Anyone for a Classy Threesome?
nytheatre.com review by Martin Denton
January 25, 2010
Anyone for a Classy Threesome? is a program of three new short plays from the ambitious young trio behind Just ASK Productions. As in their debut production, Anyone for a Threesome? (2008), writer/directors P. Case Aiken, Adam Samtur, and Matthew Kagen stage each other's work here (and all three, in their capacity as co-producers, handle the set changes between shows as well). Their efforts are abetted by those of designers Juan Jose Ibarra (costumes) and Matt Brogan (everything else), along with a large ensemble cast. The result is uneven but interesting.
Aiken's play, Spinner Spirits Presents Showpiece Theater Starring Rex McDeevit, directed by Samtur, opens the show. The setting, nicely realized by Brogan, is a radio studio, where an adventure show is about to be recorded. Rex McDeevit and his co-star/girlfriend Sasha Clark are big stars in radio, but it's 1950 and this newfangled contraption called television is a looming menace to their careers. Alan Spinner, head of the conglomerate that sponsors the show, is on hand today, and he wants to talk to both Rex and Sasha about moving on to TV, which he predicts will be big. The other conflict in the play revolves around the episode that Rex and company are making: it's a High Noon-ish western with a twist—the "Stranger" who has arrived to save the town from the bandits happens to be a black man. Spinner is appalled and demands changes on the spot.
What I liked best about Spinner Spirits Presents is that its lead character, Rex, turns out to have just as much courage and integrity as the Gary Cooper character in High Noon, which I definitely wasn't expecting. I also very much enjoyed the work of this cast, particularly Greg Engbrecht, who is solid and admirable as Rex, and Pat Reidy, David Ebert, and Lauren Lopez, who each display great range and humor doing a variety of voices and attitudes as the supporting cast of the radio show.
It may be worth noting that the press release for Anyone for a Classy Threesome? indicated that this piece would be adapted from Othello, which does not seem to be the case. Aiken may have moved away from that specific inspiration, but the play he's written is a fine effort.
The other two items on the bill are more clearly renditions of classic sources. 1,001 Peorian Nights, written by Samtur and directed by Kagen, has a terrific concept: the story of Scheherezade and the Arabian Nights is translated into the contemporary tale of Shari, a teenager who is the latest intended conquest of high school stud Shawn. Shari diverts Shawn from his plans to make out with her by bringing to their date a video, the first episode of a serial that quickly grabs his attention. Steve White is dead-on as Shawn, but Sivan Hadari had serious vocal problems at the performance attended; it was almost always difficult to hear her dialogue. The video component (uncredited) is less effective than it might be, as well.
The evening concludes with Kagen's contribution, directed by Aiken, the deliberately arty Scene Five, Circle Two. Inspired by Dante, this abstract movement-based piece takes us to Hell, presided over by Bub. Characters named in the program as "Donna," "Ska," "Lowe," and "Virg" take turns delivering monologues about weighty subjects and interacting with one another in pairings; Ska and Lowe (she looks like a hooker or exotic dancer, he's a big burly man) have a long love scene. I have to admit that I didn't get much out of this, though it was generally interesting to watch.
Anyone for a Classy Threesome? shrewdly offers three very different kinds of theatre, which means that there's probably something for everyone on the bill, but also that, like me, you may not enjoy all of the segments equally. Brogan's designs are impressive throughout, but the time it takes to re-set the stage between plays is longer than desirable. All in all, this is definitely a mixed bag in every sense.
