What do cell phones, natural disasters, and the industrial revolution have in common? LOL: The End (written and performed by Michi Ilona Osato, Una Aya Osato, and Yoshimasa “Sen” Osato) sets out to investigate how the world got to where it is, starting with Man’s earliest domination over nature in order to create shelter, and ending with the isolation that can occur as Man becomes more and more enmeshed in the virtual world of hand-held devices.  Though there are less than a dozen words squeaked out in this dense multimedia interaction (which includes curated new media samples from YouTube, ultramodern kabukesque pieces of clowning, and interpretive dance) the message of this show is still clearly vital, diversified, and meaningful.

The central push of this piece is to show how our scramble for comfort is never-ending and essentially the more we have the more our smaller problems require higher costs to avoid them. The end of the world has never been so engrossing as with the physical comedy and funny dramatic redirections of the audience by Michi as the personification of Greed with its quest to maintain power over others. She sets us in our place while we have pity for Una’s embodiment of the innocence of the havenots around the world and throughout history.

As the story progresses we are given an evolving view and review showing that sometimes those who don’t have the most (or are the  meekest – or most friendly) can actually be  the great causers of  disaster even if they are also the most abused.   They are like drowning victims who will desperately pull down anyone or anything along with them as they sink to the bottom.  Yoshimasa, as the face of the Earth  (or more elusive “Nature”) shows how the earth is patient, but can be irritated at the ridiculousness of Man’s desire to remake the world into something safer and easier to control yet only manages to make it less stable.   While LOL is light-hearted in its depiction of our moves toward disaster, the overall message is more hard-hitting than many documentaries on the subject.  This is perhaps because we can identify with the characters so readily.  With so much meaning laden on so little verbal communication, kudos must be given to the director Moises Belizario who had a lot to orchestrate in this piece. With the sheer number and requirement for precise arrangement, stage manager Clarissa Ligon should get a shout out as well.  The multimedia portions of the show were divided between the sometimes driving and sometimes serene music of Yuri Ryback and Jordan Battiste, as well as by the careful video curation and editing done by Una Aya Osato and Michi Ilona Osato.

Performers from left to right: Una Aya Osato, Michi Ilona Osato, and their father Yoshimasa "Sen" Osato

The beginning of this play, I believe, was intentionally a bit alien and hard to understand; the mysticism of the past which ruled us is so much less in control now-a-days. The dialogue between the three on stage at first seems almost like an abstract dance celebrating color and emotion. By the end of the show the audience is shown a postapocalyptic world where humankind is reduced back to their primal state by a believable set of circumstances.

We see the dance with death, the wonder and the magic of how we react to the power of “disasters” celebrated again by those now newly primitive, echoing the beginning of the play.  In this beautiful yet horrifying dance toward the end, we see the black veil of death alternating with the bright red of fire, blue of water disasters, and even white of disasters of the air in a way that clearly shows the sort of fear modern people could find if our filters of  intervening media of various types were removed.  In this very much the-end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end sort of moment, we realize that most likely, no matter what we do, it is possible the world will go on even if civilization is swept aside by human carelessness.  It becomes quite humbling to see the end where everything returns back to square one, except for the relics of the past strewn around a new landscape.  Like the myths of giants who caused the mountains, the somber peace that enshrouded the audience after the rush of symbolic destruction was palpable.

The image of Yoshimasa as the calmed Earth Spirit in the end  covering his children with a dark veil, with a look of compassion yet a hint of bewilderment and the remaining covering of bright pink hair (representing I think the lasting spiritual miasma which would stay with the earth) that ends the play is  one that will stay with me for a long time.  Try to fit this show in if you can, and you will likely get a lot to reflect on for many days to come.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• LOL: The End. : 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Punk Grandpa: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The Terrible Manpain Of Umberto MacDougal: The Total Package Of Manpain (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• JapJAP – Labels Schmabels (FRIGID New York 2011)
• Get STUPEFIED By Paul Hutcheson

Death, It Happens (Photo by Cathryn Lynne) Pictured from left to right; Maureen Van Trease, Lori Kee, Bricken Sparacino and Rebecca Chiappone)

Down at UNDER St. Marks there are four ladies discussing it. The big, black elephant in the room. Death.

Terrifying, heartbreaking and unrelentingly emotional, losing a loved one is a different journey for us all, but it is in the commonality that we find comfort. In Death: It Happens (A Girl’s Guide to Death) (directed by Lori Kee) we meet four real-life women (Maureen Van Trease, Courtenay Harrington-Bailey, Bricken Sparacino and Rebecca Chiappone) who have lost their fathers in the not-too-distant past; all relatively suddenly, all equally as shocking. They range in age, in background, they are different, but they’re hurting just the same.

This is a brutally honest account of what it means to lose your parent; from the awkward euphemisms to the choosing of the coffin, the bills, the wills and everything in between. It’s hard stuff, but it is told with humor and perspective that keeps it from being a 60-minute sob-fest. An element for which I, personally, was all-too grateful.

I don’t like to get personal in my reviews, but I feel as if I have no choice with this one. I am fortunate enough to have my parents, but I lost both of my grandmothers within a year of each other only too recently. They were strong presences in my life, powerful, beautiful matriarchs who held their families together, loving unconditionally, and shaped me into the person I am today. My maternal grandmother got a big Catholic funeral and wake, and much of what these women talked about summed up my experience: the awkward Facebook messages, the relatives you’ve never seen checking in on you every five minutes, the food and the flowers and the strangeness of it all. But it’s necessary. As weird as it is, as the ladies of Death relate, funerals help.

The production is clearly a cathartic experience for these women in their personal struggles, but it touches the audience nonetheless. By the end, the sniffles and tissues abounded, everyone having their own experience of fear, grief, and loss alongside these brave women. And they are brave. The actual process of death is not often talked about openly. We get memories, stories of the last days, but it is the losing and burying and starting to miss – that is the part that is hardest to openly discuss. Yet these four women are doing it.

Relaxed, confident, and with a little bit of sass, they are truly doing their fathers proud.

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Death, it happens: A girl’s guide to death

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• Death, It Happens: A Girl’s Guide To Death – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The Terrible Manpain Of Umberto MacDougal: The Total Package Of Manpain (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• I’m Not Sure I Like The Way You Licked Me – She Takes A Lickin’ And Keeps On: Bricken
• Lickin’ With Bricken – An Interview With Bricken Sparacino
• Love In The Time Of Chlamydia: Love And War Stories (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

It’s tough out there for a single girl. It’s especially tough out there for a single girl with a habit of substance abuse and an absent father. But Nicole Pandolfo bravely lays it on the line for us in Love in the Time of Chlamydia running now at UNDER St. Marks.

This Jersey girl has a lot of hilarious, ridiculous and oftentimes make-your-skin-crawl war stories from her wild single days in New York. There’s a lot of bar (and bed)-hopping, recreational drug use, parties with strangers, chance encounters, unfortunate moments, and one memorable trip to Paris. Despite all of the hardships and heartbreak, Pandolfo tells her story with a smile, a smug F-you to all of the guys who hurt her and let her down, namely her distant father.

Here is where the levity could use a bit of toning down. In her effort to remain sassy and humorous, Pandolfo glosses over the really tough stuff. Her relationship with her father was what pushed her into her habits of self-destructive dating and partying in the first place, and though she acknowledges it, she doesn’t fully flesh out her journey of self-discovery. Her ultimate decision to cut down on the excess and her eventual happy ending come too quickly and easily, without enough explanation.

Overall, Chlamydia is enjoyable, funny, and played without self-pity. Pandolfo’s wit and charm pair well with the bold, boozy subject matter. She’s uncensored and proud of it.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• Love In The Time Of Chlamydia: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• I Married A Nun! – And That’s Just The Beginning … (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Big Plastic Heroes: Good Things Come In Big Plastic Packages (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Blind To Happiness: To See Or Not To See (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Why So Much Shame?: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

The Happiest Medium Review by guest contributor Linnea Covington

Whether you’re M4W, W4M, M4M, or W4W, there is something for everyone in Missed Connections: An Exploration Into The Online Postings Of Desperate Romantics. The play consists of five actors—Jennifer Jean Anderson, Ricky Dunlop, Lauren Roth, Jake McKenna, and Julia Mattison—five Kindles, a handful of accents, and a whole lot of sass. The premise proved simple: scour Craigslist for the best and the worst missed connections postings. For those of you who don’t know what a ‘missed connection’ is, it’s an electronic posting on a website that people do when they see someone and 1) didn’t manage to talk to them, or 2) lost contact with them. It also has become the sort of place where people send long, steamy rants as a sort of digital therapy.

Most of the show is improv, each actor takes turns reading headlines and then another player dramatizes the situation. McKenna, who just returned from the 12th national tour of the musical CATS, did one scenario where a man watches a girl go to town on a Snickers bar. Only, he did it in a flawless Jamaican accent. Laughter ensued, a reaction that continued throughout the skit. Anderson also mastered the art of comedic voices and many of the characters she played were from the South or lived in a trailer park. Not that you know they are hicks, but it’s the clever persona she gives them that makes you believe they are. In the same vein, guest actress Mattison  (who is making her Broadway debut in Godspell) perfected the neurotic female-male voice, an excellent choice when reading the part of the creepy man watching his neighbor undress. Yes, people really post things like that.

Save for Mattison, the show was created by the performers and presented for the first time last April. Other guests have included Suellen Vance and another Godspell actor, George Salazar. The best thing about the show is its improv nature and getting to hear the outlandish things these people say. I mean, how many M4M, “I want your balls on my face” posts can there be?  Based on this play, a lot. Lucky for the team behind the show, they will always have fresh material as long as Craigslist continues on and people use public forums to express themselves.  Thank goodness.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• Missed Connections: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Starting Tonight! Frigid Hangovers Begin At The Kraine Theater
• The Stranger To Kindness: City Of Strangers (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Drowning Ophelia: She Gets On Swimmingly (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Afternoon Tea With Jane Austen: Cups And Chronicles (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

More often than not, when the question of “how do you want to die” comes up the answer is often “in my sleep” or “surrounded by my friends and family”.  The hope of most human beings is that, when it’s our turn to check out, we do so peacefully and with someone caring by our side.  In David Stallings’ The Stranger To Kindness (directed by Heather Cohn) now playing as part of The 2012 Frigid Festival we see what happens when neither choice is available.

Susan G. Bob (Lena) in The Stranger to Kindness (photo by David Stallings)

Nance won’t come to the door, and this has her long-time friend Lena (Susan G. Bob) in a bit of a panic.  In a burst of almost delusional optimism Lena has set up camp outside her friend’s door, choosing to believe that Nance is inside, fine, and just deciding to stay stubbornly silent.  Lena proceeds to serve up coffee and deal out a hand of cards which she slips under the door.  She incessantly chatters aloud to the empty corridor in the same manner one is urged to do at the bedside of coma victims.  ”Keep taking … they can hear every word you say,” we’ve all heard.  Lena seems to know that no matter where her friend is – on the other side of that door or somewhere else, she will hear her.

Soon enough Police Officer Greco (Antonio Minino), a beat cop, arrives at the scene.  He’s a bit winded, but ready to take charge of the situation.  Within moments he’s sized up what’s going on and his presence forces Lena to burst her own optimistic bubble.   “When you came we were playing cards” she tells the officer. “But not really …” he remarks hesitantly, not sure what state this woman is in.  “Of course not really,” she snaps back.  At this moment, we know that everything she’s done up until this moment has been to stave off the inevitable.

Officer Greco goes on to break down the door and confirm what we’ve suspected all along … and while to him this is just another day on the job he has the humanity to understand that, for Lena, this is a sad moment. When Nance’s son, Paul (Mick Hilgers), arrives he’s all but an interloper; conversation alludes to Paul’s inability to live up to be the type of son Nance held out hope for, and his gruff manner and haughty attitude immediately makes him the odd-man-out in this newly formed group.  Rather than stay and wait for the coroner and be subjected to further disapproval, Paul hurries off.

Antonio Miniño (Greco) and Susan G. Bob (Lena) in The Stranger to Kindness (photo by David Stallings)

As the young officer and the aging woman wait together a strange but sure bond forms; it is the bond formed by strangers who meet briefly and need to pass the time together. It is not unlike the types of relationships one makes with people at jury duty or at the airport when their flight is delayed: polite … at times revealing, but built on the scaffolding of proximity and meant to be quickly dismantled.  Lena knows this of course, yet welcomes the opportunity to tell old stories to fresh ears.  She is a woman who once enjoyed an active social life filled with dinner engagements but now finds herself staring at a phone book which holds more dark black marks than names; evidence of those who have died and  -however unintentionally-  abandoned her.

A brief reappearance by Paul takes the story and shakes it upside down like a purse.  In an effort to appear less monstrous Paul lets go a tirade of abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother, virtually devolving into a toddler demanding they see him as he sees himself.  The very fact that he uses the tragedy of his mother’s death as a platform to defend himself and bash her is monstrous in and of itself, however he is long past the ability to reason that out.   Is he justified?  Perhaps.  I once heard someone on a lowbrow talk-show say “There are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth.  And I’m telling the truth!” This unintentionally humorous adage is nonetheless very real, and Paul is a perfect example of this.

“Being abandoned is different than isolating yourself,” Paul insists.  From his perspective, his mother was manipulative (she would woo him to her home with false suicide threats) but ultimately wanted to be alone.  Several facts do back this up; she didn’t give out her keys and kept people at a distance despite knowing that her health was failing.  Lena was frustrated with this aspect of Nance as well, but had learned not to rock the boat.  Theirs was a comfortable friendship, one of rituals and repetition, one which relied heavily on knowing the moves by rote.  The less variation, the better.  Now, with no more rituals to follow, Nance must make the choice herself – move further into isolation and end up like her friend?  Or open herself to people and risk being abandoned?  By the end of the play there’s a bittersweet question mark hanging in the air.

Director Heather Cohn does a skillful job of preserving Stallings’ inherent ambiguity about the unseen Nance.   The scenes between Minino and Bob are both heartbreaking and charming; a sense of innocent wooing is present, the way a young boy will court his teacher.  And while Minino’s Greco is obviously the one in charge of the situation it is Nance and her years of life that put her at an advantage, however disillusioning that may be.

The Stranger To Kindness is both a very universal story as well as a deeply personal one; bittersweet and melancholy with threads of hope and promise woven throughout.   For so many, living alone is not a choice.  However, The Stranger To Kindness shows that being alone does not mean you must live in isolation.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• The Stranger To Kindness: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Missed Connections: An Exploration Into The Online Postings Of Desperate Romantics (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The Extraordinary Fall of the Four-Legged Woman: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• CHALK: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• All is Fine in Sunny Florida: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

The Happiest Medium Review by guest contributor Linnea Covington

The term “rock musical” can mean a variety of things, most of them not very good. But in Zack Powell and JD Cannady’s Drowning Ophelia, the musical aspect is all part of the story and the story rocks on its own. Cannady, who wrote the book, manages to create a convincing drama surrounding Ophelia, Shakespeare’s forlorn noblewoman who has the bad luck of loving Hamlet. She also drowns herself, which is exactly how she ended up in purgatory, singing away the time with her band the Clowns and waiting for the day Hamlet shows up.

Eliza Morris as Ophelia

Eliza Morris takes the reigns of the title roll and does so with a finesse that makes you believe she could be Ophelia. As she sings her heart out, her powerful voice carries out the emotional impact of the songs while clearly conveying the lyrics. No stranger to the works of the bard, Zack Powell is responsible for writing such catchy tunes as “Dead and Gone,” “My Dear Ophelia,” and “What You Need.” While they do prove a bit kitschy, the tunes communicate not only Ophelia’s passion for Hamlet, but clever lines from the original play dots the lyrics like in the first ditty, “Wash Over Me,” when she belts out, “tell me what to be—or not to be.”

Powell also takes up an instrument as band member Touchstone along with Tommy Malouf as Feste and Patrick Boylan as Puck. All three do an excellent job as Morris’ backup, offering her relationship advice and threatening to beat up a tweaked out Hamlet  (played by Micky O’Sullivan) when he finally makes an appearance. Hamlet, for all he is worth, gets excited to see the charismatic, sexy Ophelia and while she waxes poetically about their past, he ogles her charming figure. Morris plays the part of smoldering temptress with just the right about of cockiness and flirtation to make it believable. The audience, like her band mates, fall in love before the first song even finishes, a pretty good trick for a 400-year-old dead girl.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Outskirts of Eden: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Disney Rejects Perform MisSpelled (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Death: It Happens – Still Daddy’s Girl (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Love In The Time Of Chlamydia: Love And War Stories (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

To say I was “pleasantly surprised” by Slash Coleman‘s solo show Big Plastic Heroes currently playing at UNDER St. Marks as part of the FRIGID Festival is an understatement.  All signs pointed to this show being a raucous, self-aggrandizing narcissistic sausage-fest devoted to testosterone-ladened cultural touchstones and overblown Americana.  After all, the artwork for the show features Coleman not only as Evel Knievel, but as the Bicentennial edition of Knievel, bedecked in red white and true-blue … superhero cape included.  He’s even clutching a football helmet.  Yes, the show I expected to see was vastly different than the one which actually unfolded before me.  Within the first few minutes “pleasantly surprised” was overtaken by “completely mesmerized”.  From there, it only got better.

Writer and performer Slash Coleman is a born storyteller – he has a way of not only captivating his audience but virtually hypnotizing them as his style and cadence allows his story to spring up around him as if by magic.  Using no props, no sound effects, and only very subtle lighting cues Coleman seems to need nothing more than his chair and his voice to support his tale.

So what about the outfit?  Is this truly a story about Evel Kinevel?  Yes.  Of course it is.  Or rather, Kinevel forms the base-note for a series of events which Coleman relates – a time harking back to his childhood.  During the day 8 year old Coleman lived in a world consumed by the Bicentennial, preparing emotionally for the big jump his hero intends to make.  At night he gives himself over to innocent but romantic dreams where he is really old (13) and his 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Autumnbright is really young (12) and all signs point to him becoming her hero.

The story does not take a straightforward path — there are offshoots and byways; one moment we are with Coleman in his dream, pursuing the errant beach ball of his beloved (There was the breath of a beautiful girl inside that ball!) the next moment we are transported to the Moulin Rouge and it is 1937.  In between these jumps we are given snapshots of the people who populate his world. We meet his French mother who kept her Jewish roots in the closet, his Southern dad who made sculptures which consisted of a mash up of taxidermy and bread, his neighbors who hailed from Israel and kissed everyone on the lips (I counted 163 kisses before we got to the table!).  Coleman embodies them all, speaking their language for us, whether it’s the “intelligent but unintelligible” droning of Mr. Mermelstein or the strange clicks and pops his “circus freak” twin sisters used as they hid behind their idioglossia.

Coleman voices (and embodies) all these characters convincingly and seamlessly – moving effortlessly from deep southern twang when emulating his Virginian Dad to husky French when becoming his maternal grandfather.  He also does an admirable Howard Cosell.

But, good as they are,  it’s not the vocal calisthenics which grab you as you lean forward in your seat, captivated by this story.  It’s the charismatic way that Coleman is simultaneously humble yet self-assured.  He is more of a story-teller than an actor, and the cosy layout of UNDER St. Marks, which lends itself to the solo-show in general, services Coleman’s in particular.  He is a modern day Homer — no doubt had he lived thousands of years ago he would be holding crowds transfixed by firelight in a similar fashion.

Slash Coleman’s story ends not so much with a period or an exclamation point as with a comma – much like the comma-shaped mark that he traces along the surface of his X-Ray, the glowing reminder of his Gladiator moment when he went head to, well, jaw with a dog and received 144 stitches, a permanent tooth mark in his skull, and the opportunity to finally hold hands with Mrs. Autumnbright as she escorts him throughout the days after his accident.  The comma, he tells himself, is there to remind him to keep adding to his dreams … one after the other.  It’s a moment that is pure and honest.

At the end of Big Plastic Heroes I felt like I’d only just settled in, and could have sat through many more stories.   But I treasure that comma, for it means many more stories to come.

I went in expecting one thing – I left with quite another.  A hero.  A big  plastic hero.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• Love In The Time Of Chlamydia: Love And War Stories (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• I Married A Nun! – And That’s Just The Beginning … (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Big Plastic Heroes: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Why So Much Shame?: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• It’s Time For Mini-Fridge Elevenses With Bye Bye Bombay!

People are always telling D’yan Forest to “act her age.” For her, that is simply unacceptable. At 77 years young, when D’yan has seen, experienced, and gone to bed with so much of the world, she simply hasn’t been able to settle into her age. In I Married a Nun!, running at UNDER St. Marks, she has set out to tell her story, to explain and illustrate just why being a senior is not where she’s at right now.

For the record, she did, in fact, marry a nun. For 25 years D’yan was unofficially wedded to Mary, an ex-lady of the cloth with whom she travelled the world and shared a rather active sex life (don’t worry–she’s got props). While her relationship with Mary is the focus of a large part of her story, D’yan also goes into great detail about her exploits, dalliances, and experiments before and after. She has, it seems, been comfortable in her skin and up for anything since she was a little girl growing up in Boston.

D’yan Forest is charming, witty, and expressive as she moves through her deeply personal journey. She is entertaining and admirable in her brash, unapologetic discussion of the tawdrier bits of her lifestyle. She relishes in it, wishing, it seems, the same euphoria and freedom on her audience that has been granted to her in this life.

It is only at the very end where the performance needs a little bit of sharpening. The overall meaning of the piece is lost somewhere in her final anecdotes. She muses on the solitary place she finds herself in today, but rather than elevating these thoughts for a higher, more universal message, she quickly wraps it up. What was a story of joy and excitement and unbridled experimental risks becoming just another “hello this is me in 90-minutes-or-less” solo performance. And D’yan is far too fascinating and fabulous for that to be the final takeaway.

There is something truly special about seeing a woman who has so embraced herself and her body and her lifestyle with no hesitation. It’s inspiring, even. She’s up there, bearing her soul and telling her story, armed with nothing but a ukulele.  And a light-up dildo.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• Love In The Time Of Chlamydia: Love And War Stories (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• I Married A Nun: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• A Broad Abroad!: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Big Plastic Heroes: Good Things Come In Big Plastic Packages (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Blind To Happiness: To See Or Not To See (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Not everyone got the kind of name that looks good on a marquee or sounds good in the sentence ” … and the award for best actor goes to …”.  And let’s all just admit it now: no one really knew how to pronounce “Gyllenhaal” till several movies in, and even then it took TWO siblings to get the world to say it properly.  Twenty years later Demi Moore still has 50% of the population putting the accent on the wrong syllable.

So.  Now imagine that you’re not that famous at all.  Nowhere near.  And you’re given a name that everyone mispronounces or mistakes for another name upon hearing it. Wouldn’t you change your name too?  You would if you were Moe Rosen, writer and performer of I’m Only Explaining This Once, his solo-show currently playing at the Red Room.

Moe Rosen – that’s his new name, folks – seemed to have a long, uncomfortable relationship with his original name.  I will not rob future audiences the ah-ha moment of hearing Moe’s given name from his own lips, but I will go so far as to say it’s actually not as uncommon as, say, Rumpelstiltskin and if you’ve lived in New York chances are you’ve heard it before and may even know one or two of your own.  (I actually do.)  But Moe’s story isn’t so much about the name as it is about his family’s complete inability to actually zero in on where the name came from.

Rosen uses pre-recorded video interviews with his parents to start a dialogue.  Both mom and dad (shown separately) have their unintentionally comedic moments as they contradict themselves and each other.  Moe gleefully points these moments out as well as moves the narrative along.  Without a doubt Rosen’s father emerges as the star of the piece; Rosen Sr. waves away the past with a wry smile and -when pressed on how involved he was with choosing Moe’s name-  insists “Well I wasn’t really a part of that.  I just wanted a child”.  It’s rather adorable.

The convoluted back-story of Moe’s moniker has to do with being named after a great-grandfather who died in the Holocaust.  That name, however, was Hebrew, so Rosen’s mom went with the “English version” of the name … though that name turned out to be Israeli.  “It could have been anything,” the father insists, rattling off several (more common) similar “English versions” of the name.  “I just wanted a child” he repeats.

Overall Moe’s earnestness is sweet, the story is funny, and the filmed bit of his parents (which include further back-story about Moe’s grandparents) have unexpected moments of humor that are all the funnier for the gravity with which they are related.  The piece did, however, begin a bit slowly,  and much of the first bits of interviews consist of Moe asking the same question over and over again, as his parents give the same answer.  While it’s amusing, it starts losing its freshness after the 3rd, 4th and 5th repetition. (Asked and answered – counsel is badgering the witness.)

Soon enough Moe moves on and the pacing rights itself – but I would suggest trimming a little from the top, especially in order to stay true to the “once” of the title. I think this show could easily clock in at 35 minutes and still be as funny – if not more so.

Ultimately, Moe Rosen is a likable guy with a story to tell.  He comes from funny stock, that’s obvious, and he’s continuing the family tradition.  With a little trimming and  faster pacing I’m Only Explaining This Once is sure to entertain audiences for as long as Moe continues to explain.
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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

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• I’m Only Explaining This Once: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
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• Man Saved By Condiments: Some Time Alone To Ketchup (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
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We live in a difficult world, rife with headaches and hardships. Each day new problems arise, and we are forced to self-diagnose and medicate to calm the stresses, the woes. But what if we didn’t–what if we made the very specific choice to just be happy? Is that even possible?

This is the massive philosophical question that playwright and performer Tim C. Murphy seeks to answer in Blind to Happiness, his solo show currently running at UNDER St. Marks. Using, in his words, the “quirks and quarks” of characters from his past, Murphy muses through three very different characters.

We are first introduced to Couks, a socially awkward, but notably gregarious dishwasher. Life, it seems, has not been especially kind to Couks. His father has recently passed away after a battle with alcoholism and diabetes, he has a hard time going out and making friends, and Steve, the head chef, has it in for him. He is showing signs of following in his father’s footsteps. Through it all, however, Couks seems to be unrelentingly positive.

One of Couks’ greatest admirers is Mike, a co-worker and graduate student getting his Ph.D in positive psychology. Mike tells us of Couks’ troubles, and the scientific theory that happiness is a choice. He uses Couks as an example, how he chooses to see the best in everything, makes an active decision to be happy despite his seemingly unhappy circumstances.

Afraid of the spotlight, but secretly yearning for it, is Bliss, another server at Couks’ restaurant, and an aspiring poet.

Through many one-sided conversations, much is revealed about the lives of these three men, all struggling to find fulfillment and joy in their lives, and it seems that Couks is the key to the others finding happiness. He is at the same time their hero and their charity case.

Murphy plays each man with his own distinct air, but Couks is clearly the most fleshed-out. Based heavily on a former co-worker of Murphy’s, it’s clear that his is the story Murphy wants to tell the most. And while his performance is hilarious and heartbreaking and a brilliant homage to such a character from his past, the thesis statement and the storyline don’t seem to match up entirely. We are left wondering if happiness is indeed a choice for us all. Sure optimism is, and choosing to have a rosy outlook on the world, but the characters in this piece bounce so far back and forth across the happiness spectrum, you’re left wondering if they will ever be able to find a middle ground.

There’s also the question of, what if happiness isn’t a choice to us all? Aren’t some people simply chemically imbalanced? Murphy briefly flirts with this idea, but doesn’t explore it entirely.

Obviously this is a huge question to try and answer in sixty minutes, and Murphy does a wonderful job of illustrating the ideas behind the theory. His characterizations are excellent, and he keeps the audience engaged from start to finish. By the end, there is light and levity and love; all the makings of a happy ending.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

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• Love In The Time Of Chlamydia: Love And War Stories (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
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