Crabs in a Bucket

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Echo Theater Company at Atwater Village Theatre
Through August 21

RECOMMENDED

If you check out “crab mentality” in a psychology text, you’ll find it refers to the tendency of some members in a group to resent, then undermine, the progress of their fellows. The idea stems from a phenomenon in nature whereby crabs in a bucket will grab onto each other and appear to impede the efforts of any other crab to get to the top. (In fact, the behavior is a survival mechanism, a holdover from former days in the ocean or other wild waters, where clinging to a fellow crab could keep one from being swept away.)

In Crabs in a Bucket, his funny allegorical new play, Bernardo Cubria spins a fable around four clownish competitive crabs, creating a parallel between his characters’ contest to reach the top of the bucket and the aspirations of human beings to best each other in the game of life. It’s a smart, clever chronicle of homo sapien behavior which comments not only on our failings as narcissistic beings, too frequently disrespectful of each other, but on the false narratives that drive some of us to strive for a chimerical “top.”

Amargo (Xochitl Romero) and Pootz (Anna LaMadrid) are two aging crabs that have been languishing in the bucket for more years than they care to remember. Amargo, the dominant one, plucks the strings of the pliable insecure Pootz for personal advantage. The pair spend their time ridiculing other crabs, past and present, and are at times seized with rollicking laughter that barely masks their disappointment at not having achieved the goal of any self-respecting crab — to make it to the “Outside” where all sorts of unspecified honors and pleasures await.

Enter Beb (Jordan Hull), a youthful crab with all the buoyant confidence and energy of an ambitious youngster who’s never known disappointment. Their energy and enthusiasm (note: non-binary pronouns are in order for all) infuriate Amargo, but try as they might, Amargo’s fusillade of disparaging insults and bubble-bursting remarks do nothing to dampen the young crab’s spirit. When Beb accidentally attributes senior citizen years to the upper-middle-aged Amargo, it’s clear who’s won the verbal joust.

The inner-bucket squabbling and power-playing struggle intensify with the arrival of Mamon (Michael Sturgis) a crab who’d made it out of the bucket but who now, suddenly and inexplicably, has returned. Former best buds who were mutually admiring, Mamon and Amargo now despise each other. It doesn’t help that Mamon makes cryptic reference to a discontented life beyond the rim —a perspective that puzzles and disturbs the other crabs, for whom getting to “the Outside” remains the ultimate bliss-filled goal.

Much of the humor and charm of Crabs in a Bucket emanates from how artfully the playwright weaves universal wisdom into a story played out by anthropomorphic characters, whose jabs at each other in crab lingo echo the sort of snide remarks snarky humans are prone to make. The contrast between the effervescent Beb and the sorely embittered Amargo serves up another ubiquitous reflection, here hilariously illuminated, on how time and experience alter perspectives on the future (for most of us anyway, not all).

Directed by Alana Dietz, Crabs in a Bucket ignites around Hull’s meteoric performance as the indefatigable Beb. LaMadrid skillfully cultivates all the nuance of a sad, second-fiddle kind of individual, the sort who craves approval from another so badly that they would violate their best instinct to secure it. Sturgis’s smug Mamon brings his own bizarre brand of erratic energy to the mix. As Amargo, Romero relies a bit too consistently on dismissive frowns and disparaging gestures; this character’s bitterness needs to be bigger, consuming them from top to toe, for the central conflict in the play to be explored to the fullest

Azra King-Abadi’s strobe lighting, Jeff Gardner’s earth quaking sound and Arien Saleh’ musical composition add the appropriate fantastical flavor. Lou Cranch’s puffed-up blu-ish costumes, with their winged appendages and elongated pincers, are silly and fun. Amanda Knehans’ scenic design features a scarlet backdrop that opens at the end to reveal a poignant surprise.

The script for Crabs in a Bucket comes with a brief preface, including a quote from Jacques Lecoq, “The clown has great importance as part of the search for what is laughable and ridiculous in man.” It’s a sentiment embedded in the writing of this play, an entertaining romp bearing palpable truth.

Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 pm, Mon., 8 pm; thru Aug. 21. www.EchoTheatreCompany.com Running time: approximately 70 minutes with no intermission.