Author: Joe

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated by the Chinese (and other Asian cultures) in late September or early October.  With a full moon, this family gathering has the feeling of thanksgiving, a gathering together of loved ones.  When this particular family finally completes emigrating to Hawai’i, they cannot wait until fall to get their mooncakes and rejoice.  For them, June is the First Fall.  From that moment on, they begin their tradition and the family’s festival is always held on this much earlier date.

At the beginning of Yilong Liu’s play, Don is seated on an airplane and a woman is talking to him.  The scene is a dreamlike memory.  Don is returning home to Honolulu’s Manoa Valley after a ten year absence.  He now lives in New York.  With the passage of time, memories crystallize and cannot be shaken.  Memories are scattered throughout this endearing study of culture, family and personal growth.

Don’s sister Jane (Stefani Kuo) and her boyfriend Scott (Karsten Otto) live with her father David (Fenton Li).  Scott works in his restaurant.  David left China to find a better life when his children were very small.  Years later they were reunited and this house in America became their home.  When it was time for college, son Don heads to the mainland, far away from the burden of expectations.

While the situations explored in this play are not unique, the relaxed pace gives this material a fresh smell.  Jane hangs her sheets outside rather than using the dryer as sun-dried sheets are soothing.  She wants her brother to have clean linen to sleep on when he arrives.  As we will learn, Don does need soothing.  And healing.  And closure.  And a push forward.

Don is a gay man who fled his home as so many others do.  New York City can be welcoming but cold.  Don’s long awaited return ignites memories of his dead mother.  Chun Cho plays her ghost in the many memory scenes.  Her performance is a perfect mix of eccentric foreigner, naturalistic mother and spiritual sounding board.  The play nicely evokes the important imprints left during one’s impressionable youth.

June is the First Fall features a good cast of actors.  As Don, Alton Alburo’s is a believably confused, irritably defensive young man who still needs to toughen up.  Stefani Kuo and Karsten Otto played the couple with the easy chemistry of a playful romantic relationship.  The family patriarch, as one would expect, is the person whose opinion matters most.  Fenton Li thoughtfully inhabited him.  His personal beliefs and cultural influences believably conflicted with the the love of family and the wisdom of age.  As performances continue, this comfortable familial vibe should grow even richer.

In the relatively small New Ohio Theater, the creative team has done an excellent job.  With evocative scenic design (Jean Kim) and creative lighting (Cha See), this family’s healing materializes in the home, on a plane and during a hike through the valley.  Michael Costagliola’s sound design noticeably contributed to the various locales which were employed in telling this tale.

June is the First Fall addresses the ghosts of the past which linger in our heads.  In a pivotal scene, we hear:  “I know there are times that we all feel like we are trapped in a loop.”  Are there paths to grow and move on rather than feel held back with no escape?  Well directed by Michael Leibenluft, this story is smoothly paced to unravel this family’s secrets and hopes and learnings. 

www.newohiotheatre.org

When taking a seat in the Paradise Factory Theatre downtown, the stage backdrop suggests a large scrapbooking canvas.  Pictures of children and the wilderness.  Happy, peaceful images.  They are layered and have texture.  Some of the edges are uneven around the borders reminiscent of photographs from long ago.  Boldly titled in capital letters, WHORE will be heading down the path of memoir told with the passage of time.

Suzanne Tufan is the writer, performer and producer of this piece, her first full length play.  The story is one woman’s journey of survival and transformation.  From the age of five until adulthood, Ms. Tufan is chronicling a history scarred by an overbearing father.  He is portrayed as a conservative man who is deeply into astrology and meditation.  The wearing of lipstick (and other infractions) seemingly connotate WHORE in his mind.

That oppression is the fundamental conflict pursued in this therapeutic exercise of analysis, healing and creative expression.  The tone is an odd yet interesting combination of gleefully childlike and bitterly hardened.  As an actress, she learns to use music and dance for creative expression.  That outlet is also employed here in her original songs and expressive movements.

Unfortunately the story feels very sketchily drawn.  Intentionally shocking blurbs like discovering masturbation at seven years old are hurled before quickly moving on.  At nine, she begins to have fantasies about boys peeing on her.  A throwaway comment or thematic revelation?  I thought about that line longer than the play did.  Relationships which obviously have had some major impact are discussed but not explored in any depth whatsoever.  As a result, the play seems like an outline rather than a multi-layered scrapbook.

Lindsey Hope Pearlman’s direction efficiently moves this story along and, critically, gives the material some gravitas.  Ms. Tufan is a tremendously winning stage presence.  There simply is no storytelling beneath the headlines written and performance indulgences.

Did her father believe she was a whore?  Was he puritanical or just mean?  Did her mind create this drama from a guilty conscience?  Is this personal story meant to shine a light on society as a whole?  An astrological wheel chart is repeatedly consulted, illuminating nothing.  Which are the five most important moments?  Why not explore them for more than a nanosecond?

If you can imagine it (or understand the reference), Whore feels like The Donna Reed Show updated into the present.  There is a lot more sexual frankness and sharing for sure.  The main character just smiles throughout and keeps us far away from seeing a lifelike person.  While that may have been a stylistic choice, it separates the actor and the audience rather than connecting them spiritually.    In a theatrical monologue which aims for richly revealing, we instead see a talented actress shoehorning her skills into an ineffectively told memoir.

www.paradisefactory.org

A month ago I saw Austin Pendleton portray a teacher on Broadway in the fine play Choir Boy.  Now he is the elderly Professor with a much younger third wife.  They are visiting with Sonia and Uncle Vanya in this adaptation of Chekhov’s play.  Right from the start, the cast informs that LIFE SUCKS. is about love and longing, true to the spirit of its source material.  The Professor notes “it’s also about the audacious, ludicrous and protean nature of the obstreperous and ever-feckless human heart.”  Vanya points out “he has a penchant for sesquipedalian elocution.”  Fans of word play will lick their chops listening to some of this dialogue.

Aaron Posner (My Name is Asher Levy) spins an effective comedy out of these familiar characters and situations.  Families are hard wired to totally upset each other.  Lovesick dreamers are bound to be hurt with disappointment when feelings are not mutual.  LIFE SUCKS. attempts to answer the question, “Is love real – or a manmade construct like religion… or football?”

There are plenty of laughs throughout this production.  The actors play characters who know they are in a play and often break the wall to speak directly to the audience.  In a scene titled “3 Things I Love,” permanent house guest Babs (Barbara Kingsley) adds to her list:  “the crisp clink of cubes of ice in a really sturdy glass.”  The rampantly desirable Ella (Nadia Bowers) asks the audience “how many of you would like to sleep with me if you could?”  Some hands were raised.

Nearly everyone seems to be in love with Ella, including Pickles (Stacey Linnartz) who is somehow related to the family and “an acquired taste.”  The script defines her as a “relentlessly positive utopian lesbian.”  She takes things a bit literally.  After one of the Professor’s acerbic barbs she comments “it’s sometimes hard to tell if you are complimenting us or insulting us.”  His sardonic reply:  “Isn’t it?”

In between jokes, there is all the Chekovian self-absorption, self-deprecation and self-torture one could hope for.  This playwright knows it is always fun to “watch privileged, arrogant people argue endlessly” about meaningless esoteric minutiae.  Swiftly directed by Jeff Wise (Happy Birthday, Wanda June), LIFE SUCKS. is fun theater.

Each member of this cast nicely bears all of the angst boiling inside their characters.  As Dr. Aster, Michael Schantz exudes all the charm needed to woo an unsatisfied Ella.  Too bad for Sonia he’s so desirable and uninterested.  Maybe that’s why she hates her body, her face and “the lie of literature.”  Aster tries to advise his dear friend Vanya (Jeff Biehl) who is slathered in despair.  The basic message to us all:  “if you don’t like your life then do something.”

My message to you:  if you want to chuckle and watch a well-cast set of actors give the Chekhov clan another enjoyably silly update, then do something.  Head downtown to The Wild Project and buy a ticket.  We’re all gonna die eventually.  Why not have a laugh or two before then?

www.wheelhousetheater.org

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