KSDS Jazz 88
Your Connection To The Arts In San Diego
Whether you're trapped by the Great Depression or the post-Apocalypse, what you most want is change.
In an old drama and a new one, folks get what they ask for - but it comes at a formidable price. A thinker and a listener, both filled with hope and promise, both destined for disaster.
"The Listener," by the wildly inventive New York playwright Liz Duffy Adams, is her third piece to be produced by Moxie Theatre, a sensibility match made in heaven. Following in the steps of her brilliant "Dog Act," Adams goes back to the future. We're in Junk City, a large, sparsely populated garbage-dump dystopia several generations from now. These are the last survivors, after earth was destroyed by human neglect and Nature's revenge. In their tightly controlled society, everyone has a strictly assigned role and no one deviates from the rules. The Listener's job is to keep reaching out, by means of a "sacred" short-wave radio, trying to detect signs of life from fellow survivors. When a man from New Earth, what used to be called the Moon, lands in a spaceship to rescue the populace, everyone is in for a very bumpy ride. Adams delivers another striking new world and another delightful new lingo; she plays with and manipulates language like it's just so much silly putty. Another startling Adams creation, another spectacular Moxie show, with Delicia Turner Sonnenberg directing a superb cast on a fantastic set.
Production values are high at New Village Arts, too, in a stunning production of "Golden Boy," a 1937 American classic by social activist Clifford Odets. It's widely believed that the story reflects the playwright's own conflict about selling out to Hollywood.
In the play, cross-eyed New York underdog Joe Bonaparte is a consummate violinist. But what he really wants is escape from poverty and a life of fame and fortune. He bucks his artistic nature and his father's wishes, to pursue a career in boxing. And he gets pretty much everything he wants. But the Faustian tradeoff for his material wealth is spiritual bankruptcy. Joshua Everett Johnson's razor-sharp direction teases masterful performances from his large ensemble. Johnson himself is deliciously demonic in a pivotal role, and Amanda Sitton is exquisite as a beautiful, hard-boiled moll. The stakes and emotions run high, and we're yanked along till the final one-two punch.
Both these tragic narratives knock the wind out of us, take us by surprise and touch us to the core. Each can be viewed as a cautionary tale, about what we're doing and where we're headed, as individuals and a society. Both dramas can be a tad heavy-handed in delivering their message, but that doesn't diminish their potency. Thematically and dramatically, "Golden Boy" is a knockout, and "The Listener" must be heard.
"The Listener" runs through June 29 in the Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza.
"Golden Boy" continues through July 13 at New Village Arts in Carlsbad.
© 2008 Pat Launer
To subvert an old expression, A Miss is as good as a smile. Try these 'misses' on for comic size: mistaken identity; miscommunication; misplaced mail, missed messages and misguided plans.
The world premiere at Lamb's Players Theatres isn't a miss at all; it's a hit - called "The Hit" - a deliciously light, fluffy, cotton-candy summer treat. Leave your heavy thoughts and ponderous ideas at home; just sit back and enjoy.
At the center of the action is Susan, a perky antiques dealer who thinks the best way to deal with her dire new diagnosis is to hire a hitman and get it all over with fast. But life and fate have other plans for her. She meets a man; her younger brother shares youth, taste and snappy repartee with an off-the-wall mystery-woman. Sales may be slow at the shop but the quirky characters - loons and looky-loos - just keep comin'. And some of them may wind up staying for life.
"The Hit" is the brainchild of Mike Buckley, who's got a pretty creative, multi-faceted mind. And this production gives him the opportunity to flaunt his multiple talents: he wrote the smart, witty play, designed the extravagant set, master-minded the elaborate props and he plays a leading role. And he does an exemplary job at all four. Oh yes, he's also a skilled lighting designer and a very credible singer, but he doesn't get to exercise those abilities here.
Onstage, he's smitten by Cynthia Gerber, who's delightful as the vexed and frazzled central character. They're part of an excellent ensemble -- some using wild accents, a fractured Slavic language, multiple characterizations -- and all contribute to the general mayhem and madcap moments that feel very much like farce, though there aren't enough doorways to qualify.
Lamb's artistic director Robert Smyth has used a light comic touch to foster crackerjack comic timing. The pace is brisk and bouncy; the writing is propulsive and intriguing. The set is a marvel - a two-level affair crammed with knickknacks, bric-a-brac and attic junk, much of which will be employed in riotous ways over the course of the show. Those floor-to-ceiling tchatchkes are fertile fodder for communicative breakdowns and communicative hilarity, as would-be shoppers recall sentimentally their grandmas, and the young college-age kids bound around the room finding objects that will add to their one-upping, side-splitting pun-fest. The lighting gives the shop a golden-rosy glow, and the quick-change costumes encourage additional laughs.
This show marks a couple of Lamb's Players milestones: their 40th world premiere and 40th anniversary season. And starting July 2nd, they'll be spreading the wealth even more, taking over the Horton Grand Theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter. In the meantime, you can take The Hit for the Lamb's in Coronado.
"The Hit" runs through July 13 at Lamb's Players Theatre in Coronado.
©2008 PAT LAUNER
© 2008 Pat Launer
For an archive of all of Pat's reviews, going back to 1990, use the 'search' function at www.PatteProductions.com.
