[ssba]
Revolutionary Love
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Ruby Theatre at The Complex
Through June 27
RECOMMENDED:
Nazin Hikmet was a Turkish poet and political activist. As a writer he pioneered free verse in the Turkish language. As a political activist he spoke out against economic injustice, American imperialism and the suppression of free speech and other liberties denied the Turkish people. His work was banned in his native country even as it was translated and published in 50 other countries all over the world.
A man of principle, Hikmet was unwilling to be silent and he paid for his outspokenness with lengthy prison terms, one of them lasting 12 years. While in prison, he wrote letters to his wife, Piraye.
Adapter-director Fulya Diner has translated some of those letters, along with his poems and speeches, and fashioned them into a moving portrait of this rare individual.
Most of the piece takes place in Hikmet (Bryson Allman)’s prison cell where, in isolation, he reflects on his solitude, the preciousness of sunlight (which he can glimpse from a high window), and on his wife and true love (Elif Savas), to whom he’s writing.
Although Allman’s portrayal needs finessing – in his delivery he tends to drift on the current of the language – he successfully reflects the warmth, passion and intelligence of his character, which makes this play a promising work-in-progress.
International Collective Theatre, The Complex (Ruby Theatre), 6476 Santa Monica Blvd. , Hlywd.; through June 27. https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/2445?tab=tickets
Shakespeare-ish
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Theatre Asylum
Through June 28
RECOMMENDED:
Photo courtesy: Rogue Artists Ensemble
This irreverent take on Shakespeare’s canon of work by Rogue Artists Ensemble doesn’t feature the keenest satire, but its combined display of puppets (Cristina Bercovitz and Sean T. Cawelti), masks (Sean T. Cawelti and Jack Pullman), zany costumes (Lori Meeker) and props (Brittany Blouch) make it colorful and entertaining.
In a redo of Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence appears not as a Catholic cleric but as a sort of witch doctor dispensing potion after potion to the lovers, who keep “dying,” then being resurrected and dying again.
There’s a sketch where a portly clownish Falstaff is targeted by the women he’s two-timed. In another segment, Alex Markadish undertakes all the roles from Pyramus and Thisbe. In another Jeremy Hohn is featured performing a medley of one word walk-ons. (Amazing how many there are.)
A “commercial break” advertises a spot cleaner, with Lady Macbeth. And the most elaborate lampoon is a tongue-in-cheek scramble of the final scene from Hamlet, replete with poison and swordfights, which then segues into spoofs of famous combat and dying scenes from a dozen other plays.
It’s purposely a hyped-up performance. Although for my money it could be a bit tighter, the ensemble is both versatile and energetic, with Hohn displaying an especially fluid physicality. Sean T. Cawelti directs.
Rogue Artists Ensemble, Theatre Asylum – Theatre Asylum/The Elephant Space, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; through June 28. https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/2264
