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CurtainUp's Philadelphia Notes
Philadelphia Reports Mission Statement
These occasional notes and reviews from Philadelphia will cover productions in
each of the following categories:
1. Significant new plays premiering in Philadelphia
2. Shows attracting attention in Philadelphia
3. Shows which, for one reason or another, have attracted attention outside the Philadelphia area
4. Shows which may be on their way to New York
Recent Reviews
All past reviews archived in ourMaster Index of Reviews
New and Noteworthy
The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, with thousands of artists of all kinds in 200 shows presented at 115+ venues runs from Aug 29 through Sept 13. Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is the invited artist portion of the 16-day event. Philly Fringe is the larger, unfiltered wing of the festival. Together the Festival and the Fringe feature new theater, dance, and all kinds of performance art from across Philadelphia, the U.S., and the world. We will cover a small sampling of the events here. For more festival info including complete show listings, venues, times, and box office procedures, go to www.livearts-fringe.org. Animal Tales | Disco Descending | Sweet By-and-By | A Streetcar Named Durang: Two Burlesques and a Nightmare
Animal Tales: Eleven Short Animal Plays
Among the many animals in Don Nigro's Animal Tales: Eleven Short Animal Plays are a cat looking for meaning, a baboon who's appalled at the very suggestion that he's a distant cousin of humans, a philosophizing groundhog, and a mouse and turkey taking chances. In the most entertaining piece, a parrot who hates crackers and wants a cheeseburger and a shake, seeks intelligent conversation. He's tired of compulsively "repeating vacuous phrases"e; and fed up with his cagemate, who will parrot anything. Although a more physical approach with less straight reciting would serve them well, the company's work includes special moments where the actors ease into their soul-searching animal roles.
Galloping Abbey Productions is an independent theatre group composed almost exclusively of students from York College of PA. These kids care enough about theatre to participate in the Philly Fringe and take their show to Harrisburg before returning to present their play in York. Nigro's Animal Tales is a good choice for them with its monologues and pieces for 2-3 actors. Its manageable structure allows flexibility in rehearsals and the minimal set without light and audio requirements can be set up for a performance anytime, anywhere, including up in the wilds of NE Phila in a hot clearing in the woods of Pennypack Park. Welcome and "Break a leg!" to this new theater company. Actors: Bryan A. Caine (also director), Jamie Caponera, Ashley DeVoe, Allyson Frick, Alan Scott, Philly Fringe at Verree Venue #2, 8600 Verree Ave. 60 mins includes brief intermission.
Disco Descending
Disco Descending is the kick-off event for the 16-day Philadelphia Live-Arts, Philly Fringe Festival. Part two of a planned trilogy, it picks up the story of the folks in Suburban Love Songs (Live Arts 2006) when they're in their mid-40s. A comic, text-less disco/techno dance version of the not-so-funny Orpheus myth, Disco Descending is peopled by actors who dance, rather than dancers who act. This visit to a fanciful Hades, not hellish like the real place (which everybody knows is an endless, tedious Alley Cat dance), features director Karen Getz's lively, intricate choreography, full of personality and quirks, performed by droll actors in fun costumes. The Orpheus story occasionally seems to have been misplaced somewhere in this intersection of a couple of myths, and there are moments of incomprehensible action that tend to slow it down a tad. But this is a grand piece of entertainment. Dave Jadico's brilliantly acted and danced, sensitive Orpheus is accosted by a gay, roller skating Morpheus (who also seems to be a Hermes type). Jennifer Childs' perky Eurydice attracts Pete Pryor, the delightfully over-the-top ruler of the underworld. Add a magician-Hermes and a Cerberus played by three skilled dancers, and this show is hot! Live Arts Festival at Suzanne Roberts Theatre. 55 minutes.
Sweet By-and-By
Sweet By-and-By is an atmospheric take on the story of Swedish immigrant Joe Hill, who became a union organizer for IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) early in the last century. A laborer, song-writer, and activist who moved from job to job across America, Hill was tried for murder and executed. But Joe Hill lives on in working class myth, folklore, and songs, where the case is made that he was the innocent victim of anti-labor forces.
This play is a collaboration of Pig Iron Theatre Company and Teater Slava. Pig Iron's Dito van Riegersberg and Dan Rothenberg shared in concept development and writing with Swedish actor and musician Daniel Rudholm. Rothenberg directs. Swedish-based Teater Slava was founded in the 1990s on Rudolph Steiner's philosophies and a Polish-style ensemble physical theater tradition. This work showcases Daniel Rudholm's talents. An appealing performer, he plays the banjo, harmonica, and a beautiful concertina. Acted, sung, and spoken -–partly in Swedish, the hard luck story is told with letters and envelopes, prayers, fire, and ashes. A cobbled feel could partly be attributed to the show's episodic nature, and partly to inconsistency with regard to the 4th wall. Sometimes it's observed, as he performs without "seeing" the audience, while at other times it's broken, even to the extent of his leading a sing-along. The production has a distinctive approach to audio, and tracks are recorded live and layered upon tracks just recorded. Rudholm's singular animation work is projected upstage on a wall made of envelopes. Rudholm is a fine solo performer, yet this unique show might be enhanced by opening it out to encompass company ensemble work, a tradition of both Pig Iron and Teater Slava. We have come to expect exploration, brilliant conception, and singular vision from Pig Iron, and this productive hybrid effort with Teater Slava has yielded a highly unusual and inventive work. Live Arts Festival at Arts Bank, Avenue of the Arts. 65 minutes.
Kid Simple
Azuka Theatre takes on Jordan Harrison's Kid Simple, an eclectic and weirdly cerebral quest story. A very young genius has really put herself into the making of her invention, a machine that operates on the border of the audible and the inaudible. When it is stolen by a devious mercenary, she and a companion set off in dangerous pursuit. Traveling companions Amanda Schoonover and Delante G. Keys hit all the right ironic notes, and Keith J. Conallen handles the gamut of roles from seducer to satyr to fig tree. Joe Mallon and Kathryn Petersen change from apple pie parents to old radio stars to German-accented villains and back again. Zura Young nails the multifaceted narrator job. Kevin Meehan deftly produces sound effects from a Foley booth that resembles some tinkerer's dream. SFX are matched to vintage titles overhead, and both operate on a number of humorous levels. When episodes of a play-within-a-play radio show about the infrasonic waves of a cello leak into the main radio play, you can bet that things get complicated. A Will Shorts of playwriting, Jordan Harrison hooks phrases together like letters in a crossword puzzle. His language bursts with fresh nonsensical intelligence, satisfying cravings for wit and soulful whimsy. This play garnered seriously mixed reviews at the ‘04 Humana Festival for a production that must have lacked director Kevin Glaccum's capacity to visualize action and handle precise coordination and timing, and the help of an astonishingly good design team like this one: Alisa Kleckner, costumes: Troy Herion, sound design/orig music: Joshua Schulman, lighting; Steve Organ, projection. Together all of these artists have come up with a show worthy of the work's hybrid, playful appeal and great potential. Playwrights and companies like these are part of a growing cadre of artists nudging theater into an authentic 21st century sensibility. Azuka's Kid Simple is magic on the boards, and professional down to the tips of its high-heeled cleft-hoof shoes. At The Latvian Society, 531 N. 7th St. 90 minutes.
A Streetcar Named Durang: Two Burlesques and a Nightmare
The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium presents Christopher Durang’s Desire, Desire, Desire, The Actor’s Nightmare, and A Stye of the Eye. These three short burlesque works evidence Christopher Durang’s enduring interest in Tennessee Williams, Noel Coward, and his own Catholic upbringing. Durang’s tendencies spew all over the place as manic characters explode from his pen. For those who know and love 20th century playwrights-- the stars in Durang’s sky-- the evening is a gas. For those not so familiar, the reference-saturated shows will be funny, but may prove even more bewildering than they were intended to be. Beckett, Shepard, Shaffer, f***ing Mamet, John Pielmeier, Robert Bolt, Noel Coward, and more collide with Tennessee Williams in frantic, fractured tales. In Desire Desire, Desire, although Stanley bought Blanche Du Bois a bus ticket to Glen Garry Glen Ross years ago, Blanche never left. So Blanche and Stanley have been waiting for six years for Stella to return with a lemon coke to calm Blanche’s nerves, and they are visited by a census taker and a couple of Maggies off a Hot Tin Roof. In the next short play, an accountant is caught in an actor’s nightmare as a Woody Allen Hamlet who gets lost in a free-for-all where the distinctions between Private Lives, A Man for All Seasons, and Godot blur, and the accidental actor has no idea of his lines. Finally Shepard’s people and Agnes of God conflate with the Equus-blinded, and heaven knows who else, and they all sail right off the edge. These works seem to have been written in a fever hotter than a pepper sprout, intended for riotous private parties filled with serious theater enthusiasts. The actors and directors in the consortium have great fun bringing the plays to life, changing costumes at lightning speed, and playing it way over the top. Philly Fringe. At the elegant L’Etage Cabaret. 70minutes.
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