold everything together, but it doesn't. His suburb is dull and the thinly drawn adolescent stereotypes that live there are equally tiresome.
The play opens with Robbie a "retard," played with energetic innocence by Jack Moore, leading his not-so-big brother Frank, played like a schoolyard bully by Josh Breslow, to something "really pretty" he found in the woods. (Sarah Hartmann played the "really pretty" body in the woods at the performance I attended; apparently there are two actors who alternate in the role.) Next we meet RayRay, the body's boyfriend and cuckold, who soon drowns his sorrows with Wild Turkey and pukes to prove it. (Yes, on stage. Fortunately, this happened on the floor so close to the audience that I, sitting in the last row, didn't actually see it happen...but did walk by it on my way out of the theatre.) Thomas Anawalt clearly has fun playing RayRay and makes the most out of the disgust he feels when his precocious younger sister, Tracy, asks him to kiss her on the lips. Cally Robertson keeps Tracy from becoming whiney but she still has to play her as the preteen who wants sexual attention from boys (even if it's her brother), quickly going into the woods to "see something cool" with a bad boy who manhandles her within minutes of meeting her. Then there's the final pair of caricatures, the thinnest of the bunch: Ford and Greg. Ford distributes drugs, Greg pushes them. David Gerson as Ford uses his natural physical bulk to play the violent thug who puts Greg in his place by smacking him and taking his cell phone away from him, which might be funny if it was of any real importance to either character. Kendale Winbush is refreshing as Greg, playing his part with a measure of subtlety. But what exactly is his role in the story? How are this duo connected to the girl in the woods? Let's just say that the pretty body got around quite a bit and must've been just as bored as everyone else in the play to spend so much time getting high and misbehaving behind the 7-Eleven.
Deanna Weiner's direction is as flat as the script, and the lighting design, also by David Gerson, wouldn't look half as bad if the actors could find a way to stay away from the dark areas. Gerson gives them lots of light to play in, but somehow they manage to straddle the edge of it, effectively cutting their heads off in the shadows.
The cast should be lauded, however, for approaching the material with such commitment. As an ensemble, their energy and belief in the play are what keep it alive.
Written/created by: Will Snider
Directed by Deanna Weiner
Presented by Maggie's Farm Theater Company
Thumbelina: The Story of a Brave Little Girl
reviewed by Matthew Trumbull
Aug 12, 2008
Elephant Ensemble Theater brings free theatre to children in New York City hospitals, but their current adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fable, Thumbelina: The Story of A Brave Little Girl, can be caught by children of all ages as part of the FringeJR series at this year's festival. And it should—everybody has a good time in this little audience participatory nugget. In fact, I was far and away the youngest child in the audience at Tuesday afternoon's show, and Reagan was president when I was last able to count my age on two hands. Kudos to the cast for their determination to keep the audience young that afternoon by insisting on audience participation anyway—Christine Seisler, the managing director of the company playing Mama and the narrator, led most of this, and she got us tired New Yorkers to scream "Quiet Down!!" at creepy-crawly noisemakers in the swamp, and clap for Thumbelina's dance until a super-giant French spider was outwitted. It was an adorable and completely heroic achievement on her part.
Thumbelina is a simple tale, even by children's theatre standards, but it's a winner in the hands of this ensemble. The eponymous heroine (Mollie Lohinski), the tiny adopted daughter of Mama, takes a rest one day on a leaf able to hold her daintiness quite comfortably. She is suddenly kidnapped by the hilarious Froggy Mom, who sounds like a Brooklyn yenta (Cheri Haller), for marriage to her dimwitted son Frog Boy (the rubber-faced, delightfully goofy Christopher Van Jura), and her escape sets her on an intrepid journey through a woods full of peril and new friends who help her find her home and Mama's arms again.
The petite Lohinski is a plucky jewel as Thumbelina, a little heroine who truly can inspire children in all the best ways. She never loses hope or belief that anything is possible, and never believes naysayers who try to keep her down because she is smaller and younger. At the same time, there is a guitar-carrying, Liverpool-accented beetle (Haller again) who gives her the play's wise, winking little theme in the woods: "We get by with a little help from our friends." Even Thumbelina can't do it alone; she gets much interaction from the audience when she asks for it, and also from various creatures played with creative flair by Haller and Van Jura, who each man a coat stand upstage when they are not in the action, containing their cute, simple costume elements.
Kids will adore Haller and Van Jura's wild menagerie of beasts and the warm maternalism of Seisler's Mama, and will want to be BFFs with Lohinski as Thumbelina. Director/writer Liza Lentini has crafted a production of Andersen's tale that engages youngsters without condescension, and it's a great, humorous story about staying positive and believing in yourself—good advice at any age.
Written/created by: Liza Lentini
Directed by Liza Lentini
Presented by Elephant Ensemble Theater
Boots
reviewed by Sara Thigpen
Aug 10, 2008
Boots, by Giacondo Trevellini, is an intriguing bit of storytelling. Part traditional folktale, part Greek tragedy, Boots attempts to layer these storytelling methods to elevate a personal journey of discovery to the status of myth—a compelling idea that mostly satisfies, but finishes more academically than viscerally.
The pre-show strains of bluegrass and simple set of crates and cinder blocks create an earthy, cozy atmosphere. But as the lights dim, frantic whispers of an oncoming threat build and we realize this peaceful place is under attack. A young woman struggles with a faceless man, and as he departs, a conventional prologue of elevated verse unfolds and we discover "The Eastern Man" has declared war on this mythic Green Mountain for generations.
We also learn that out of the aforementioned act of violence, Tiny is born. And the young woman, Pyra, unable to endure her state or the sight of her child, leaves him in the care of Lem, a plain-talking and secretive war hero on Green Mountain, and then takes her own life. Pyra transforms into the vengeful spirit who periodically returns to narrate the overwrought mythical portions of the play, espousing fate as man's destiny. What follows illustrates, with the aid of some very effective mask work, the ancient warfare of these tribal people, all the while relating this larger story to the more personal tale relayed by Tiny, his caretaker Lem, and the beautiful, young, Jule as they seek to fulfill their desires and strive to exercise their free will and change the bleak outcome detailed in the myth.
The dialogue in the present-day sequences is wonderful: simple, fluid, and straightforward. Tiny's coming-of-age story, though not new, seems fresh in the hands of these capable actors. Clifford Rivera, in particular, imbues Lem with an unassuming command that solidly grounds the play. Especially poignant in writing, staging, and performance is Lem's advice to Tiny once the boy chooses his path: "Don't let it sneak up on you." A desperate plea that is lost on the young, rash Tiny.
The poetic narrative is more difficult as it seems unnecessary. Perhaps it is the limitations of the space that keep these passages from full realization. There were also, I believe, some technical difficulties as the show progressed. Scene changes were made in full stage light making it difficult to tell if the blurring of characters and plot lines was meaningful. In the production I saw, it simply appeared to be a mistake.
This did not diminish my enjoyment of the fine work I saw. The show is well-paced and presents a bracing viewpoint in regard to war, that those who participate aren't always manipulated by propaganda or politics, but by his/her own natural inclination, warring passion and compassion.
Written/created by: Giacondo Trevellini
Directed by Michael Petranek
Presented by Migrant Productions
beast: a parable
reviewed by Mark DeFrancis
Aug 12, 2008
beast: a parable is a total surprise—and a good one at that. Playwright/director J. Julian Christopher has taken the overdone "two mismatched lovers in a bed" theme and turned it on its ear in a smart, juicy show with a great twist ending. That being said, it will be very hard to illustrate the particular joy of this piece without discussing the final moments, but you'll just have to trust me that it's well worth the trip. Check out beast if you get the chance so we can actually talk about it.
Having an interracial affair with a racist is tough. Marcus, a frustrated black man, is caught up in a jet-fueled affair with neo-Nazi Julia and surprise, all is not well. Julia, played by Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson, sports a swastika on her chest and a series of racist arguments for every minority except African Americans. Marcus, performed by Dennis A. Allen, seems obsessed, however, with hearing her degrade him and maybe even drop the N word. They proceed to play out a game filled with booze, lust, and fetish which is eye-opening and compelling. Christopher is to be commended for finding and developing the right chemistry in his work. Though at times their physicality seems awkward, the couple is well-matched. Allen brings a powerful stage presence, great range, and has the good sense to choose his moments and make them count. Horn-Gibson brings less refinement, crafting a battered, embittered cynic who is both disarming in her frankness and sympathetic in her weakness.
Christopher knows what he is doing, and while a good part of this play seems to be trading in hackneyed messages about the contemporary racist and the problems of a rampant affair, it turns out to be a setup for a statement which digs far deeper and reveals an honesty that leaves its audience asking all the right questions. On top of that, concise writing ensures that this piece is under an hour in length. There isn't much more to say except that beast is a great choice for your FringeNYC-going this year.
Written/created by: J. Julian Christopher
Directed by J. Julian Christopher
Presented by three monos ensemble
III
reviewed by Anthony Pennino
Aug 13, 2008
III— a new play by Joe Salvatore about the true ménage-a-trois between Glenway Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, and George Platt Lynes—has premiered this month at FringeNYC. Play and production are both quite strong. Nonetheless, there is room for this script to grow.
Salvatore has created three extremely complicated, complex, and flawed individuals in his piece. Each character resonates; each portrayal is heartfelt. This a play of three equals. The cast is an incredible ensemble with the playwright playing Wescott, John Del Vecchio playing Wheeler, and Daryl Embry playing Lynes. It would do a disservice to this ensemble to point one out over the other two; all serve the play and serve it well. The playwright has taken on a third hat as director and has provided the audience with a highly polished production despite the space and time limitations at FringeNYC. The production is given ample support by the design team: Emily Stork (lighting and projection design), Troy Hourie (scenic design), Traci DiGesu (costume design), and Benjamin Johnson (sound design).
The world of these three men—what Wheeler beautifully and almost tragically insists on calling a "family"—is especially well realized. That notion that these three men are a family is the beating heart of the play. However, it is when this world in small reacts with the world at large that I think there can be improvement. A strong play can be made stronger.
I believe III to be true to the essence of Wescott, Wheeler, and Embry. But it is not true to their world. There is a post-Woodstock informality that is present in the characters' style of speech, diction, bearing, and public demeanor. (Fortunately, a campiness in the early scenes quickly evaporates.) The stakes for these three men living their very unique lifestyle—a lifestyle that would raise numerous eyebrows even in today's "tolerant" world—must have been exceedingly high. To be living in a society that would disapprove of them so must have weighed on them almost constantly. And, yet such stakes are only hinted at here or there: a board member at MoMA threatens to have Wheeler removed from his position at the museum. The possibility that Wheeler could be fired is an extremely important crossroads for that character, and yet the matter is left unresolved. Yes, there would have been supportive elements, but most of society would have, at best, been disdainful of them. The play moves from 1919 and 1943. During that time, both the Great Depression and World War II occur. Surely, some element of these two cataclysmic events must have intruded on their lives. Writing a period piece is a juggling act of knowing what historically is helpful and what historically simply gets in the way. Often I could not connect these three individuals with their own time; they were far too contemporary. I believe a more rigorous adherence to the mores and manners of the time as well as the ebb and flow of historical events would serve the piece well. Though most scripts would benefit from judicious cuts, I believe this play would benefit from judicious expansion.
Regardless of the above, III is an extremely worthy addition to this year's FringeNYC. If you have only a couple of Fringe shows to see, make sure one of them is III.
Written/created by: Joe Salvatore
Directed by Joe Salvatore
Presented by joes & co.
Paper Dolls
reviewed by Joshua Chase Gold
Aug 13, 2008
Paper Dolls, which had its debut tonight at the Players Theatre, gives its audience a roller coaster ride through the world of scandal and tabloid journalism. When the tables turn on New York City gossip columnist Claire Cunningham, she and her brother Austin, a grown-up former child star, become targets of ridicule. Throw in Claire's ex-assistant, Tammy, and Austin's one-night-stand-turned-girlfriend, Isabel, and this mixed bag of nuts is an interesting one to watch.
Playwright Patrick Huguenin, a gossip columnist in his own right, provides us with a glimpse into the lippy world of "fabulous" New York. Complete with Madonna references and gay jokes, Huguenin's dialogue is charming and rather well written. The funny happenings and silly antics deliver a likable evening. While the dialogue is immediate and moves at a nice pace, I found the story itself lacking a bit. When Claire starts to rage against her brother and the plot begins to thicken with bizarre twist after twist, I found myself beginning to wonder if the show would have been better ending 20 minutes earlier. While I was entertained by this world of scandals and gossip, it seemed that the script fell short of anything beyond the surface level; after all, the "plight" of the waspy gossip columnist was a hard one to care for at the end of the evening.
Led by director Gaye Taylor Upchurch, the cast offers several nice performances. The standout of the evening is Isabel, played by Ashley Morris. Irresistible to watch and delectable to listen to, Morris's performance combines outlandish hilarity with some genuinely beautiful moments. Siblings Claire and Austin, played respectively by Jen Jamula and Billy Magnussen, have nice chemistry together. Jamula's Claire is reserved and well put together, but never once did I see any flickering that would lead me to believe this woman would be capable of writing the biting things she does. Magnussen warmed up into his performance and was most effective when he had the opportunity to share intimate moments of honesty with his castmates. Allison Goldberg's Tammy, Claire's ex-assistant, nicely shows us an annoying glimpse into the kind of people who feel entitled to success, fame, and money.
Although when all was said and done I was not really sure what to take away, or what Huguenin's message was, Paper Dolls is an amusing display of infidelity, greed, jealousy, and wit.
Written/created by: Patrick Huguenin
Directed by Gaye Talyor Upchurch
Presented by Lively Prod./Metropole Ink
Big Thick Rod
reviewed by Michael Criscuolo
Aug 11, 2008
Stanton Wood's dark comedy, Big Thick Rod, begins and ends with a business transaction. Not quite what one expects from a play that features a sexually insatiable wood nymph and her well-endowed handyman. Then again there's nothing predictable about Wood's script—which views all couplings as exploitative business partnerships—or the entertaining streamlined production it gets from Rabbit Hole Ensemble. Director Edward Elefterion employs his trademark minimalist style to great effect, emphasizing the play's themes with little more than Avery Lewis's simple yet evocative light design and a uniformly excellent cast, and comes up with a production that enhances the script's inherent theatricality while cruising along at warp speed.
The trouble begins when Elmer, an uptight lawyer, tells his new bride, Cricket, that they'll have to scale back their current level of sexual activity (approximately 8-9 times a day) to something more manageable (like once a month). Since she's a mythical nymph from the forest, whose charismatic appeal is linked to her voracious sexual appetite, this doesn't sit well with her. So she hires both a kindly gardener, Jerome, and the title character, a wood-chopping he-man who dreams of being a gigolo, to service her. When Elmer catches wind of Cricket's escapades, he cuts off her spending allowance and tells her to have sex like everybody else does—for free. She replies, "I can't ask people to screw me for a hobby. It's a full-time job." Faced with the prospect of impending celibacy, Cricket comes up with a unique solution that starts even more trouble. To say more would ruin Big Thick Rod's many surprises.
As mentioned before, Wood creates a world governed by exploitation and contracts. Elmer tells Cricket right at the start, "Marriage is a contract...It's a legal procedure." Such an outlook would be quite caustic if the play weren't so funny. Wood's keen sense of humor tempers the play's darker undertones and makes them go down smooth. When Elmer urges Cricket to join the law firm's book club, she asks if (and how often) they have sex. "It's a book club, not an orgy," he tells her. Later, after his patience has been tried to the limit, Elmer tells Cricket that she makes "Caligula look like Mister Rogers!" Another character who inexplicably grows a third arm (yep, you read that correctly) laments, "I look like I'm permanently asking for change." Bon mots like those are strewn throughout Big Thick Rod.
The cast does a terrific job putting this material over by playing it totally straight. To single anyone out would be pointless since all the actors are terrific. So let me just say that the show's five-person cast—Arthur Aulisi (Elmer), Matt W. Cody (Big Thick Rod), Tatiana Gomberg (Cricket), Emily Hartford (Burgermeister, a gender-ambiguous businessperson), and Dan Ajl Kitrosser (Jerome)—is giving one of the best ensemble performances in town right now and you should go see them do it.
Written/created by: Stanton Wood
Directed by Edward Elefterion
Presented by Rabbit Hole Ensemble
Meanwhile, in Baghdad...
reviewed by Debbie Hoodiman Beaudin
Aug 11, 2008
In Meanwhile in Baghdad, writer Josh Cole weaves together the experiences of six characters affected by a war between the United States and Iraq. The twist? The war takes place on U.S. soil, so Baghdad enjoys relative peace while the conflict in the U.S. is in danger of escalating into civil war.
The play alternates scenes among a pair of Baghdad newscasters, a detainee and a soldier, and two men on a subway platform in Baghdad. As the play progresses, the newscasters use the language of war we've become accustomed to—"insurgents," "factions," "sectarian violence"—and they speak about how the war is getting progressively worse. The multimedia team, Graham Johnson, Lisa Lucas, Wyatt Maker, and Justin Leahy, have created video to simulate newscasts on location in America, from Chicago, for example, where students must fight to get an education. The two men on the subway platform philosophize—between announcements about "suspicious packages" and "remaining alert"—about the pros and cons of the war on terror. The soldier talks to the detainee about the emotional toll the war has taken on him.
There is a lot about this piece that works. The structure of alternating among the settings allows the action to build in each scene and makes it easier to make connections among the various ideas and characters. The playwright successfully uses the language, images, jargon, and clichés of the current war, and setting the conflict on American soil allowed me to see the war from a kind of distance, which I am pretty sure was Cole's intention. The actors, under the direction of Nick Leavens, make up a fine ensemble.
The big problem I had with the piece, however, is that there is a whole lot of talking going on, especially between the two men on the platform, and not enough action, not enough of a plot, though the soldier character has more of a story line than the others. Maybe Cole took on too much for an hour-long play, and wasn't able to develop a strong storyline for all of the characters. Maybe his intention is just to give the audience a different perspective by asking us to imagine that it's a war on American soil. Another confusing point about the piece is that while the soldier makes a point of saying that the detainee doesn't understand what he's saying because it's a foreign language, they both speak in English. While I could intellectually imagine that the characters did not understand one another, I had trouble experiencing that without some kind of convention to show it.
Overall, I do appreciate that the play asks audience members to consider the war from a new perspective, and I admire Cole's desire to work with this material. I think he could make the work stronger, perhaps by choosing to focus on two of the characters and giving them a clearer story.
Written/created by: Joshua Cole
Directed by Nick Leavens
Presented by Coleavens Industries