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Writing for Us
A CurtainUp Review
Clean Alternatives
a Toxic Comedy
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I can't do it any more. . .working on the side of Evil in a world with so much of it, no one even recognizes anymore. Where no one can call it by its name because the word got co-opted by presidential decree that misdirects the focus of good because evil is banality. And we keep searching for ten-headed dragons in the world, when it's lizard skinned politicians wearing dark suits and blue ties who invoke God to do its dirty work, that change the history of the world with something it calls pre-emptive aggression, but only in oil-rich areas of the planet. --- Slate, who wants to shed his dark suit and cut his connection with the lizard skinned corporate movers and shakers whose bidding he's been doing. |
L - R: Mark Boyett, Sue-Anne Morrow, Brian Dykstra
(Photo: Richard Termine)
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There's plenty of reality to get hot under the collar about in this basic premise. After all, the sweetener to encourage automakers to produce more gas-saving hybrid, is going to leave them free to keep from cranking out gas-guzzling Humvees and SUVs. Dykstra is on fire about this and other sleight-of-hand problem solving, as well as everything that's troublesome to any of us who are concerned about this country's and our grandchildren's future. He's even in a dither about a few things that may have slipped by our disillusionment radar -- like the rappers "who once had something to say" but who have rallied around "the goose laying their golden eggs " in the form of profitable commercials.
And so, Clean Alternative, though it starts out like some surreal, noirish thriller, detours constantly into lengthy solos and duologues that intensify the toxicity. It all adds up to a somewhat self-indulgent and highly improbably mix of Shavian discussion play, Mametspeak and stand-up riff that gives Dykstra a couple of people to argue with.
Gifted wordsmith that he is, Dykstra uses language as a powerful weapon for Cutter and Slate to capture their innocent quarry (the owner of the environmentally friendly but financially troubled family furniture finish business) and to debate and justify sticking with or quitting their devilish work. The two men enter Jackie's office and send words bursting through the room like bullets from an invading army's machine guns. Their interlocking and often unfinished sentences give us the gist of the Faustian proposition they've come to negotiate. The bargain put on the table is that Jackie will keep her unprofitable but worthy enterprise going and be paid handsomely for what essentially amounts to her operating as part of a triumvirate of corporations. The catch is that the big, bad wolves will control her "pollution rights."
Will Jackie shake hands with the devil? If she does, can she end up getting the best of her seducers? Can Slate, who looks as if he's no longer capable of any feeling, really be a romantic interest for Jackie and free himself from his parntership with Cutter? And is Cutter truly a man without a conscience or just another greedy sucker trapped by his high flier life style?
Dykstra follows through so that all these questions get answered, but the noirish beginning turns ever more fantastical, with Jackie taking over from those rappers that Dykstra ranted against earlier to make her case for a better world. Margarett Perry has directed Dykstra and his colleagues to land all those snappy interchanges with well-timed precision, and to handle the big mouthfuls of dialogue without stumbling. Set designer Maruti Evans has made the most the 59E59 Street theaters' tiniest venue, with Ben Franklin's face benignly looking out at what he and the other Founding Fathers have wrought from the giant $100 bill that serves as a backdrop. But the surreal aura established during the tour-de-force initial fifteen or twenty minutes tends to lose its dramatic impact and sputter during the longer discourses, especially Cutter's long story about a major mishap on his yacht and his flirtation with Eastern religion. Whereas Dyksta's Hiding Behind Comets was consistently dramatic, Clean Alternatives too often seems to be a play masquerading as an extended standup routine.
That said, this dark comedy should resonate with the perennial choir that gravitates to anti-Bush, anti-war bashing. Since this audience probably shares the playwright's concerns, its appreciation will come from having their own disgruntlement validated by someone with such caustic wit and who in this play even offers up a smidgen of hope. As Dykstra put it in a recent Backstage editorial "It is the nature of political theater to stand up and give comfort in trying times--first to the choir, then to the fence-sitters." And, as his aim is to give comfort to that audience, he added that it is his fervent hope "that the content of the play is moot as soon. as possible" with a dour caveat: "If this play is still relevant fifteen years from now, that means we're still fucking up the environment like it's our very own chemicallly contaminated septic system." What can one add to that except "Amen!"
LINKS
Brian Dykstra: Cornered & Alon
Hiding Behind Comets
For more about Dykstra, check out his web site: www.briandykstra.net/
| CLEAN ALTERNATIVES Playwright: Brian Dykstra Directed by Margarett Perry Cast: Brian Dykstra, Mark Boyett, Sue-Anne Morrow Set & Lighting Design: Maruti Evans Costume Design: Jennifer R. Halpern > Running time: 2 hours with an intermission From 2/09/06 to 3/12/06; opening 2/15/06 Tuesday to Saturday at 8PM, with matinee performances on Saturday Fresh Ice Productions, in association with Jack W. Batman and Greg Schaffert at 59E59 Theaters 212/279-4200 Sunday at 3PM. T Tickets: $35 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on February 11th press performance |
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