Steven Leigh MorrisThis week's stage features on Ben Bradley's Murder and The Princess and the Frog
NEW REVIEW
GO AN OAK TREE
Photo by William Adashek
On the simplest story-telling level, actor-performer Tim
Crouch's play is the tale of a hypnotist, falling apart at the seams,
who accidentally struck and killed a girl with his car, and how he one
day finds the victim's father on his stage. Wrenching stuff. But on a
conceptual level, the event takes this very emotional saga and uses it
as a kind of ping pong ball to bat around the idea of suspension of
disbelief – realities that we create through suggestion. In order to
accomplish this, he employs a different actor for each performance,
whom he meets less than one hour before the performance, and who reads
the role of the father from a script. And so, through a frame of
hypnotism that's just one of the play's many artifices, begins a
breathtaking examination of the blurred line between what is real and
what is suggested, of how we live in dream worlds in order to get by,
and how theater itself is a kind of hypnosis that serves this very same
purpose. Its brilliance is unfetttered and inexplicably moving, for
being such a head-trip. Odyssey Theater, 2055 Sepulveda Boulevard, West
Los Angeles; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Feb. 14. (310)
477-2055. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater feature on Wednesday.
BEN BRADLEY MEMORIAL has been announced for Saturday, January 23 at Barnsdall Art Park, Gallery Theater, 4800 Hollywood Boulevard, 11 a.m. Potluck reception to follow.
For all the latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS, press the Continue Reading tab directly below.
NEW THEATER REVIEWS (scheduled for publication, January 14, 2010)
NEW REVIEW ALMOST, MAINE Love is very much in the air in the idyllic community of
Almost, Maine, the setting for John Cariani's homage to Cupid's often
strange, unpredictable machinations. The play is formatted as a series
of star filled, romantic encounters that are mostly sugary sweet, with
a sprinkling of salt for good measure. Director Ashley Archambeau does
a fine job marshaling the cast of 18, all of whom turn in good
performances. This more than makes up for the sillier, vacuous moments
that spring up during some of these vignettes. A good example of this
would be “They Fell,” with Erout Dolen and Adam Sandroni as two pals
whose underlying sexual attraction for each other causes them to fall
on the floor. It's funny for all of 10 seconds, but the skit lasts far
longer. Ditto for “This Hurts,” where a bout of head bashing with
ironing boards turns gratingly sentimental and silly. “Where it Went”
is a heart wrenching meditation on love lost with Luke Wright and
Arianna Arias as a couple whose once magical attraction has evaporated.
“Sad and Glad” tosses in a bit of the mysterious with Greyson Lewis and
Lauren Andrea as strangers brought together by a misspelled tattoo. Neo
Acro Theatre Company at the Avery Schreiber Theater, 11050 Magnolia
Blvd.; North Hollywood.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., thru Jan. 30.
https://NeoAcroTheatre.com (Lovell Estell III)
NEW REVIEW
GO BLOOD AND THUNDER Photo by J. R. Lawton
In The Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Marcus (Keith
Arthur Bolden) isn't scared of the newly arrived hurricane, Katrina.
Marcus is an expert on everything — at least, he watches a lot of TV
— and vows the water won't rise above 10 feet. But Marcus' theories
and conclusions have always gotten him, brother Quentin (Tony Williams)
and Marcus' girlfriend Charlie (Candice Afia) in over their heads with
one bad hustling scheme after another. Still, Marcus is convinced he's
the brains of the group, even if he has to badger Quentin and Charlie
until they agree. When Quentin limps in, sopping wet and still in his
orange prison jumpsuit with a bullet hole in his thigh, the two
siblings have a violent score to settle. Terence Anthony's taut one-act
drama is effective agony. Two character twists may not add up, but
while the audience perches practically in the living room of Jorge I.
Velasquez's realistic dingy set, with the rain hammering down, the
tension is as thick as the storm clouds we imagine overhead. Solid
performances keep the spell going, particularly by Afia as the
strong-willed girlfriend trying to break free from Marcus' emotional
abuse. Sara Wagoner directs. Moving Arts, 1822 Hyperion Ave., Silver
Lake; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Feb. 28. (323) 666-3259.
(Amy Nicholson)
NEW REVIEW 11, SEPTEMBER Photo by Heather Kampf
Playwright-performer Paul Kampf may have come up with the
perfect rationalization for writing what would seem, at face value, the
most implausible plot twists for his psychological thriller. It
concerns an affair between a mathematician, Martin Healy (Kampf),
visiting New York from his London home to attend a conference, and a
waitress, Angela Madison (Liz Rebert), with whom he becomes smitten.
Under Gita Donovan's direction, the actors' waves of attraction and
repulsion (from mutual distrust that slowly and hauntingly seeps out)
have a truthfulness that matches the authenticity of the uncredited
studio apartment set, where the entire saga plays out. A rising tension
from the violence in the air and some very intriguing inter-connections
adds to play's capacity to entrance, and Chris Cash's musical
compositions help segue the many scenes with a delicate solemnity,
giving the event a cinematic feel. References to chaos theory and
conspiracy theory become the philosophical frame for plot developments
what might otherwise raise eyebrows in skepticism. The play rides the
line between exploring and exploiting coincidences, yet it gets bogged
down in its own psychological realism. This raises questions that can't
be answered by chaos theory, or any other – such as why the characters
sometimes blurt out incendiary details of their past, given how neither
is particularly trust-worthy, or why Martin would drop by uninvited and
wind up reading Angela's diary, conveniently left in her bed. Breadline
Productions at the Odyssey Theater, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los
Angeles; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Feb. 7. (310)
477-2055. (Steven Leigh Morris)
NEW REVIEW
GO AN OAK TREE Photo by William Adashek
On the simplest story-telling level, actor-performer Tim
Crouch's play is the tale of a hypnotist, falling apart at the seams,
who accidentally struck and killed a girl with his car, and how he one
day finds the victim's father on his stage. Wrenching stuff. But on a
conceptual level, the event takes this very emotional saga and uses it
as a kind of ping pong ball to bat around the idea of suspension of
disbelief – realities that we create through suggestion. In order to
accomplish this, he employs a different actor for each performance,
whom he meets less than one hour before the performance, and who reads
the role of the father from a script. And so, through a frame of
hypnotism that's just one of the play's many artifices, begins a
breathtaking examination of the blurred line between what is real and
what is suggested, of how we live in dream worlds in order to get by,
and how theater itself is a kind of hypnosis that serves this very same
purpose. Its brilliance is unfetttered and inexplicably moving, for
being such a head-trip. Odyssey Theater, 2055 Sepulveda Boulevard, West
Los Angeles; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Feb. 14. (310)
477-2055. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater feature on Wednesday.
NEW REVIEW ORDINARY DAYS Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR
Though meant to be ironic because it is a story of New
York City which, of course, is always extraordinary, the title is
actually prophetic about Adam Gwon's light, predictable pop-musical
“ode to New York” that only occasionally rises above the ordinary. Four
whimsical young characters (played by Nick Gabriel, Deborah S. Craig,
David Burnham and Nancy Anderson) try to navigate through the
turbulence of Manhattan searching for love and purpose. Unfortunately
most of the 18 songs are pattery ditties that give the talented cast
little to work with. Only Burnham gets to let loose with his belting
voice. At one point, in the Metropolitan Museum, Gwon's composition
actually moves into high-gear with some complicated rhythms,
beautifully handled by musical director Dennis Castellano, that
actually sound like an homage to Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with
George. The characters in simple situations of youthful angst — though
a moving tribute to 9/11 stops the show with unearned emotion. The
evening's best aspect is Fred Kinney's mechanical stage design of
Manhattan architecture, complemented by Jason H. Thompson's clever
projections. South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa;
Sat.-Sun., 2 & 7:45 p.m.; Tues.-Fri., 7:45 p.m.; thru Jan. 24.
(714) 708-5555. (Tom Provenzano)
NEW REVIEW GO SHAKESPEARE UNSCRIPTED The Impro Theatre specializes in improvising
full-length plays in the literary style of prominent writers,
including, in the past, Jane Austen, Tennessee Williams, and Stephen
Sondheim. Here, under the direction of artistic directors Brian Lohman
and Dan O'Connor, they're tackling the Bard, taking the most minimal
suggestions from the audience and spinning them into dizzily amusing
mock-Shakespearean epics. At the performance I attended, they created a
comedy that might be called Much Ado About Blue-Birds. Miranda (Lisa
Frederickson) is the slightly deaf daughter (she seems to hear clearly
only the songs of blue-birds) of the Duke of Kent (Lohman). Kent has
decided to marry her off to the elderly Duke of York (Floyd Van
Buskirk), but she has already developed a fancy for Price (O'Connor), a
young man from the village who loves her, and has learned to tweet like
a blue-bird to woo her. The course of true love is threatened by a
couple of mischievous fairies (Brian Jones and Edi Patterson) and a
man-eating bear until the blissful final scene, which is as sententious
as any old Will created. The company (including Michele Spears and
Stephen Kearin) is clever, nimble and quick on its feet, and the result
is an amiable, crowd-pleasing divertissement. Theatre Impro at Theatre
Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
Sun., 7 p.m., thru Feb. 14. (323) 401-9793. (Neal Weaver)
NEW REVIEW TWENTY-TWO A friend once explained his decision to quit cocaine as his
weariness of the disreputable types with whom he was forced to deal and
of the even scarier places where they invariably dealt. So it is in
actor-playwright Julia Morizawa's hyperkinetic, autobiographical
addiction nightmare. For Leila (Morizawa), the story's 22-year-old
heroine, however, no amount of unsavory associations can deter her from
her unapologetic, single-minded snorting of coke with the fierce
efficiency of a shop vac. Her unbridled enthusiasm for the powder soon
ensnares her two best friends, Zoe (Shaina Vorspan) and the musician,
Danny (Matthew Black), whose cluttered apartment becomes Leila's de
facto drug den. And with her boyfriend/dealer, Eric (Raymond Donahey),
as their enabler/supplier, the friends' walk on the sordid side quickly
careens into a coked-up version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Director
Donahey intensifies the luridness of the proceedings by seating the
audience on the set like so many uninvited guests. But Morizawa's
restricting focus on the outward spectacle of her characters' freefall
rarely musters pathos for their plunge. While the play hints at deeper
demons whetting Leila's manic appetite (i.e. fear and self-loathing),
the evening's most poignant and revealing moment belongs not to its
protagonist but to its bogeyman, Sol (the fine James Adam Patterson),
when the unscrupulous street dealer speaks with pride over a daughter's
scholastic achievements. Had Morizawa been as generous with her other
characters, she might have delivered something more engaging than
sideshow debasement and morbid, voyeuristic thrills. Knightsbridge
Theater, 1944 Riverside Dr., Silver Lake; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Jan.
30. (323) 667-0955. (Bill Raden)
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