Negative Space Sometimes Shows Us The Way Out

Sadness is a universal and necessary part of the human condition, whether you experience it from losing a job, a loved one or just find yourself at end of your rope.  But is “unhappiness” different than “sadness”?   Can lives be ruined when they are unhappy much more than when they simply have a neutral lack of happiness? Playwright Greg Kotis (who wrote the book for Urinetown as well this year’s Fringe runaway hit, the already sold-out Yeast Nation) examines these themes in 9 short dark comedies called  The Unhappiness Plays.

While on the surface many of these plays seem to be merely absurdest comedies if you look deeper into the core of these plays you’ll recognize yourself in the parodies of humanity playing out on stage.  Each actor does a great job portraying several characters and exploring feelings of conflict, solidarity, dismay, loathing, joy at causing pain, or sadness in something being lost forever.  Director Bob Fisher had his work cut out for him and he delivered marvelously – each play was consistent and distinct from the other plays yet held to the common theme.

The musical interludes by Michelle Edwards set the mood in just the right way during the interludes and transitions.

Sandwich Town begins the plays with the question: Is a sandwich a sandwich if its missing one of its ingredients? The great acting by Steve Wilcox, Richard Briggs and Shawna Franks helps us believe the insanity of this rapidly building play enough so that we can all feel the dismay that permeates the deli after the dissatisfied customer leaves.  Later in Ice Cream Man the clerk and the customer meet again, and instead of hurting him the  Ice Cream Man repays the customer with helpful insight and compassion.

In Asunder we see the vampiric hunger an identity thief  can feel and  how his faithful assistant does his bidding for herself as well.  After all everyone needs to learn a trade . . .

Sandal Man transforms class struggle into a farce so we can actually see how unfair the real thing is.  This short play in 4 acts, takes less than 5 minutes and shows a man’s whole life as he changes from a passive-aggressive counter-cultural, to one of the oppressed, to a political prisoner, to a “free man”.

Upsetting investigates when people say mean things without thinking of the implications.

And It Never Ends investigates health-care from the different aspects of doctor and patient in a never-ending purgatory of a waiting room.  But in looking at all the other options for Hell, “It’s better than the alternative”.

A Bit of Advice is a metaphor for what happens when you’re left alone and don’t know how to be with other people any more.

Hair Play is the finale play of this series and deals with some of the deepest “un”-happiness.  It begins with a son coming home from a haircut overwhelmed with anguish.  He approaches his mother and he tells of his horrible haircut.  His mother has a bright red hairdo and seems to agree his haircut is horrible and tells him it has scarred him for life.

Scarred her for life even!  Because it has so terribly permanently disfigured her son.  Mother gets son so riled up at how much the hairstylist had wronged them she convinces him to cut out the barber’s heart with her scissors and bring her back the heart for her to eat.  The thing is -   he has a perfectly normal haircut.

After a tangle with the police we find this has all been an elaborate plot to to get the son to kill the hairdresser in revenge for “bad” haircut many years before given to Mom  … In short it was all just a setup. What we see in this complex scenario outlines the deepest part of this whol series of plays: all unhappiness can be seen as unreal expectations.

Wonderfully done – thoughtful, entertaining and funny, The Unhappiness Plays is bound to make an appearance in the Fringe Encore series.  Its short run is over – but it’s got a long life ahead of it.  So keep watching for this one.

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The Unhappiness Plays
Space 55 Theatre Ensemble
Writer: Greg Kotis
Director: Bob Fisher

1h 10m
www.space55.org/the-unhappiness-plays
VENUE #10: IATI Theater

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• The Halloween Plays – Three Bursts Of Fire, Fear And Fantasy

“How delightful are the pleasures of the imagination! In those delectable moments, the whole world is ours; not a single creature resists us, we devastate the world, the means to every crime is ours, and we employ them all, we multiply the horror a hundredfold.”

– Marquis de Sade

The Company XIV ensemble Dénouement—A Murderous Masquerade (Photographer: Corey Tatarczuk)

Company XIV has joined up with Brave New World Repertory Theatre to create a show that, in three acts, covers all the grown-up Halloween thoughts that haunt the recesses of the minds of those too old to go door to door asking for candy on the appointed day.

To step into the space of Company XIV is to surrender yourself to the world that Austin McCormick and his cohorts create.  First act – Dénouement —A Murderous Masquerade – is at once devilish, devious, and delirious – it will beguile you, possess you, and then  -once it’s had its way with you-  will leave you emotionally drained, begging for more.

Taking a cue from the Marquis de Sade, the troupe of dancers play a dangerous game of Russian-roulette, one where in the end  just a single person remains standing.  The passion, betrayal, revenge, jealousy, fear, anticipation and excitement are all played out in a breathless whirlwind of dancing that mixes hatred and love as easily as gin mixes with vermouth to make that perfect martini.

Yet again, when Austin McCormick lets his imagination run wild, it runs straight into a world of intoxication, romance and magic.  Dénouement, however, is crisply tinged with exquisite torture as well – the anxious irrationality of the indulgence that seems doomed to fail before it starts.  To watch a woman dance a twisted dance of mourning that is so raw and powerful as to virtually evoke wailing – or to see a woman who would rather kill her lover than become a spectator to his display of wicked philandering – this is to see the true ghosts that haunt the human soul.  Bathed in the ethereal lighting design of Gina Scherr, the effect becomes so heady that you’d need more senses to fully embrace it all.  As it stands, the five you’ve got will be dazzled and overwhelmed.

With narration delivered by an alluringly well-heeled Jeff Takacs (this is a man who knows how to rock thigh-high patent leather spike boots), you will be bewitched by those who “love much . . . but not for long”.

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Chris Caputo (Young Hansel), Scott Voloshin (Witch), and Abigail Drach (Gretel) in Too Much Candy (Photographer: Steve Bartel)

The second of the Halloween Plays begins with candy – Too Much Candy - but soon becomes more about cognitive behavioral therapy.  Seems Hanzel (Stuart Zagnit) had a lousy childhood – he grew up poor and his mommy never hugged him.  Every time he finds himself overcome with memories of the past – something about a witch (Scott Voloshin), something about being abandoned in the woods with his sister Gretel (Abigail Drach) he consumes massive amounts of candy and pours his heart out to a psychiatrist (Claire Beckman) who seems to take more than a passing interest in his life history.

Writer Cynthia Babak has taken an age old tale and given it not just a new twist, but a pat New York twist – children’s story through the lens of shrink’s couch is a Gotham Tale if ever there was one.  Directed cleverly and whimsically by Nell Balaban, Too Much Candy flows well from past horror to present healing – using flashbacks to full effect.  With Chris Caputo echoing as Hansel’s younger self, we’re reminded of how terrifying this bedtime story really is.   Once you revisit it from this side, it’s no wonder this guy’s eating his emotions.

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Kevin Hogan, Alvin Hippolyte, and Sean Patterson in Salsa (Photographer: Steve Bartel)

The final play is a rapid fire, funny short about Salsa.  But not just any salsa – no . . . when we come upon this strange little diner on the edge of town, the patrons  are – as so many of us – in search of that perfect heat . . . that heat that will sear you and deliver all that is promised on that bottle.  One thing leads to another and suddenly a little blue bottle appears.  Hotter than the red stuff.  Hotter than the green stuff.  Hot enough to raise demons from the depths.

Although this is the shortest of the pieces, Salsa – written by Greg Kotis and directed by Chip Brookes – carries just as much weight as the other two.  With delicously spicy humor and a tasty payoff, Salsa is just the right condiment to top off this trio of shows.

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