Theater Reviews: Bach at Leipzig, Bingo With the Indians, La Didone

Also, Notes From Underground, Dame Edna: My First Last Tour and more

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Tuesday, Jun 16 2009

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Bach at Leipzig

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NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND “I am a sick man ... I am a spiteful man.” Thus begins the narrative of one of Fydor Dostoevsky’s most infamous characters, here portrayed with unsettling energy and passion by Michael Blomgren. Director Zombie Joe has infused a touch of modernity in this production, drawing mainly on the text from the novella, but also adding many references to contemporary time and places. The result is a piece that, although not doing full justice to Dostoevsky’s work — a near impossible task for anyone — does artfully dramatize its core themes of alienation and antirationalism. The opening tableau is jolting, with Blomgren nestled at the feet of his maid Apollo (Noelle Adames), who sings “Ether,” a delightfully grotesque dirge written by Christopher Reiner, with the appropriate eerie musical accompaniment. Blomgren heats up the next 20 minutes with a blistering, full-throttle monologue filled with existential angst and rage, explaining the particulars of what amounts to a wretched existence, and a perverse delight in his own suffering, as well as that of others. A social gathering and a sexual liaison only add to the sense of desolation and madness. The production is short, but it packs a punch from Blomgren’s loaded performance. Rounding out the cast are Heather Lehigh, Lauren Andrea Nelsen, Conrad Lawson and Lauren Vaughan. ZJU Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8: 30 p.m.; through June 27. (818) 202-4120. (Lovell Estell III)

TALES OF AN UNSETTLED CITY: ENCOUNTERS If there’s a moral to director Carlos Martinez’s late-night collection of short meditations on urban alienation, it’s that one man’s pain is another man’s comedy. For the playwright who takes this to heart, a mother lode of laughs awaits; for everyone else, it’s melodramatic fool’s gold. The lesson is lost on writer Sebastian Kedlecik, whose “Angel City” and “Blue Eyes Turned Brown at Birth” assay out as portentously turgid essays in adolescent angst. Norman A. Bert’s well-meaning “The Llano Estacado Blues” likewise misses the obvious absurdist vein in its social-welfare critique. It is only in matters of romance and its losers where the pieces finally pan out. These include Phillip Kelly’s “The Tender Creep is Me,” about a mousy but scarily misogynistic misfit (the fine Charles Allen Hutchison) and the woman (Liesl Jackson) resigned to dating him. Hutchison also shines as a would-be Fred to Jennifer Kenyon’s Ginger in Martinez’s whimsical “Tripping the Light Over Coffee and Tea.” Kenyon comes into her own, first as a woman enduring a self-lacerating session before her dressing mirror in Jenn Scuderi’s “Pretty Face,” and again in Sharon Yablon’s “1:58 a.m.” when the actress literally stops the show (and gives new meaning to the expression “cold shoulder”) as the utterly indifferent object of clueless boor Jim Martyka’s desire. Kenyon and Martyka’s flawless timing, plus Yablon’s 18-karat text strike unadulterated, comic pay dirt. Avery Schreiber Theater, 11050 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood; Sat., 10:30 p.m.; through June 27. (818) 849-4039 or www.theatreunleashed.com. (Bill Raden)