The Happiest Medium » New York Fringe 2012

Mahmoud – Selected As A Fringe Encore (Fringe Festival 2012)

Geoffrey Paddy Johnson — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 02:04:37 +0000

Iranian-Canadian actress Tara Grammy portrays three distinctive characters in her one-woman show, co-authored by director Tom Arthur Davis, Mahmoud. We see her as the titular Mahmoud, a Toronto-dwelling, Iranian ex-patriot taxi driver in his middle years; as Emanuelos, a gay Spanish immigrant working happily as a department store cologne salesman; and as Tara, a twelve year old Iranian-Canadian schoolgirl with aspirations to acting. Each character is richly invested with a clutch of mannerisms and a particular voice, stylizations which -while attention-grabbing – come perilously close to stereotypes. There’s something more than just a little cartoonish about Grammy’s turn as the rapid-speaking, gasp emitting young Tara, and her Emanuelos could cause Will & Grace‘s Jack McFarland to blush. There may be a political point being made here about westerners – they’re spoiled, shallow, and self-centered – but it’s a pretty broad one. Mahmoud, by contrast, an immigrant who fled Iran during the cultural revolution, is shown as friendly and engaging, with a moderately pitched voice. Even though he wants to talk relentlessly about how wonderful his former country is, and he’s no slouch when it comes to sounding off at other predatory drivers, he’s the soul of modesty. But it’s a comedy – isn’t it? – so go with it.

We’re in Toronto and it’s 2009. The television news media is focused on the protests and social upheaval surrounding forthcoming presidential elections in Iran. All of the characters are vaguely impacted, even Emanuelos who, it transpires, is dating a nice Iranian man (who just happens to be Mahmoud’s closeted nephew). The stories begin to draw together and broader themes of cultural displacement, immigration, racism, and homophobia come into focus under a wider banner of -’what price personal liberty?’ The writing in this regard is skillful and more subtle than the performances suggest. Time passes, things change. Tara gives up on the notion of ever being seen as anything other than Iranian. Emanuelos becomes engaged to his boyfriend, who returns to his country to “announce their plans.” As things continue to heat up in Tehran, the three characters encounter each other in telling exchanges. Tension mounts until the video-captured shooting of a young Iranian woman attending a rally is broadcast around the world; the Neda story. Various simmering issues in the lives of the three principals abruptly erupt with dramatic consequences. The comic vein the piece began in has been left well and truly behind, and the stereotypes melt into more recognizable flesh and blood individuals.

There has been method in Grammy’s broad impersonations after all. Commencing with almost two-dimensional types, the story closes in on the real individuals as the political, social realities of their lives close in on the characters themselves. The climax has a somewhat melodramatic, symbolic over-reach perhaps, but the story holds together and is deftly brought off. For all her enjoyment of comic overkill, Grammy is an agile and attractive performer. She proves disciplined and well timed, both in conducting the story’s narrative flow, and in her changes from one character to another. The performance is all the more praiseworthy for being enacted on the limited platform stage at Jimmy’s No. 43, with no curtain or props; just fluidly synchronized lighting (Jenna Koenig) and sound effects (Mike Conley). As co-author, director Tom Arthur Davis knows what he is looking for from her, and she delivers here handsomely.

Mahmoud is a winner of a 2012 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award, and will be part of the Fringe Encore Series. Details about the encore performance are below:

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Mahmoud
Pandemic Theatre
Writer: Tara Grammy and Tom Arthur Davis
Director: Tom Arthur Davis, Consulting Director: Soheil Parsa, Assistant Director: Omar Hady
One Iranian actress, three characters: an Iranian engineer-cum-taxi driver, a fabulously gay Spaniard, and a pre-teen Iranian-Canadian girl. Their stories intertwine in unexpected ways in this personal and hilarious story. Learn more about Iranians, and maybe even yourself.
Huron Club. 9/22 at 8PM; 9/23 at 3PM; 9/25 at 8PM; 9/29 at 5PM; 9/30 at 5PM.
1h 0m
Solo Show Comedy

www.mahmoudtaxi.com

The FringeNYC Encore Series will present 19 “Best of The Festival” shows in rotating repertory at SoHo Playhouse and The Huron Club (both located at 15 Vandam Street between 6th Avenue & Varick) as well as at The Players Theater (115 MacDougal Street between Bleecker and Houston Streets). Tickets are $18, available at 212-691-1555 or www.SohoPlayhouse.com

Tail! Spin! (Fringe Festival 2012)

Geoffrey Paddy Johnson — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:59:31 +0000

We could all wish that the tone of political debate in this country was higher, and the comportment of political figures more respectful. It would be very nice if the current political scene did not lend itself so easily to farce. A media environment unready to engage with a more complex view of matters is another burden. The salacious, potentially scandalous, and clownish is all they will relate to us. Truth be told, in more than some of these situations, well – you just can’t make this stuff up! Which is exactly what Mario Correa understood when he swooped in to collect four political self-destruct stories from recent media headlines, and edited the associated verbatim interviews, emails, instant messages and Tweets into Tail! Spin! now playing as part of the NY Fringe Festival 2012. If comedy could write itself perhaps it comes as close to doing so here, in the bad faith squirming of exposed guilty parties and in their breath-taking narcissistic capers in quest of extra curricular, usually extra marital, sex.

This is sure fire contact with the public funny bone. Satire feeds on the exposure of hypocrisy and there’s something persistently puritanical in the American character that wants to see sexual outlaws shamed in the stocks of the media spotlight. What’s left for Correa to do is some deft editing and weaving together of transcripts and records, pitching towards caustic ridicule. A passed congressional aide and lobbyist himself – which boasts a familiarity with the political spin game – perhaps there’s a note of personal scorn in his treatment of elected subjects here. The unlucky quartet are Sen. Larry “wide stance” Craig; Rep. Mark “underage page” Foley; Gov. Mark “Appalachian trail” Sanford; and Rep. Anthony “sext pix” Wiener. None of these men hold an office today. All came a cropper over matters of private sexual adventuring in non-private environments. Whatever personal motivations spurred them in their actions, there is a hearty lack of individuality in the process by which they attempted media damage control – denial, followed by flanneling, followed by shame-faced confession. Correa drives this home in a finale scene where the guilty parties enact a sort of choral refrain of public mea maxima culpa. This similarity of behavior is perhaps what invites severest public scorn, and contemptuous mirth.

Played quite loosely, almost as a public reading, the show is lucky in having the undeniable talents of five gifted comedic performers in the forms of Sean Dugan (Craig), Dan Hodapp (Foley), Nate Smith (Wiener), Mo Rocca (Sanford), and Rachel Dratch (wives and “tails”). Each player performs multiple roles, standing in as additional embroiled characters and ravenous media figures. Dratch, with her Betty Boop eyes under mournful brows, is a natural cut-up, and she only has to twitch to gain a laugh. Dugan shows the most restraint in his impersonations, reining in the theatrics and letting the words damn themselves. Media figures, and quite rightfully, are not spared in the production, being the prurient and oily mediums for unpacking these sorry tales. Jubilant incisor marks are left on various august personalities of the realm, including Wolf Blitzer, Sean Hannity, and Barbara Walters.

The set (Caite Hevner) – just five simple chairs facing forward beneath a changing projected banner head – is als0 a quiet star, at once self-effacing while contributing a somewhat poisonous atmosphere of relentless media scrutiny. Dan Knechtges directs, shuffling the actors around from episode to episode, keeping things fluid with a sense of possible impromptu.

For those feeling cramped by, and hopeless about the U.S. political landscape (everybody?), this show offers some gleeful relief. The run of five shows for the festival was quickly sold out. It’s smart and funny, not unlike a few humorous TV current affairs turns of the moment. Laughter – and there is much of it – is a tonic, and Correa, Knechtges, and cast are pulling strongly for it here. It’s more a gracefully interwoven series of sketches than it is a play. As such, it may be churlish to add, Tail! Spin! isn’t aiming very high. Which is why it so successfully over hits the mark. If there’s one fresh moral it serves up nicely, then it’s ridicule costs, and to get it, you really have to earn it.

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TAIL! SPIN!
Zav Productions
Writer: Mario Correa
Relive the romance in this verbatim recreation of the scandals of Larry ‘wide-stance’ Craig, Mark ‘underage-page’ Foley, Anthony ‘twitpic’ Weiner, and Mark ‘Appalachian-Trail’ Sanford. Taken from their actual smut talk, fervent denials and tearful confessions. Come meet your erected leaders!
1h 15m   Local   Manhattan, New York
Comedy
Staycation: Ripped from the Headlines   Ride the Rollercoaster of Love
www.tailspinshow.com
VENUE #07: The Kraine Theater
Sat 11 @ 12  Sun 12 @ 7  Mon 13 @ 8  Wed 15 @ 7  Thu 16 @ 10:30

The Happiest Medium » New York Fringe 2012

Mahmoud – Selected As A Fringe Encore (Fringe Festival 2012)

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Tail! Spin! (Fringe Festival 2012)

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