Happy No Year! (review)

Spoilers Ahoy!

The world premiere of Jon Christie's Happy No Year marks my introduction to this playwright, his company, the cast and also the Missing Piece Theatre in Burbank.

Having been invited to the show by someone I know on Facebook, I honestly had zero notion what the play's subject matter might be. The only clue seemed its title, which pretty clearly hinted at comedy. Correctly, as it turned out.

A comedy, a fantasy, a love story and as it turns out a murder mystery. In fact watching this show brought all kinds of others to mind unbidden. One of these was Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton's film--mostly because of the play's central conceit.  Each character is a human being somehow put in charge and responsible for a particular holiday. Pat (Ben Austen) for example embodies St. Patrick's Day. Hally (Cherami Leigh) is in charge of Halloween. Not too surprisingly, the former speaks with a brogue while getting drunk all the time, the latter on the other hand is always changing costumes. They join several of their fellows at the end of the year for the gala celebration given by Eve (Grace Birkita MacMillan) and her brother Dave (Felipe Figueroa), New Year's Eve and Day respectively.  Some of the holidays aren't present. Esther (Easter) ate too many chocolate bunnies and isn't feeling well. Indy (Fourth of July) is taking a vacation. And so on. Guests do include Puck (JR Ritcherson) in charge of April Fool's Day and a surprisingly lonely Val (David Lewis) who is Valentine's Day. But the "big" guest remains the bitchy diva Chris (Rachel Boller) i.e. Christmas, with her virtual servant Autumn (Tammy Olson), Thanksgiving. Not too surprisingly, the guests have their own issues with one another, from friendship to rivalry and the like. Eve and Chris loathe one another, but plenty of other emotions bubble to the surface.

Then the lights go out. A shot is fired. Someone has been shot! Or have they?

What follows is a fun enough murder mystery that doesn't take itself too seriously, with echoes of the motion picture CLUE as well as the musical Drood. All well and good. The entire cast is charming, the humor earns smiles at least and sometimes outright laughs. It clearly is intended as light fare, completely appropriate for the young and young at heart. But while the show achieves the goal of Fun it lacks the depth of really classic children's stories such as Peter Pan or How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Which may be unfair to say. After all, where is the justice in calling a given drama "not the equal of Hamlet?" On the other hand, had I really believed in this world and in the characters I'd've care more. A lot more. Thus would have enjoyed it far more. The script is nice. Light. Sweet and smile-inducing. Anyone who's ever attended comedies that never became funny will appreciate Happy No Year for its success in amusing. No small thing! But what interested me most were the most human elements, the surprises instead of the cliches. That it had such moments, such elements is frankly worthy of praise! Just wish there were more.

On the other hand, the cast did well and the show itself hits most of the marks it seems to be aiming for. It makes for a light sweet, a touch of whimsey with actually more human truth than one would expect, including some rather more complex relationships than is usual for a lot of successful t.v. shows for example. So I do recommend the show, while hoping the writer/director continues to hone his craft. He's a very young man, with hopefully lots of productions yet to come.

Happy No Year plays until December 20, 2014 at the Missing Piece Theatre 2811 West Magnolia, Burbank CA 91505. Tickets are $20 each.

Astroglyde 2014 (review)

Spoilers Ahoy!!!!

Zombie Joe's Underground has recurring series dubbed Astroglyde. Consisting of a series of short, one person plays performed by the authors, they nearly always show a wide range of human experience. Usually a very wide range. This year's installment surely is no exception.

Eight performer/writers this year. Paired up with five different directors.

1. World's Biggest Love directed by Roger K. Weiss has Matt DeNoto demonstrate a blend of the grotesque and hilarious with his almost trademarked sincerity that comes across as perhaps total madness. 

2. My Strength, directed by Adam Neubauer, gives us Jessica Weiner in what might be called the most conventional of the eight. She plays a woman getting ready to jump out of a plane. Why? Well, it has to do with her grandmother and if you want more details I recommend you see her perform.

3. Get Up, directed also by Weiss, has Abel Horwitz enact an interesting moment in time--one moment that makes our narrator travel back in his own mind to the all the key events which led to this horrible disaster.

4. On The Road, directed by Zombie Joe himself, enacted a tender story about a relationship. Jahel Corban Caldera shows skill in performance as well as what counts as a remarkably well structured tiny playlet.

5. The Pretender sees Erin Poland directed by Sebastian Munoz, a mini moment of contemplation about success and regret, ambition and hope. With some genuine razzle dazzle.

6. Unlikely Father has Mark Hein directed by Vanessa Cate, as a man helping his pregnant wife through labor. Amidst the tiredness and stress, some truths start falling out of his mouth. For better or for worse. Make that "and" instead of "or."

7. Fuck Death on the other hand deals with the opposite of birth, at least in some ways, as enacted by Ian Heath directed by Adam Neubauer. The monologue of an undertaker left alone to do some paperwork at the office--what he thinks, what he feels, what he dreams and does.

8. Esther has Zombie Joe direct Lara Fisher as Mrs. Santa Claus in a conversation with her new friend at Cantor's Deli. Technically, Fisher in particular does a fantastic job of listening to her non-existed fellow cast member!

This program offers variety, enough in terms of subject matter to please nearly anyone. I myself enjoyed the last three most of all, while others I've spoken with chose a different three. What earns my particular praise is the skill involved in bringing these mini-plays to life. Not one actor did anything but a fine job, often with funny and/or moving results. I understood every word (this is not small praise) not only in terms of diction but context. Each time the story came through loud and clear, and what I gazed upon seemed to be characters, not the actors portraying them.

As far as tastes go,  #1 and #7 are the most gloriously 'out there.' #8 and #2 seem in many ways the funniest without going really dark (#6 goes a bit dark indeed). #3 and #4 and #5 qualify as what most people would call "drama." #6 blends the outre and ordinary. #7 and #3 have the most tragedy, although #5 pulled at my heart.

Astroglyde plays at ZJU Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood CA 91601 (just north of Camarillo and across the street from KFC) Fridays at 8:30pm until December 19, 2014. Tickets are $15. Reservations can be made at (818) 202-4120 or by checking out ZombieJoes.tix.com

Flare Path (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

I can say a lot of things about Theatre40's production of Flare Path that opened this week. One involves the frustration of actually finding the theatre. Really, one has to enter via a parking garage. Another was anticipation at re-visiting a playwright I hadn't thought on for a long time (Terence Rattigan). But mostly I felt curiosity for the subject matter.At first, even the title remained a mystery. As it happens, a flare path consists of lamps laid out on landing strips to help pilots take off and land at night. The story deals with three RAF personnel during WWII, especially their family and friends before, during, then after a night raid. Each character faces the challenge of war, of danger and privation and the gnawing fear of death. They seek some kind of way, some guide with which to make choices. In this light (pardon the pun) the title becomes a perfect metaphor for the story.

Mind you, watching the play (written in 1940 while the author himself served in the RAF) felt a tad disorienting. During the intermission, I realized the presence of color startled me. The whole piece felt from a different era, one I expect to see in black and white.

This does not mean I was unaffected. Far from that! Rather I felt steadily, subtly drawn into these people's lives, with what amounts to a startling amount of forgiveness. Some really do seem appalling. Peter Kyle (Shawn Savage) in particular one rather expects to come across as a villain. He's a fading movie star, at the edge of losing his career forever. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, he fell for an actress Patricia (Christine Joelle) who has since married Teddy (Christian Pederson), an RAF pilot. Peter and Patricia have resumed their affair. He wants her to come away with him, insisting not only does he love her but needs her. The war leaves him untouched emotionally, for reasons he frankly admits escape him. When she speaks of "duty" his reaction is to scoff. "What does that mean" he asks? Yet such profound selfishness, such pettiness in midst of privation and war, ultimately inspires pity. This triangle, at the heart of the play, maintains--by writing no less than performance--a series of surprises, each making total sense. Patricia early on seems a subtle tower of strength compared to the men in her life. Her husband in particular seems a good enough chap, very stiff upper lip and full of the right sort of quips for every possible event. Salt of the earth, but shallow don't you know? Until the mask slips, after the raid, when exhausted beyond words he finally has a few moments alone with his wife. He'd even given us a hint earlier, accurately analyzing his wife's "friend" in terms of his being an "actor" but admitting we all put on an act. Seeing the real Teddy--traumatized, desperately lonely, literally sick with terror, fiercely determined to put his duty first--has the precise opposite impact he expects. That revelation echoes into the emotional lives of all around him, even those who never really learn of it.

Yes, I'm praising the cast quite a bit because writing only goes so far. Frankly the whole production seems meticulous, with a beautiful set (Jeff. K. Rack), wonderfully detailed period costumes (Michele Young) and some extremely effective sound design (Joseph "Sloe" Slawinski). Along with the cast I'm very impressed with the way everyone handled the dialects (kudos to Stuart James Galbraith), although to be brutally frank Karl Czerwonka did sound rather more Italian to my ear than Polish (not that I know much of what Polish sound like). But the relationship between him and his Countess Doris (Alison Blanchard) rings very true, an important thread and rhythm in the story.

The third RAF couple consists of Dusty (Caleb Slavens) and Maude (Annalee Scott), who really should in theory come across as the most stereotypical lower class Londoners but instead seem totally humane, totally real and individual. Rattigan's writing does this, but also so do the actors! Bottom line--I was moved by an extremely well-crafted play performed and executed by a very good cast and crew. Do I have any criticisms? A few, minor quibbles really. I did feel the whole show could use turning up half a notch. Granted, the whole very English thing of keeping powerful emotions under wrap tends to trip up most American actors, at least in my experience. But that is probably the only real critique I have to offer--namely that in theory it could possibly be better. Well, I can think of only two productions I've seen EVER where those words didn't apply (for the record--Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway with Alan Rickman in the 1980s, and Our Class at the Son of Semele here in LA). Personally, I'm left hoping to see more from Theatre40, having so thoroughly enjoyed this one.


Flare Path plays Friday, Saturday and Monday evenings at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm until December 15, 2014. The show is at Reuban Cordova Theatre on the campus of Beverly Hills High School (pay close attention to this last link because finding the theatre is very tricky). Tickets can be purchased here or by calling (310) 364-0535.

R&J (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

That seems like an odd thing to put in front of a review of Romeo and Juliet, doesn't it? Honestly. If you don't know the plot, where have you been?

Mind you, R&J from the Mine is Yours Theatre Company isn't quite Shakespeare's play. And yet it is. What these talented folks decided to do--reverse the genders of all the characters--makes for a startling re-imagination of a classic. Really, cannot give enough kudos for this. It makes arguably the Bard's most well-known tale quite fresh!

Let me note a few things right from the start, because this production deserves more than a simple "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" approach (not that I really write reviews like that, but never mind...) First, unlike Othello (which I reviewed earlier this month) Romeo and Juliet was penned early in Shakespeare's career. It makes for a less sophisticated, less complex and frankly less deep work. So when performed essentially "on the surface" in terms of just what you see at first glance, it works. It works better than his later plays, certainly. Too often I've seen later Shakespeare such as King Lear or Hamlet done as nothing more than story-telling, doing the plot pretty much and nothing else. That always feels shallow. But some of his early stuff, this works fine (like A Comedy of Errors for example).

R&J makes for a very straightforward story, albeit with a few traps. The biggest remains assigning blame to someone for the tragedy. But the whole point is that everyone is to blame, and no one. Our star cross'd lovers might have lived, had any one of a hundred things been different. Literally. Had Tybalt (Sarah Kata Watson) turned left instead of right. Had Capulet (Katherine James) discovered and welcomed Romea (Mary Ellen Schneider) at the party (as written one never gets the idea the head of either family encourages the feud at first). If a letter hadn't gone astray by sheer chance, or Benvolia (Hannah Pell) been delayed. At the very least what if Countess Paris (Hayley Brown) simply not been at Julien's (Paul Turbiak) tomb when Romea showed up? At heart, this play is about the tragedy, the cartharsis of feeling something going so wrong we must weep.

Make no mistake, this production hits the bullseye on that vital point. The beating, bleeding heart of the original lives and breathes on stage. So much so, when Romea put the poison to her lips I felt an intense desire she not do it--for the first time in seeing this play on many occasions.

Having written that, let me address a few problems. I see two. Both may seem subtle, but they do make a difference. First regards language. The cast does a very admirable job of almost always understanding the words they speak. Bravo for that! It remains remarkably rare in many such productions! Where they seem to have a problem is dealing with the elevated nature of some of the language. Most of the cast seems to want to avoid this, by pretending for example those rhyming couplets simply aren't there. But you cannot always do so, and sometimes a few of the actors who must speak in the most poetic manner fall back on a kind of airy mood, gazing upward with a sing-song shortness of breath which cannot help but feel fake.

Given the overall quality of the cast (which remains considerable) this sticks out like a sore thumb.

Second, in what world is this story taking place? I honestly don't know. The production didn't tell me, which indicates they hadn't really thought it through. Specifically, what are the gender roles of the society within which the tragedy takes place. From a few hints, I thought perhaps this was a matriarchy. And yet not one female character seems really strong, seemed to possess any kind of gravitas. As written, Verona is a state with rigid rules and enormous political power in the hands of a few, to the point of commanding absolute obedience with no possibility of appeal. Never got that sense. Likewise the males in the cast seemed to be bending over backwards to seem passive. But Shakespeare wrote strong female characters. Honestly very nearly the only strength (other than physical--the knife fights between women were great!) we saw now and then in the Nurse (Alan Blumenfield). Which I suppose is more of a comment on our own society than anything else...

Having said all that, let me reiterate--the cast overall did a very good job, and as far as enacting the soul of this tragedy, they hit a home run. I so hope I get to see more shows from this fledgling theatre company!

Mine is Yours' R&J has performances Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm & 7pm through November 17, 2014. Performances are at Theatre of Note at  1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90028.
Get tickets online at www.MineisYourstc.com! Tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for groups of eight or more (Discount Code: MIYGROUP).

Gravedigger (Review)

Spoilers Ahoy!

When viewing Gravedigger: Tales From The Grave, I had a sense of deja vu. This show, playing at Zombie Joe's Underground Theatre Group in NoHo, turned out to be written and directed by the same person responsible for the very first play I reviewed at ZJU--The Bloody Countess about Erzebet Bathori--Bea Egeto, whom I chatted with after the show.

This specific work continues with the grand guignol lite mode of the previous.  Images of real life horror, historical re-enactments, sans elaborate makeup and special effects.  But rather than follow one specific murderer we visit (with our robed host, who silently seems to fullfill the role of Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt or maybe Elvira from Movie Macabre) a whole slew of them.

The Black Dahlia. Jeffrey Dahmer. Jack the Ripper. Victims of the Witch Trials. Mary Seurat (hanged for the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln).

Photo Credit: Zombie Joe's Underground

Adding to this are more general "types' of violent murders, such as the wife poisoning her abusive husband or the bizarre events surrounding a seance, as well as (this was really disturbing) a man who commits suicide via asphyxiation. This last contained what I personally found the most poetically interesting moment in the whole piece. Recall The Gravedigger (Daniel Krause) hovers and sometimes participates in each scene. For this one, the grief-stricken man cannot quite bring himself to do the deed until our mute guide puts a hand on his shoulder, as if giving him what is needed to ease his pain.

Lovely as this is--and I really, really liked that detail--this both highlights what is best and what doesn't quite work in the show as a whole. First, we do have a wonderful cast, many of whom qualify as newcomers to ZJU. Alla Arutyunyan for example as Anne Frank (arguable the most famous "victim') was just one of a pretty stellar group of performers whom I was delighted to see for the first time. I at first felt a tad puzzled by Page Smith and Martin Mendez as a pair of clowns who periodically walked on stage and did a marvelous job--finally enacting a metaphor and pun in theme with the entire work. Likewise I really enjoyed seeing actors like Melissa Munoz, Sandy Sanchez, Sue Shaheen and John Hunt play their various roles, often with gusto and tiny flourishes.

Photo Credit: Zombie Joe's Underground

On a sidenote, I was amused and pleased to see Charlotte Bjornbak once again as Erzebet Bathori.

But honestly I found two overall problems with Gravedigger, neither of which make the show bad but do cut into its overall quality. One is subtle--a almost intangible lack of focus, which interrupted the performance's flow. Took at least fifteen minutes for everything to start to 'gel' into a whole, to gather a momentum I could feel and anticipate. Up until then, individual scenes felt like precisely that, rather than parts of a whole heading towards a climax. Although--let us be fair--the final scene enacting the Jim Jones Massacre proved compelling in the extreme, so much so I found it uncomfortable to watch. Kudos! (And I don't say that simply because Mark Hein, as Jones, is a friend of mine).

The second problem felt like a lack of sufficient depth with most of the vignettes. Already mentioned the (really quite beautiful in a macabre way) bit about the Gravedigger touching the suicide's shoulder. Likewise the Seance sequence, while baffling in terms of content (at least to me) , proved absolutely riveting because each single character felt real somehow. I didn't know what was going on, but they most certainly did! There was also the last words of one of Jack the Ripper's victims, which surprised me. Methinks that is the point. The best theatre, like the best storytelling in general, surprises while making perfect sense. Ultimately, I was only sometimes surprised, when to work best nearly all these scenes needed something to startle, to shock, to see events in a totally new light (or darkness).

Each scene that had such as surprise (a solid handful) kept my attention at least fives times as much as the rest. Which, to be fair, makes for a pretty good score in an hour-long performance.

Gravedigger has a limited 3-weekend run, with performances Fridays & Saturdays at 8:30pm, November 14, 15, and 22 then a special late-night Friday performance on Friday, November 21 at 11pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at ZombieJoes.Tix.com or you can call 818-202-4120.

Arguendo (Review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Given I live in Los Angeles, and left New York City in 1989, the founding of Elevator Repair Service passed me by. Now, thanks to the Redcat Theatre that omission stands corrected. To my great good fortune I had the opportunity to see Arguendo, which manages to turn a subject matter generally about as dry as the arid steppe of your choice into a delightful yet accurate depiction of our legal system.

Arguendo itself translates from Latin as "for the sake of argument." It follows, pretty much word for word, a legal case before the Rehnquist Supreme Court in 1991, Barnes v. Glen Theatre. In the loosest possible terms, the case involved whether an Indiana law banning public nudity applied to nude dancers, who at least in theory are expressing themselves artistically and therefore might be viewed as falling under first amendment protection. Other than the titillation factor, it sounds pretty dry doesn't it? Honestly, one walks in expecting the focus upon relationships between counsels or between Justices to be the focus.

But, no. Delightfully, theatrically, emphatically--no.

Instead we get the events, presented at least somewhat realistically, albeit with wit and an very clever sense of staging. The focus never really settles upon the characters so much as the legal process and arguments--the latter ultimately rendered very understandable to folks with no real legal training such as yours truly. This process itself becomes ever more fascinating and entertaining, not least because it becomes ever more surreal yet on-target. No small feat! Quite literally the ideas shape how the show throws every single telling detail into sharp relief. Attorneys for the plaintiff and defendant move with a podium on wheels, even as the Justices approach, encircle, back off, turn away, pace and more via their own wheeled chairs. More, this conceit intensifies as the seventy-minute show proceeds. At any one time, three or four actors portray all nine Justices, for example. Legal papers become props in a seeming clown show. In a legal case about strippers, small wonder somebody starts taking off their clothes, while the actions in (and by) the court turn into something between a dance and a rave!

My reaction? The same as the rest of the audience. Utter glee! Yet not just because of the silliness, though wonderfully silly it became. Rather at how the silliness remained a comment on the whole process, without taking much side in the actual legal case. Amid the laughter and grins, what Arguendo managed was to change our perception altogether. What could be more perfectly defining of Art?

At the end, the world of the play returned to what we might as well call "normal" with a simple humorous anecdote about Rehnquist and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Yet  we don't see it that way. Rather we see this tiny, even human event as the tip of an absurdist iceberg which governs our lives. Bravo.

One hardly even feels surprised when the U.S. Constitution joins the cast to take a bow...

Arguendo plays Sunday at 3pm at the Redcat Theatre, 631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. You can make reservations at (213) 237-2800. If you have a chance to see this show, either here or elsewhere (check out the group's website above) I strongly recommend you do so.

Othello (Review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Although, honestly, don't you know the story of Othello? Really? Okay, but still...

This last summer I had the great good fortune to see the Illyrian Players' production of Odessa as part of the Hollywood Fringe and felt gobsmacked.Upon learning they would round out their season with (honestly) my least favorite Shakspeare major tragedy, I looked forward to having my eyes opened.

I was not disappointed. Othello, one of the Bard's later works, demonstrates the ambiguity and mixed feelings of a mature writer. Not the relatively straightforward power of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night or Julius Caesar. No, in this one the plot emerges out of un-stated feelings and un-spoken events. Anyone who's seen more than one production of it can tell you how puzzled we feel about some unanswered questions. Why is Iago's doing this? What in the title character makes him so prone to such sudden and extreme jealousy? No less important--what lies behind Desdemona's behavior, which surely dooms her under the circumstances? More than any other production I've seen or read about, this one answers those questions! Nor in a vapid, surface way. From a dramaturg's point of view, it helps to recall Iago is a mature version of Richard III, the villain who seems to share his villainy with the audience, yet reveals so little of himself. Also let us recall by now Shakespeare had written his Sonnets to that mysterious "Dark Lady,' as well as recounting the madness of such characters as King Lear, Macbeth and Shylock. More, he'd looked at the world through a woman's eyes, especially in terms of Viola and Rosalyn.

Director Carly D. Wreckstein does much more than weave a story of individual passions and error. We see in this production an entire world, masked and sheathed in black and white. A world where color--especially blood red--must be washed away as soon as possible. Even the color in a hankerchef heralds death and destruction. This Venice embodies a habit of the inauthentic, which permeates every decision. And in creating world in particular I feel a need to praise Maggie Blake as both a Clown and as the Duke--two roles ever so appropriately shared in this production. Her Duke in particular, complete with Poirot-moustache and personal servant, sets the tone for this world, one of pageant "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." But praise goes to the entire ensemble for what they've brought on stage, including Emma Servant as Bianca as well as Richard Abraham as the dual role Brabantio/Gratiano.

But the leads tend to carry Shakespeare as well as other plays with large casts. Zach Brown is the title character, who manages to do what many actors cannot--both dignity and raw pain, and also manages to create specific rage on stage rather than general anger (esoteric as that sounds, it remains vital). Ironically enough, Zack Hamra plays Iago, one of the juiciest and most mysterious of the Bard's characters--a sociopath who seems somehow a little bit more. I found myself fascinated with how utterly sincere his Iago's lies came across, yet even more by the fact he didn't seem to be really enjoying himself at all. Rather, here was a man obeying his own demons, ones he did not understand. As with the rest of this show, no easy answers. Hence, very compelling theatre!

Ditto the two female leads (and yes, there are two). Katelyn Myer's Desdemona, no less than others in this weird mask-laden society, comes across as something she is not. Despite her dress, her seeming confidence, her courage this young lady remains naive to the point of self-destruction. Hers is the trust and faith without blemish. Little wonder she's not long for this world. Small wonder Othello adores her, in many ways worships her, and like her has so little emotional depth (honestly the pair of them are amazingly, mutually blind). Angela Sauer's Emilia gives that part its full potential weight for the first time in my experience. Not an accident that in this horrific tragedy that unfolds, so many tears as well as so much blood would have gone un-spilt had anybody asked for the low-born woman's counsel.
While I"m at it, allow me to praise costumer Katie Jorgenson (whom I have worked with and recommend highly anyway), lighting designer Colleen Dunleap as well as fight captain Micah Watterson. All the elements of this production wove together into a memorable performance, one that pleasantly taught me about a play which hitherto I had not understood. Kudos to everyone involved!

Othello plays Oct. 31 – Nov. 22, 2014 Fridays and Saturdays 8:00 pm in the Elephant Space at Theatre Asylum, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90038. Tickets are $20 (save on Nov. 7 which is Pay-What-You-Can) and you can make reservations here.