The Twentieth Century Way
written by Tom Jacobson
directed by Michael Michette
Rattlestick Theatre
July 9, 2015 Production website 💉💉 out of 5.
The premise of the The Twentieth Century Way holds incredible promise – HELD incredible promise. Based on a fascinating piece of history of 1914, The Twentieth Century Way tells the true story of two actors, Warren and Brown, who where were hired in 1914 by the Long Beach Police Department to entrap gay men in the public bathrooms. Brown, a young man with markedly sweet looks and Warren, an older man with classic ruggedness set about to flirt with men that were giving them the eye. They would lead them into the stalls of the men’s rooms and silently encourage them to to place their penis through a small hole – “glory hole” between the stalls. Once the “pervert” inserted his penis. The actors, now vice detectives, would mark their penis with indelible ink and thus secure their arrest. Continue reading The Twentieth Century Way→
Awake and Sing!
by Clifford Odets
directed by Stephen Brown-Fried
The Public Theatre
July 8, 2015 Production website 💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Here’s a crazy idea! Let’s take the American classic Awake and Sing!, written by Clifford Odets, that tells the story of three generations of an immigrant Jewish family struggling with economic, political and familial issues – – and let’s take this oh-so-Jewish story and cast it with an all Asian cast. Crazy, huh? That is exactly what the Public Theatre did with the combination of Awake and Sing! and the National Asian American Theatre Company!
I came in expecting to hate this play and simply found myself riveted. The plot is simple: four couples of varied sexual backgrounds get together in a beautiful beach home to have a swingers sex party! I was thinking I was going to hear a lot of provocative talk and some, if not a lot of deliciously gratuitous nudity. But, no! The sex party turned out to be as strained and mundane as you might imagine your parents would give. Yech! I get it. Condoms are thrown around as confetti but never used for their given purpose. Lots of sex talk resolved itself into talk of parking difficulties outside the beach home and thoughts on food delivery in the area. Continue reading The Qualms→
The following fifteen play mini-reviews are from plays that I saw the summer of 2015 BEFORE I decided to create this journal of impressions. I apologize for them being quite brief and void of any critical thinking or specifics. Unfortunately, much of what went down in the play is now lost in the compost of my theatrical memories. But I did want to come clean with the extent of my addiction (and this is for this summer only!) and perhaps let you know something of my bias and opinions.
Fourth of July and I am sitting here with the Brits for a full day (near 6 hours) of King Henry VIII and his relationship challenges. This massive work was really quite perfect for the Fourth of July! Told in two parts separated by a dinner break, I took off my shoes, curled my legs and hunkered down for a delicious piece of this history. Smartly so, the set was black and grey and stark and ready to put all of the attention on the characters – not their world. Unlike most tellings of this piece of history, Wolf Hall focuses on the role that Crowell played as he goes from minor player to the puppet-master himself. Continue reading Wolf Hall, Parts 1 & 2→
