I have reached the fifteenth entry in my Seclusion Smörgåsbord series just as New York City is reopening from the coronavirus lockdown. Phase 1 begins today. Live theater is much further away. My last behind the scenes intel is that Broadway is targeting early December. In the meantime, fans will have to make due with virtual offerings.
This entry includes two filmed performances of well-reviewed Off and Off-Off Broadway plays. The third is a live Zoom meeting in which the actors interact with an audience who can see each other through the show.
Biter (Every Time I Turn Around) [Title:Point]
Filmed in 2016 at the Brick Theater, Title:Point’s production of the engrossing and unique Biter (Every Time I Turn Around) is filled to the brim with “wow” moments. This is experimental theater for sure. The writing, the clever lunacy and the remarkable visuals elevate this work to form-busting fabulousness. As one character observes, “My wish was to start out as an adult and then become a baby like Jon Voight.”
Framed in a Rauschenberg dream set of crowded dots and cartoonish panels, Harold and Ann Marie begin their take on the Bickerson’s. Co-writer Ryan William Downer and Catrin Lloyd-Bollard are fantastic in their bizarre caricatures and deadpan line readings. A postman with one eye unexpectedly arrives with a package. Eventually Joey Lepage will deliver a sinister and riveting monologue about his pharmacist father and the apothecary. This paranoid hallucination turns violent before moving onto the next segment, a deranged birthday party.
Harold and Ann Marie continue their well-polished Abbott and Costello routine with updated charmers like “Your upbringing was a form of long-term abortion” and “Your birth certificate must be written in limerick.” The birthday boy (Justin Anselmi) is in a bear suit and one of the guests is a fish (co-writer Spencer Thomas Campbell). The goofiness is all there but it’s the word play and artfully framed staging that makes this one so good. “She is a metaphor” is followed by “A meta for what?” If you like delectably edgy and smart experimental theater, this one is an absolute gem and the filming is excellent.
Biter (Every Time I Turn Around) is available to stream on the You Tube channel of the Brick Theater.
The Romance of Magno Rubio (Ma-Yi Theater Company)
Based on a short story by Carlos Bulosan, Lonnie Carter’s play The Romance of Magno Rubio contrasts the harsh life of immigrant migrant workers against the hopefulness of eternal love. Fresh off the boat, a group of Filipino men have been tricked into low paying farm work. Magno has fallen in love with a girl he found in a lonely hearts magazine. He is illiterate but others help him pen letters to his love Clarabell from Arkansas.
Magno is mercilessly teased by his co-workers who feel this Amazonian white women will eat the diminutive (4’6″) Magno alive. Nick, an educated man who suffers doing menial work far below his capabilities, befriends Magno. He will help him write a marriage proposal.
This play won eight Obie Awards in 2003. This particular performance was taped in Manila that same year. Jojo Gonzales and Arthur Acuña, the Off-Broadway originators of Magno and Nick, were very convincing in their portrayals, balancing hope and despair. The direction by Loy Arcenas made this Depression era tale explode with vivid life in a naturalistic, easygoing style with memorable theatrical flourishes. The use of sticks choreographed to mimic work on the farm ingeniously demonstrated the backbreaking physical and emotional turmoil experienced in the lives of these men.
Ma-Yi Theater Company’s next live stream is Livin’ La Vida Imelda from June 17 – 30, 2020 which will be available on its homepage. The week before this pandemic happened in New York City, I saw a revival Off-Broadway of Suicide Forest. This production was another excellent example of how this troupe fulfills its mission of presenting innovative plays by Asian American writers.
theaterreviewsfrommyseat/suicideforest
The Time Machine (Creation Theatre, Oxford, England)
“Strap yourselves in. Leave your notions of sanity and predictability at the door.” Those are advertising taglines to entice science fiction fans to The Time Machine. Inspired by H.G. Wells’ classic novel, writer Jonathan Holloway has reinvented the basic premise for the digital stage. It’s the year 2300 and so many humans have died. The time machine will provide the gateway back to unravel the now forgotten historical mystery of what exactly happened.
The most inventive element of this Zoom play is that the audience is part of the experience. We all watch each other in addition to the actors. Some are addressed directly. The size of the group is limited which makes this work very well. The plot is uber nerdy and concentrates on the evils of science and commerce running hand in hand. Interesting asides pop in now and then. The human race’s destruction of the planet “for the sake of fashion and gastronomical delights” was a personal favorite.
The location backgrounds and technical execution of the wormhole travel were nicely done. Plot was not as focused as the atmosphere. Travels back in time were diversions rather than interesting trips. The performers were uniformly excellent and fully committed to their characters. Unfortunately, there was no way to cover up the voluminous gobbledygook and overwrought mumbo jumbo. The concept was great, the execution was very good but ultimately the experience was not the parallel reality needed to create science fiction bliss.
Seats for each performance are limited and can be booked in advance through Creation Theatre’s homepage. The show is running through June 21, 2020.