Border Crisis (review)

Spoilers ahoy!  

Regular followers of this blog will know how much I admire City Garage as one of the best theatre companies in the greater Los Angeles are (technically the company's home lies in Santa Monica).  I have never felt disappointed even by the least impressive pieces performed here

That has not changed.

Border Crisis is, as stated on the poster, an absurdist comedy by Charles A. Duncombe based on The House on the Border by Polish writer Stawomir Mrozek.  As per usual it remains very topical, especially portraying an increasingly authoritarian situation which overwhelms a seemingly very ordinary family, literally turning their home into a multizone militarized area, with armed guards demanding paperwork for leaving or entering pretty much any room, or part of a room.

At its best, this polemic works very well.  The Father (Bo Roberts) and The Mother (Martha Duncan) oversee a rebellious Son (Justin Parrish) and mediaphile Daugher (Hilary Kang Oglesby) while a grumpy Grandfather (Andy Kallock) and kindly optimistic Grandmother (Geraldine Fuentes) comment about goings on.  Things seem normal enough.  The Father celebrates how the whole family is together, and how they'll all be fine as long as they don't get involved in anything.  At all.  Ever.

Everything changes--as of course it must--as the government Representatives arrive, first demanding the use of this house for unspecific but wildly important negotiations.  Once completed, the Leader (offstage) gives a rousing speech to a large crowd outside, rambling about the evil of outsiders, followed by the arrival of Guards who explain there are New Rules--but not much about what these rules might be.  The Grandmother is almost immediately dragged off, since she is an alien--the numbers on her arm from last time prove it.  No reprieve.  She ends up in a some sweltering camp, with no idea as to her location.  Soon food becomes increasingly scarce.  The Son and Daughter manage to escape.  He eventually ends up joining a government-sponsored militia whose job it is to beat up and harass whoever looks as if they don't belong.  She, the seemingly least likely one, actually does join the Resistance--a secret but utterly impotent group more concerned with their own factions than getting anything at all done.  The Father and Mother try to simply endure, while Grandfather is literally dragged off for treason, being solemnly told rights and due process are not for criminals.  In the end, as the married couple sit alone in what was once a nice home, they take comfort with each other--until the sound of warfare, tanks and soldiers, approach.  The Mother realizes they are about to die, while the Father exults that the Leader's Golden Age is about to arrive!  

All this good stuff.  I should mention here all the government officials, from the almost cartoon "Diplomats" to the scary Agents in suits and sunglasses to the incompetent Guards are portrayed by the same two actors--Angela Beyer and Gifford Irvine.  They steal every single moment they are on stage, not only because their characters represent genuine threats, but their own presences which gives them so much power.  Both actors have shared scenes  before many times at City Garage and it shows.

Herein lies my caveat.  The Family ultimately don't elicit much sympathy.  One feels bad for them, but one's heart does not break.  Quite simply, they as the protagonists are not as interesting as the antagonists.  While some might argue they aren't supposed to be extraordinary, my own view is the ordinary can be interesting, can and should feel very real, very individual, and should engage our emotions--especially as they begin to suffer.  This barely happens.  It does happen, and the ending in particular delivers a gut punch.  But it feels abstract.  The message comes through, vividly, but not as powerfully as it could.  

Which is a nuance, because the whole point of this play is the Message.  Which is indeed delivered, enough I actually flinched.  Nor was I the only one in the audience to my certain knowledge.

And that nuance is my only real criticism, so bravo/brava to everyone including Director Frederique Michel.

Border Crisis plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 4pm until December 13, 2025 at the Bergamot T1 Space, 2525 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404

Golden Age (review)

 Spoilers Ahoy!

Parody too often consists of just mockery.   The best parody, though, comes from a place of love, a la Galaxy Quest or What We Do In The Shadows.

Golden Age by Thomas J. Misuraca is a loving parody of super heroes.  Essentially the notion here focuses on some elderly superheroes, now in a retirement home, who find themselves under threat by an equally senior supervillain and must rouse themselves to act.

Clearly, this is a fun idea.  Very fun.  The potential here is pretty vast.

Much of that potential is achieved, but not all to be fair.  And comedy being a very delicate thing, any time the humor strikes the wrong chord or misses out on just the right timing, it falls flat.

Fortunately, a lot of the humor does land, and more importantly the essential story works.  The last three original members of the Power Heroes--who are not only still alive but fully aware rather than comatose--are Power Man (super strength and super senses), Lightning Lex (superspeed), and Mighty Girl (super strength and endurance).  The former uses a walker now, while the middle is in a wheelchair.  We also meet Kirby another residents at the retirement home who has donned a mask, taking the monicar "Mask Man" and wants to join them, clearly at least in part out of romantic interest in Mighty Girl--who reciprocates his attraction.  Much to the grumbling dissent of the others.

But then their old nemesis Mr. Malevolent (hypnosis and can fire electricity) checks in to the very same retirement home, with a very dastardly plot in his diabolical mind!  Adding to all this is Ruthie a very curmudgeonly resident, and Nurse Candy who falls under Mal's spell, becoming his eager Minion (she steals every scene she's in, going for syrupy sweet to delightedly cruel in a stunning about face).

Overall the cast does a good job--Jennifer Ashe, Elyse Ashton, Dennis Delsing, Barbera Ann Howard, Ignacio Navarro, David Brent Tucker, Richard Van Slyke, and Heather Vazquez.  Honestly, the script could use another draft or two, because while the jokes are fine the interplay of characters and backstory are more interesting, yet end up under-developed.  What is there is good, but leaves one wanting a lot more (one reason the second act is so short).  Director Aurora Culver probably approached this challenge as well as could be.  

So, an entertaining show in a genre we don't see in live theatre nearly as often as I myself would like!

Golden Age plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm until November 22, 2025 at Sawyer’s Playhouse, 11031 Camarillo St, North Hollywood, CA 91601

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt 2B (review)

 Spoilers ahoy

I owe the lovely (and having met them, I can attest they are indeed lovely) folks at the International City Theatre a profound apology.  After attending opening night, I became seriously distracted--by what does not matter--and did not check when the production was scheduled to end.

Hence this review is late.

Which is utterly terrible.  My deepest apologies.  Frankly if ICT stopped issuing invitations I could not blame them one atom.

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt 2B by Kate Hamill is precisely the kind of re-imagination I usually enjoy intensely.  The rough notion is to take the premise of the t.v. show Sherlock (i.e. adapt the Conan Doyle characters to modern London) and then change the genders of the leads to female.  What one might fear--namely a retread--is exactly what this play is not.  The characters, while recognizable, are as distinct as any other iteration of the Great Detective.  More, there is a wild, almost farcical, at times manic energy to the whole thing which felt refreshing.  When the comedy worked, it worked very well.  More, and I cannot emphasize this enough, by the time we get to Act Two, we enter into a much more substantial story about these two characters, their sometimes-troubled relationship, what they mean to one another, exactly what each gets from the other, etc.  

Honestly, there is a problem with consistency of tone.  Combining what teeters on Monty Python with a more sincere exploration of character is a tricky balance.  This balance does not always work.  I found the prologue slightly off-putting, along with the meta references of the characters knowing they are in a play.  Don't object to the notion of either one.  Don't believe this script pulled it off.  But honestly, those make up a tiny amount of what we the audience experience.  

What I really loved in this show were the characters.  This Watson (Cheryl Daro)--and why she is not called a doctor in the title honestly baffles me a tiny bit--proves to be a shell-shocked former Type A personality with a curious savant talent I'm not going to reveal here.  Yet it is very interesting, as well as very thematically on target!  The fact she appears all in leather at her first entrance was a theatrical breath of fresh air!  Watson is so often portrayed as the stuffiest of stuffy Englishmen, one is thrilled a little bit to see a rebellious but complex American.  This version of Sherlock Holmes (Sarah Wolter) is a little bit more mainstream, other than the gender-bending--which is nicely part of the play--but with the arrogance dialed up to eleven, and a manic energy which becomes an almost James Bond-esque smoldering sexuality once she meet Irene Adler (Tamarra Graham).  Love here is a Holmes and Watson never seen before!

I also want to praise not only Graham but also Brian Stanton, who together play at least six different characters, switching up so well it adds to the gleeful fun of the production.  Honestly, everyone is doing a fine job and kudos to director Amie Farrell for selecting this cast.

Still, the whole thing felt a little too erratic in tone, style, and sometimes in terms of character development--this last being my favorite part.  The plot is fun, even if it doesn't really take off until Act Two, and a fun plot is by definition a very good thing.  Frankly, it felt to me a flaw in an otherwise very entertaining, clever, and ultimately moving play.

The International City Theatre makes a concerted effort to mount original plays and give startling insights we might not see elsewhere.  Which is another reason I feel the lateness of this review is a serious moral failing on my part.  I cannot but wish more folks had known about this production.