“Three
Up, Three Down”
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| Stars range from 5-1. |
Something there is that seems to make writing quality
one-act (or “short”) plays very difficult, even for playwrights with
established track records for longer plays. The SUMMER SHORTS FESTIVAL OF NEW
AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS, to give it its full title, is presently offering two three-play
bills—SERIES A and SERIES B—at 59E59 Theaters. In the former, only Neil
LaBute’s 10K comes near to passing muster. I’ve got baseball on my mind these
days, so I’ll take SERIES A’s .333 batting average any day over SERIES B, a
75-minute program that, to continue the baseball metaphor, barely makes it over
the Mendoza line; these plays, produced by producing director J.J. Kandel’s
Throughline Artists, seem more like they’re playing in the single-A minors than
in the major leagues.
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| Lauren Blumenfeld, Alfred Narcisco. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
Leading off is Lucy Thurber’s “UNSTUCK,” directed by
Laura Slavia, in which a depressed couch potato named Pete (Alfredo Narcisco)
is the target of three different women’s attempts—each in her own scene—to
please him on his birthday. First is his kooky sister, Jackie (Lauren
Blumenfeld), who tries to entertain him with a defiantly amateurish tap-dancing
routine. She confronts him with her “warrior”-like determination to make
choices, even those that might embarrass her, versus his stuck-in-a-rut
indecisiveness. Next up is a married
friend, Sara (Carmen Zilles), a Latina beauty who sings “Happy Birthday” in
English and Spanish. A therapist-in-training, she’s also an annoying narcissist
who talks mainly about herself. Whereas Jackie displays awful dancing skills,
the same can be said of Sara’s singing talents. Why Pete, or anybody, for that
matter, would endure her company, is unexplained. Finally, Pete’s girlfriend,
Deirdre (KK Moggie), more grounded than the others, arrives. The play now shifts
radically to become a clichéd domestic drama, with romanticized dialogue, about
their marital future.
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| Lauren Blumenthal, Alfred Narcisco. Photo: Alfred Narcisco. |
Even actors who’ve shone elsewhere can do little to
make this dull play convincing; it has neither tension nor wit, and does little
to explain who Pete is, or why he’s depressed. The scenes with Jackie and Sara are
more like a playwright’s doodling than organic necessities.
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| Carmen Zilles, Alfred Narcisco. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
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| KK Moggie, Alfred Narcisco. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
Even weaker is Robert O’Hara’s “BUILT,” a two-hander that
strains for a sexually challenging, slightly off-kilter tone by focusing on a
confrontation between Mrs. Back (Merritt Janson), an outwardly conservative
35-year-old woman, and Mason (Justin Bernegger), a 25-year-old manwhore (or so
he seems). The premise is that Mrs. Back preyed sexually on Mason 10 years before
when she was his high school teacher, was prosecuted as a Child Sex Offender (although
other teachers were similarly pedophilic), and now appears to be seeking a
professional encounter with his grown up persona. Mason’s own responsibility
for what transpired is alluded to, but rather than delving into the truth of
what transpired, the play shifts into an unconvincing role-playing mode between
raunchy teacher and sexed-up teenager before arriving at its contrived conclusion.
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| Justin Bernegger, Merritt Janson. Photo: Carol Rosegg. |
The acting (especially Mr. Bernegger’s) is inadequate,
the ponderously atmospheric staging (by Mr. O’Hara) forced, and the dramatic
development shallow. (59E59, by the by, has suddenly become a locus for male
nudity, what with Mr. Bernegger baring it all in this play and Quinn Franzen
doing the same downstairs in THREESOME. Mr. Bernegger, however, seems much more
constrained about it than his fellow thespian.)
Closing out the program is Stella Fawn Ragsdale’s “LOVE
LETTERS TO A DICTATOR,” the best written but least dramatic play on view. It’s a promising, but thin, one-woman piece, directed by Logan Vaughn, in which Ms. Ragsdale (played
by Colby Minifie) is herself the single character, a Tennessee farm girl who
begins an epistolary relationship with North Korea’s “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong Il, in 2011, the year he died. She’s moved to New York to be a writer but lives on a Hudson Valley farm because she
feels out of place in the city.
The production, which often has Stella playing popular
tunes by Elvis (Kim loved the King, whom Stella claims was her second cousin)
and Dolly on a battered old radio, is done straight, with no winking at its ironies,
especially given the personal nature of what Stella writes in nine
letters to one of the world’s most hated rulers, whom she thinks is
misunderstood; Ms. Ragsdale talks about her relationship with her ailing mother, contrasts her concerns about her own goodness and personal
responsibility with what she deems to be Kim’s, and mildly admonishes him for
his behavior. The only notion we have of his responses, however, comes from her own
letters. Throughout the piece, Ms. Vaughn has Stella hang her handwritten letters up like laundry on a clothes line. Don't ask me why.
“LOVE LETTERS
TO A DICTATOR” is momentarily surprising for its whimsical concept; Stella’s letters, though, never morph into a play. Ms.
Ragsdale’s writing has a wry, charmingly quirky, sometimes even poetic tone,
but its humor is pale and its ideas only vaguely engaging. Ms. Minifie is competent as Stella but,
with such low stakes, there are few reasons to give her one's heart.
Three up, three down.
Other Viewpoints:
Talkin' Broadway
Bob's Theater Blog
New York Times
SUMMER SHORTS SERIES B
59E59 Theaters
59 East Fifty-Ninth Street, NYC
Through August 29
Other Viewpoints:
Talkin' Broadway
Bob's Theater Blog
New York Times
SUMMER SHORTS SERIES B
59E59 Theaters
59 East Fifty-Ninth Street, NYC
Through August 29