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Eclect-A-Fest, Program B
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
The Eclectic Company Theatre
Through Sept. 1
The Eclectic Company seems to have a loyal, enthusiastic and largely uncritical following, which is useful for filling seats. However, a more discriminating audience will demand higher and less hap-hazard standards in production and writing.
This outing, Program B, consists of five one acts. “The Aftersex,” by Kerr Lordygan, directed by Justin T. Bowler, looks at post-coital encounters among five couples: one straight, one gay one lesbian, one inter-racial and one older couple. The various duos argue about issues of recreational sex versus relationships, separations — voluntary and involuntary -– and whether to admit to their families that they’re involved in an inter-racial affair. The individual stories are coherent enough, but there’s scant thematic relationship among them.
“Frankenstud,” written and directed by Caroline Marshall, offers a broad satire on New Age-y transcendental meditation. Haley (Susan Priver) finds herself distracted from her meditation exercises by longing for a cupcake. This is followed by a dream-fantasy in which she has carnal knowledge of an aggressive human-sized pastry (Edward Alvarado). When Haley’s friend Jessica appears with cupcakes, they become convinced that her meditation has materialized the cupcake of her dreams. Jessica tells her she must be specific, and if what she really wants is a man, she must make that clear to the cosmos. Eventually a man does turn up, but he’s not at all what Haley wanted or expected.
Kerr Lordygan’s “Bread, Butter & Marmalade,” directed by Steve B. Green, examines the plight of the women in the Hitler circle as the Third Reich crashes and burns. Frau Junge (Jane Kim) was a true believer, who feels betrayed by Hitler’s suicide. Frau Goebels (understudy Kerry Snyder), in fatalistic despair, kills her six children, and then herself. Frau Braun (Price Adam Troche, Jr.) is presumed to be Eva Braun, but if so, she would never have been Frau Braun. She’d have been Fraulein Braun ‘till her brief and ill-fated marriage to Der Fuhrer, after which she would have become Frau Hitler. But here she has jet-black hair and a definitely non-Aryan look, and she’s played by a man. Whether this is a comment on Hitler or merely an accident of casting, in a production that has been recast and redirected since it opened, remains a mystery.
“Magical Realism,” by Taylor Ashbrook, directed by Steven B. Green, is a slight duologue between a young man (Like Wesley Bainbridge) and his possibly extra-terrestrial guardian angel/good fairy (Paul Messinger) who appears every New Years’ Day. There’s good work by the actors, but the play doesn’t add up to much.
Lordygan’s “More on the Moron,” directed by Matt Ritchey, confusingly crosses a satire on corporate culture with the tale of Kyle (Price Adam Troche, Jr.) who’s bent on revenge against Morton (Thomas Prosser), a viciously homophobic cyber-bully who’s posting slanderous statements about him on the Internet.
Some lines in the evening generate laughs, but none of the plays is particularly impressive, and none is helped by the generally pedestrian direction.
The Eclectic Company Theatre, 5312 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Valley Village; Fri., 8 p.m., Sun., 7 p.m Pay What You Can on August 27; through Sept. 1. (818) 508-3003, eclecticcompanytheatre.org.
