Corrin Cummins, Gill Gayle and Danny Tee (Photo by Makela Yepez)
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Frank’s at Atwater Village theatre
Through August 19
RECOMMENDED
Michael Bonnabel, David Wilcox, Mandi Moss and Kirsten Vangsness (Photo by Makela Yepez)
The work of some of the more incisive and unconventional voices in our local theater community are featured in No One Was Hurt, an eclectic mix of plays, poetry, song, dance, and stand-up comedy. The 10th installment in a series, the show is produced by Frank’s, a company of writers and performers who, generally, eschew traditional content and messaging and pursue dramatic truth via a more elliptical path.
This particular showing features three plays, or fragments thereof; Remedy by Wes Walker, DMV by Frank Demma, and Sleeping Spider by Jacqueline Wright (a segment of her lengthier work, Spider Bites).
Directed by Roxanne Rogers, Wright’s play is a subterranean jaunt into the mind and spirit of a high-strung, unstable woman, played at combustible voltage by Kirsten Vangsness.(Vangsness appeared in the role when the play debuted at Theatre of Note in 2008, directed by the late Dan Bonnell.) We encounter Kiley (Vangsness) as both an adult and a fretful three-year-old child. As a child, she vents her anxiety by crayoning on the walls of her home, drawing childlike portraits of her imaginary friends (David Wilcox, Mandi Moss and Michael Bonnabel) much to the frustration of her abusive, alcoholic mom (Kristi Transceau), another disturbed and angry soul. As a grown-up, Kiley struggles with fears of abandonment, with the slippery untruths that pervade our daily interchange with others, and with the schisms and disconnects within herself that prevent her from attaining any stability or peace. The piece leaves a potent impression: Vangsness’s singular dynamic as a performer is ideally matched with Wright’s igneous perspective of what it’s like to live an internally fragmented existence.
DMV, written and directed by Frank Demma, takes place in — no surprise here — a DMV office, and reflects on certain traits in the American (or is the universal) character. Ford (Oscar Best), a contentious, elderly man, is waiting his turn, along with Demetris (Frank Pellegrino), his helper, whose job entails accompanying him everywhere and (as part of the employment package) suffering his abuse. The pair encounter a third man, Mike (understudy Barry Del Sherman), who is hoping to have his license restored after an incident of road rage caused it to be revoked. The play’s focus is two-fold; the reluctance of the oldster to grant full humanity to this person (perhaps an immigrant?) so essential to his well-being, and Mike’s obsession with guns, an appropriate if not-so-subtle take on the gun-crazed demographic we endure.
Of the three short plays, this one is the most accessible, given the relationships among the characters, the humor these relationships generate, and a story that has a beginning and an end with a (relatively) clear resolution. However, as the elderly curmudgeon, Best leans a little too far into the comedy (it’s already structured into the setup and the dialogue) rather than searching deeper against the grain for the situation’s pathos.
Wes Walker’s Remedy, which he also directed, is the most enigmatic piece, and also, somehow, the most resonant. It involves a strange rendezvous between a partnered couple, Magdalena (Corryn Cummins) and Paul (Gill Gayle), who are vacationing at the ocean, and an inscrutable messenger, Matthew (Danny Tee), who comes bearing a gift. Outwardly demure and proper, Magdalena nonetheless seems to delight in taunting her lover with the myriad ways he’s failed her, while he stoically absorbs her remarks. As to the messenger, he waffles between identifying himself as a world traveler and would-be deliverer of aid to those who need solace, and your garden variety nerd full of self-doubt. What’s all this about? It’s hard to say, but the actors’ timing is on-point (Gayle especially), and the humor is droll and poignant.
Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater; Wed., 8 pm; through Aug. 19. https://echotheatercompany.ludus.com/show_page.php?show_id=200538687. Runtime: approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
