Suzanne Fletcher and Ruby Farley (Photo by Kari Van Meeteren)
Reviewed by Martín Hernández
ZJU Theatre Group
Through September 10
RECOMMENDED
Keythe Farley & Margaret Julian (Photo by Kari Van Meeteren)
For writer/director Michael Sargent, America’s devils are the rich and mighty, and he gleefully lambasts them for their sexual predation in his trio of astute and acerbic one-acts.
Sargent presents these audacious predators in hilarious fictionalized scenarios, with his cast portraying them as outlandish buffoons. (However, while one can laugh at the shenanigans of these dreadful people, one also cringes at how their ties to wealth and power have allowed them to prey for years on the poor and vulnerable.)
D.O.A presents us with Ed Buck (a manic Philip Littell), a prominent West Hollywood political fixture and Democratic fundraiser, who has a secret penchant for luring destitute gay Black men to his home for drug-infused sex. His latest consort is the naive 6-Pack (Bradley Bazile), a young man game for play but confused by Ed’s non-stop and addled chattering. As Ed histrionically blathers on about the jealousy of his adversaries and admirers –“friends make the worst enemies” — he injects 6-Pack with meth as preparation for the party he anticipates. But as Ed drones on and reveals his more salacious proclivities, 6-Pack senses danger and does his best to stay coherent – and alive.
In 2010, fading composer and film director Joe Brooks (a suitably sleazy Keythe Farley) is auditioning a young singer Serena (Margaret Julian) for a new song in If Ever I See U Again. Dressed in a bathrobe and not much else, Joe uses his 1978 Best Song Oscar trophy as a ploy – “do you want to touch it?” – to entice young women to his home for sex – or worse. After Serena departs, a besotted Joe finds the apple does not fall far from the tree as his estranged son Nicholas (Carter Callahan) shows up with a desperate plea for help. Farley’s droll Joe and Callahan’s milquetoast and angst-ridden Nicholas heighten their darkly comedy banter as they attempt a reconciliation and a solution for younger man’s dilemma.
In Madam/Madame, Ghislaine Maxwell (a flighty Suzanne Fletcher) — perched on a rattan peacock wicker chair like the queen she was on Jeffrey Epstein’s island welcomes the unworldly Virginia Guiffre (Ruby Farley) to her new environs. Ghislaine haughtily chastises Virginia for pronouncing the silent “s” in the older woman’s name and calmly explains Epstein’s sexual must-haves as if reciting a restaurant menu. Eventually an unrepentant Ghislaine is arrested and held in a Brooklyn jail with her anachronistic cellmate, the notorious “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey (Shannon Holt), who committed suicide over 10 years before Ghislaine’s arrest. Nevertheless, the two bond, lamenting how women like themselves are punished for procuring sexual services for powerful men, clueless to the hypocrisy of their own road to power that enlists powerless women for the pleasure of powerful men.
Ann Closs Farley’s wigs and costumes — from Ed’s pristine three-piece suit and bowtie to Joe’s clumsy looking hairpiece to the drab prison garb of Ghislaine and Deborah — enhance the production’s over-the-top milieu. Designers Sargent and Zombie Joe attachment of twin mattresses to a rotating platform effectively suggest Ed’s perverted playpen as well bunk beds for roomies Ghislaine and Deborah.
Zombie Joe’s underground Theatre group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Wed.-Thurs., through Sept. 10. https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/zombiejoes/4552 Runtime: 90 minutes with no intermission.
