Theater Reviews: Joe's Garage, Sea Change, Fatboy

Corky Lee

Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

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More About

• Sarah Ruhl
• Dan Kwong
• NEST Performer Kristina Wong
• Stephen Leacock
• Frank Zappa

 
GO  SEA CHANGE This world premiere of Nick Salamone’s latest play offers an elegant study of enduring friendships among five friends (three gay men and two lesbians). From the spaced-out highlife of their youth in the ’70s to a sober, sadder and wiser middle age a quarter-century later, the quintet explores companionship, sensuality and love on a small fishing boat off Cape Cod. The boat’s owner, Gene (Ryun Yu), is outed as a future priest who’s sending his lover, Val (Nick Cimiluca), into a tailspin that spurs the entire group into a orgy of philosophy, pop psychology and nature worship. Twenty-five years later, AIDS and mental illness have intervened in the friends’ lives as they reconnect for a reunion on the boat. Salamone’s clear sense of character and story sometimes falls prey to florid language, but director Jon Lawrence Rivera and the fine cast (including Fran De Leon, Clay Storseth and Lisa Tharps) are skilled enough to navigate through these overwrought moments. Gary Reed’s stylishly crafted boat set provides a vivid sense of place; expert hair and makeup and Elizabeth Huffman’s witty costume designs help the actors add further credibility to the age transitions. L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Davidson/Valenti Theater, 1125 N. McCadden Pl., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Oct. 12. (323) 860-7300. (Tom Provenzano)

 
GO  WONG FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST Performer Kristina Wong opens her one-woman show under the pretense that she will, in an ­earnest yet fun-loving fashion, explore the cultural phenomenon of high rates of suicide and depression among Asian-American women. She then proceeds to fail spectacularly at this task, spiraling into a miasma of pseudoacademic theory and her own expression of identity. So what purports to be an entertaining and educational romp through the oft-trod territory of identity politics dissolves into a humorous and poignant refutation of there being much commonality to the female Asian-American experience at all. Wong’s conclusion is multifaceted and profoundly personal. She eschews indulging maudlin stereotypes while embracing — or maybe even reclaiming — a personal story at the core of every Asian-American woman. Wong’s performance is quick and controlled, allowing her to slowly unveil her portrait of madness with such skill, we barely realize it’s happening. Miles Memorial Playhouse, 1130 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun. 3 p.m.; through Oct 5. (310) 998-8765. TeAda Productions (Luis Reyes)