In the dark and hazy mirrored halls a woman stands teetering on a towering wooden stool – eyes blindfolded and arms shackled to the ceiling.  She is motionless, speechless; an altogether eerie presence. Beneath her in the darkness, piles of whitewashed suitcases act as a barrier between her world and some other place. She is Persephone and this is The Maiden, currently playing at The Club at LaMaMa.

This reboot of the Greek abduction myth is the brain child of The Nerve Tank and while it certainly falls under the category of innovative independent theatre, it does so in a way that is expectedly innovative and predictably independent. While there’s a lot to be distracted by it’s not a distraction that transports fans of avant-garde theatre to any new lands. Still, The Maiden does have its enjoyable moments and clocks in at just around an hour – so if you’re in the mood for a little left-of-center performance you’ll probably feel The Maiden is worth the price of admission.

The text, by Chance D. Muehleck, is an amalgam of rap lyrics, movie speeches and bits of poetry which are restated, overlapped, whispered, chanted and spoken in every available manner in order to coax out a subtle nuance or, at times, do the opposite. To this end there are moments when the words (intentionally) become so repetitious as to become almost hypnotic thus losing all their meaning and allowing the tone and timbre to supply the intention of the scene.

The Maiden (photo by Raymond Haddad)

Mark William Lindberg as Hades rides about the environs on a stunning four wheeled chariot (designed by Greg Henderson and Melanie Armer) which he steers expertly as he waves a golden megaphone. His ensemble designed by Miodrag Guberinic is goth black with accents of golden bullets which make their intended statement. As Lindberg channels P. Diddy and raps “I got it all but I really need a wife at home” he comes across more like Eminem dunked in Marilyn Manson.  Don’t get me wrong -this is actually a very enjoyable thing.  Other moments, however, just seem rehashed, familiar, and pat.

Still, for all its contrivances director and choreographer Melanie S. Armer offers forth an underworld that is at times exotic yet robotic – futuristic yet ancient. Some of the most intimate and – if not erotic then at least arousing – moments between Hades and his Persephone (Robin Kurtz) occur as they recite parts of “My Century” By Gunter Grass (referred to moments before in “The Rape Joke“).  The blandness of the passage which explains how he “bought his first straw hat to wear while strolling to the Mühlentor” is neatly counterpointed with a Persephone who shimmies up Hades’ chariot and mingles her breath with his before dismounting. Their shared reality throughout this play is often mimicked by the chorus who sometimes watch, sometimes persuade, sometimes invade, and who are the trio of Admiral Grey (who also composed), Brandt Adams, and James “Face” Yu.

The result of all this movement, talk, quoting and perplexity is somehow more Alice In Wonderland than Persephone.  One has the sense that this underworld of non-sequiturs is simply another plane of awareness – and calls to mind the stream of consciousness propelled from a grown up Alice as she endlessly drops down the rabbit hole.

Overall, The Maiden is an hour’s worth of one parcel of words leading to another. Midway one must simply come to terms with the fact that leaning forward and concentrating with extreme effort is no more the theatre experience intended here than leaning back and allowing the whole performance to simply wash over you.  There’s no correct way to be an audience member, there’s no correct way to interpret theatre, and ultimately if you like your nights of theatre to end with a question mark, or an ellipse rather than a more decisive period, then The Maiden will be exactly the type of theatre experience you’re looking for.  As for me …

~~~
The Maiden

La MaMa’s The Club
74A East 4th Street (2nd Floor)
(btw Bowery & 2nd Ave)
New York, NY 10003

March 28 – April 13, 2014
Created by The Nerve Tank
Friday – Saturday at 10pm and Sunday at 5:30

CLICK HERE for tickets

Related Posts:

• Jasper In Deadland – Take A Dive To The Dead Side
• Alice &The Bunny Hole – We’re All Mad Here (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Friends Of Dorothy – An Oz Cabaret (Fringe Festival 2010)
• “It’s A Wonderful Day To Be A Woman!” In Jurassic Parq (Fringe Festival 2010)

“You do the most wildly inappropriate things when you think the world is about to end” is the excuse Alice (Michelle Woods) and long term boyfriend Bobby (Josiah DeAndrea) use for how they ended up at The Bunny Hole waiting to meet  Jerome and Kelly: prospective up-for-anything sex partners for the evening.  And so begins Alice & The Bunny Hole - a modern, grown up, sexed up take on the Lewis Carroll story we’re all so familiar with.  Playwright Alex DeFazio borrows a lot from Carroll, but he also plays fast and loose with many of the tamer standbys, ratcheting them up as high as he dares.

“We were drunk when we answered that online ad!” they keep protesting when, much to Bobby’s dismay, the ‘Kelly’ of the pair turns out to be male. Jerome is pan-sexual (not bisexual — never that!) and has no qualms about bedding the freaked out straight and narrow couple, something Kelly is a little less into, but if opportunity comes a-knockin’ at your particular bunny hole, never pass up the chance to chase after it, kiddies. Jerome (Dan Johnson) and Kelly (Patrick Martin) gleefully poke at the skittish pair until all their evil prodding and jabbing prompts prim Alice to bark “My shame has just as much right to speak as your shamelessness”.

Of course it does.

At The Bunny Hole the music is loud, the drinks light up, the sex is plentiful, casual, mix-and-matchable, and not always memorable.  The kids who play there are shocking, but parenthetically, or in quotes, as if they’re boring even themselves with their own shocking-just-to-shock behavior.  Despite the fact that the familiar “we’re all quite mad here” line is quoted, it’s uttered as less of an anthem and more of a jaded yawn.

Speaking of mad, yes … the entire gang’s all here: the mad hatter (known to this bunch as The Man With The Tiny Hat and played by co-director Jody R. Person) wears a selection of itty bitty party hats and hangs around the club despite the fact that he seems decades older than his c0horts: a grown up, less nefarious Michale Alig who speaks with a Shakespearean flair because he thinks those words sound beautiful.  Which, of course, they do, Man with Tiny Hat.

Interwoven into this club scene with its go-go boys and them that lurves them is the rather-drab-in-comparison daily life of Alice.  By day she works for a dating site creating mathematical algorithms to help couples find their perfect match.  Apparently she doesn’t avail herself of their services when confronted with the almost non-existent sex life she has with her otherwise pretty hot boyfriend, opting to stay where she is out of comfort for the moment and voyeuristically pop on over to Bunny’s using three weak excuses ( 1. oops, I think I have your mail.  2. can you help me create an [ooooh! naughty!] sex questionnaire for my dating site?  3. Does the go-go boy you call your son need a math tutor?) She peppers her speech with Wonderland phrases such as “I feel so small” and “am I disappearing?” She also eats whatever’s put in front of her, drinks whatever’s put in front of her, and suffers the consequences.  Oh, Alice.

Sliced and diced right into this metaphoric place is the actual tea party scene from Wonderland, almost word for word (No room! No room!  `There’s PLENTY of room!’ / `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?’ / `You should say what you mean,’  `I do, at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s the same thing, you know.’)  which, after all the metaphor was almost a little too much of an homage.

But then there was Bunny.  Played by  Deena Jiles, Bunny rose from the clamor and noise and distraction of this play like Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.  Not only did Jiles have complete control of the character but she commanded each scene and put forth a power and strength that gave a deeper resonance to the play overall.  At first brusk and caustic, she slowly becomes not just a guide to Alice through an internal journey, but she embodies the woman who mothers wayward souls and is the epitome of what it means to rule with an iron fist in a velvet glove.

A voice of reason in the midst of cacophony! Curiouser and curiouser!

So, while Alice & The Bunny Hole didn’t exactly show me something new, or challenge me, or shock me as I was hoping, it did serve up a strong female character who lives life by her own rules, isn’t afraid to create her own mad world, and doesn’t turn away anyone who is on a journey of discovery.   Not bad for a Bunny.

~~~

Alice & The Bunny Hole
Elixir Productions Theatre Company
Writer: Alex DeFazio
Director: Jody P. Person & Alex DeFazio
What’s inside The Bunny Hole? Swinging twinks. Height-altering cocktails. Clues to mathematical mysteries of online matchmaking. Alice thought she’d calculated the perfect life – until she discovers a wonderland of fools, gogo boys, and one Black Bunny that scrambles her formulas.
2h 0m   Local   Jersey City, New Jersey
Comedy   Drama
Staycation: Ride the Rollercoaster of Love   Fantasy Island Excursion
www.elixirproductions.org
VENUE #08: The First Floor Theatre @ LA MAMA        
Mon 13 @ 8  Thu 16 @ 4:15  Fri 17 @ 4  Sat 18 @ 9  Fri 24 @ 4:15

Related Posts:

• 2 Burn (Fringe Festival 2011)
• Friends Of Dorothy – An Oz Cabaret (Fringe Festival 2010)
• “It’s A Wonderful Day To Be A Woman!” In Jurassic Parq (Fringe Festival 2010)

When I was a child there were a few things you could count on, and one of them was that (in the days before VCRs – and yes, honey, I AM that old) if you waited long enough The Wizard of Oz was going to be on TV at some point that year.  Back in the day, TV had that kind of power . . . it could make you wait expectantly for something and then give you the big reveal – making your heart beat faster for that one joyful night.

Seeing Friends Of Dorothy – An Oz Cabaret was a little bit like that and . . . I have a feeling that – just like the hallowed movie – we haven’t seen the last of it.  Dorothy is a Fringe Encore if I ever saw one.  So, while the show has packed up its rigging and its pasties, sit tight.  Here’s a little breakdown of what will certainly come around again:

“Toto,” Dorothy (Rita MenWeep a.k.a Jessica Silver) says to her iPod – crammed with play lists of the band famous for songs like “Africa” . . . “I don’t think we’re in Starbucks anymore!” Poor Dorothy, she got swept away, not in a huge Twister big enough to carry away a house, but rather in a tiny, tidy-bowl sized twister that swirled her through the toilet that she was doomed to clean, had it not, instead, transported her to this magical Land Of Bras.  But Poof!  Just like that the tiny twister took this sister away from her minimum wage job and into the glittery world of burlesque.

First on the scene to welcome her is Glinda (Miss Mary Cyn)  who is swathed in a puff of stuff  . . . but not for long.  Seems clothes just don’t stay on a gal in this Cool New Land.  Glinda sticks around just long enough to strip off the candy pink confection she arrived in, and to give Dorothy some good advice.  Seems the Wicked Bitch of the West (Bianca Del Rio) is looking for the Ruby Pasties (which somehow made their way onto Dorothy’s  . . . dainties) and if Dorothy knows what’s good for her she’ll  . . .well, you know the story.

Soon Dorothy is carried off to dreamland courtesy of a Munchkin (Veruca Honeyscotch) who then dances on the Aerial Silks to a driving Annie Lennox tune.  Sweet Dreams indeed!  Ending with a death defying drop that had the audience gasping in unison as if on cue, this is one Munchkin who knows how to represent – more than just The Lollipop Guild.

So, as Dorothy moves through this strange but exciting land it’s the usual gang of suspects – Scarecrow (Jenny C’est Quoi) does a fun striptease from atop her perch amid the corn, Tin Man (Schäffer The Darklord) entertains with a foul mouth and a nasty attitude (“I am the Tinman . . . who the hell are you?”) by breaking it down for us via a 100mph rap that – if you can follow it – does a great job of  telling the Tale of Dorothy Gale.  And of course there’s The Cowardly Lion (Sizzle Dizzle) who removes her clothes to the A-Team Theme Song.  Cute.  It’s right about at this point in the show that Gypsy’s “You Gotta Get A Gimmick” popped into my head (Once I was a Schleppa, Now I’m Miss Mazzeppa . . .) and I thought “Wow, this is SOME gimmick!”

The Wicked Bitch does her best to strut and sneer and vamp delightfully, when she’s not introducing the next act.  I mean, summoning her minions.  Flying monkeys (Harvest Moon and Mr.  Fantastic) doing a beautiful routine on the static trapeze and more stripping – courtesy of The Wizard -but not really the Wizard (Ambrose) himself round out much of the middle.

When the gang manages to thwart The Wicked Bitch – not with a pail of water but with something much more frightening to a carefully made-up drag queen – there is rejoicing all over the land, including the joyful Gate Keeper (Go-Go Harder) who does a neat little strip of his own.

In the end, Dorothy realizes that she never wanted to go home anyway, The Land of Bras is where she wants to be . . . and as she strips down to her magical Ruby Red Pasties it’s clear that she’s where she belongs.

Fun from start to finish, with just the right mix of kitch, drag, burlesque, circus, and glam this is one wild ride over the rainbow that doesn’t disappoint.  Keep an eye out, this one will be twisting its way back into town again soon – count on it.

~~~

Friends of Dorothy: An Oz Cabaret
Conatus Productions
Writer: Rita MenWeep, Scot Marshall
Director: Megan Doss

www.conatusproductions.com
VENUE #7: The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ LA MAMA

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“A Jurassic Parq with a ‘q’,” is how the narrator who calls himself Morgan Freeman (Lee Seymour) — although he looks nothing like the actor — presents the show to the audience. “‘Q’ is for the question.” The dinosaurs will tell us the true story.

A baby-Velociraptor (Brandon Gill) is being released from a lab into a peaceful community of female dinosaurs (yes, you may remember in Jurassic Park they were all females … until they mutated) who are happily inhabiting their island paradise much like Adam and Eve before they committed the original sin – or perhaps like a bunch of Eves since there are no Adams. The matriarch community is lead and watched over by a pastor – a Velociraptor of Faith (John Jeffrey Martin) who favors the creationist theory that all dinosaurs were created in a lab.

The dinosaurs happily sing together “It’s a wonderful day to be a woman,” – until a terrible thing happens. T-Rex 1(Tara Novie) discovers that something is wrong with her. She’s grown a weird “hose” as she describes it. Her friend T-Rex 2 (Natalie Bradshaw), still a female, fusses over her, all in vain. The narrator Morgan Freeman steps in to explain ominously: “It’s the frog’s DNA.”

No one, even the pastor Velociraptor of Faith can explain what possessed the T-Rex 1, but Dilophasourus (Jay Frisby) whispers to the baby-Velociraptor that the pastor has a sister, Velociraptor of Science (Mary Ellen Ashley), who she banished from her sight – and who may have the answer. Baby-Velociraptor embarks on his quest for Velociraptor of Science, while the chaos starts tearing apart the peaceful predators’ community. The cursed T-Rex 1 completes her metamorphosis and becomes a male, accidently mating with Dilophasourus who happens to be nearby. The still female T-Rex 2 tramples in at the wrong moment. “Don’t move,” T-Rex 1 whispers to Dilophasourus. “If we don’t move, she can’t see us.”

But even a dinosaur can’t stand still forever so T-Rex 2 discovers the cross-species lovers and goes berserk. In her wrath, she runs across the small annoying human vehicle and crushes it to pieces. The saga continues as baby-Velociraptor returns with the Velociraptor of Science, who challenges the Velociraptor of Faith’s creationism and insists that science is the answer. Unfortunately the sisters’ are bound to never resolve their arguments: the furious humans shoot Velociraptor of Faith.

No matter how hard you try you can never predict the next twist and turn of this laugh out loud show. Although all the characters in the play except for Morgan Freeman are females, the actors are not. Jurassic Parq does not discriminate by gender. Velociraptor of Faith is played by a man, the mutated T-Rex 1 by a woman. The costumes – consisting of tights and short wrap-around skirts – are as hilarious as the lyrics. The stone hedge props “get you in the mood” before the show even begins. The synopsis of the play said “you should probably see it drunk,” – and you certainly should. Booze boosts your fantasy like nothing else. Especially when it comes to frog’s DNA.

~~~

Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical
Writer: Emma Barash, Marshall Pailet, Bryce Norbitz and Steve Wargo
Director: Marshall Pailet
Choreographer: Hayley Podschun

1h 20m
www.JurassicParq.blogspot.com
VENUE #7: The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ LA MAMA

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• Friends Of Dorothy – An Oz Cabaret (Fringe Festival 2010)
• Alice &The Bunny Hole – We’re All Mad Here (Fringe Festival 2012)
• They’re Baaaaaaaack! The Best Of Fringe Festival 2010 Returns For Fringe Encore
• Dream Of The Marionettes Is Still Very Much A Dream (Fringe Festival 2010)
• The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival: A Festival Of Brightness In The Eye Of The Storm (Fringe Festival 2010)