The last two entries into the Flea Theater’s festival of Mac Wellman plays are the never before staged The Fez and a revival of The Sandalwood Box. Both are short works included in the five plays produced with the theme “Perfect Catastrophes.”
The Fez was originally commissioned as a T-shirt play in 1998. As written, the play is simply a descriptive paragraph. Mr. Wellman’s words are often highly specific and overflowing with poetry, incisiveness and jibberish. Sometimes in equal measure. This one is descriptive and, yes, short enough to be printed on a shirt.
Any of the “better class of contemporary classic American or British play” begins this piece. Mr. Wellman suggests the chosen work should be “properly inflated with moral updraft of a clear and paraphraseable kind.” The classic chosen in this production is universally recognizable. Rora Brodwin is a delightful exaggeration of Eliza Doolittle.
As the retelling unfolds “Something Strange” happens. The Fez takes its place as a ceremonial object center stage. Mystifying and silly dances seem to represent rituals of worship. Those sections have names like “Fur-Lined Hangover.” In the process, the staid theater of the past is shaken up, allowed to swim in its kookiness and simply be “The Fez.” Downtown mayhem and the Surfari’s song, “Wipe Out.”
Whether or not you will be engaged will depend on your ability to be a ball of yarn to a mischievous cat. This is, after all, a perfect cat-astrophe. After this bouncing lunacy of theatrical excess, the mood changes but is still futuristic. The Sandalwood Box takes place in the rain forests of South Brooklyn.
Dorothea Gloria is Marsha Gates, a student at City College. In a voice over, she tells us that she lost her voice in 1993 as a result of an act of the Unseen. This one’s going to be mysterious, you quickly conclude. Indeed as she warns “if you think you cannot be so stricken, dream on.”
At a bus stop Martha meets Professor Claudia Mitchell (Ashley Morton) whose specialty is human catastrophe. (Ah, the theme!) What follows is a lot of words, especially from the Bus Driver (Ben Schrager). A busy man, he says “we dream, gamble, seek, deserve a better fate than Time or Destiny, through the agency of the Unseen, allows.” If you want to enjoy this ramble, Mr. Wellman may be saying, just get on the bus.
The Sandalwood Box of the title is where Professor Mitchell stores her collection of catastrophes. Some will be revealed. In accordance with a prophecy of the Unseen, 25,000 Serbian soldiers were massacred clearing the way for Turkish mastery of the region for over half a millennium. The history of the human race is filled with disasters ruled by the dark Unseen’s id.
Many of Mac Wellman’s works are difficult to follow. The language can be a tropically effusive thicket of imagery and random thought bubbles. Not The Sandalwood Box. This one is a little mysterious and playfully edgy. Marsha has many questions as we all do. The one that stood out for me was this one: “Why is one person’s disaster not a catastrophe for all?”
These two plays, like everything in this festival, offer an interesting glimpse into the Wellman world. He plays with the convention of theater. He gets angry at the darkness of the human race. He confuses and challenges his audience. For a taste of this unique (and possibly acquired) taste, these two eccentric offerings are sure to both confound and entertain. Put your fez on and really think about what the messenger is saying. We had differing thoughts about meanings and definitely did not understand everything. Maybe that’s the why they call these catastrophes perfect.
The Fez and The Sandalwood Box, part of the five play festival Mac Wellman: Perfect Castastrophes, is running through November 1, 2019. Only have time to try one? Definitely try The Invention of Tragedy, my personal favorite, followed by Sincerity Forever.