Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse – The End Is Nigh In Fairy Tale Land (Fringe Festival 2012)

Linnea Covington — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:27:38 +0000

The spread of fairy tale themed and zombie-filled story lines have saturated the market over the last few years. We have The Walking Dead, Snow White and the Huntsman, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and now, Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse, premiering at the 2012 New York Fringe Festival.

If you haven’t seen it, go, and hurry as if the end is truly coming. Every moment of Brenton Lengel’s play proves worth it. Produced by State of Play Productions, this 90-minute show starts out with Little Red Riding Hood, who soon gets taken by the Big Bad Wolf, who turns her into a zombie. Cue Prince Charming, played by Adam La Faci, and his lady fair, Rapunzel, played by Parker Leventer. Both are there to kick some living dead ass. They do this well, though much credit goes fight choreographer Lisa Kopitsky and her assistant Adam Alexander. Without these two the action scenes – and the characters in them – would have fallen flat.

Eventually, the team of fairy tale crusaders comes across a woman in the woods. “She’s dead, look at her skin, it’s as white as snow,” says a disgusted Rapunzel, after Charming kisses the corpse. But wait! Spoiler: it’s not a dead body; it’s Snow White, played by Lucia Brizzi, who now claims Charming as her own. The two women couldn’t be more different. Rapunzel is strong, bitter, and brave; and Snow White is weak, fluttery, and optimistic. The latter could have been annoying; instead, with great comedic timing the personalities balance perfectly.

Another plot line I enjoyed was Prince Charming; apparently, he actually is the same prince that gets all the fairy tale princesses. This isn’t his fault, he finds, when faced with Prince Dashing, played by David Marshall. Since Dashing is also a ladies’ man, Charming learns that wooing women is both their special power. Dashing uses his gift to steal Rapunzel and Snow White, Charming uses his to seduce a man-eating female bear, played by Simon Feil, who also did a stellar job as the Woodsman.

Each character touches on aspects of their actual fairy tale counterparts. Rapunzel talks about how she lost her hair and twins, Hansel and Gretel make an appearance, iron really does kill fairies, and Snow White is petrified of apples. They make references to just about every fair tale, even ones that aren’t in Grimm like The Princess Bride. No matter what their part, everyone in the cast had me completely entertained for over an hour. I also had no idea how it would end. Let’s just say it surprised me, but I won’t tell. So, go see it already, just make sure to wear your zombie-proof coat.

~~~

Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse
State of Play
Writer: Brenton Lengel
Director: Jessica Creane
Snow White awakens to true love’s kiss 28 days after the zombie apocalypse. Now she must end the plague with Prince Charming — and his axe-wielding lover Rapunzel. Blood, sex, kung fu, gender politics…fairy tales as usual.
1h 40m   Local   Manhattan, New York
Drama   Comedy
Staycation: Fantasy Island Excursion   Sci-Fi Tech SuperHero Camp
www.stateofplaytheatre.com/shows/current-show-snow-white-zombie/
VENUE #01: The Living Theatre
Sat 11 @ 10  Wed 15 @ 2  Sun 19 @ 3:45  Fri 24 @ 5:30  Sat 25 @ 9

The Foreplay Play – What Comes Before

Karen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:46:41 +0000

There is a very telling moment which comes two thirds of the way into Mariah MacCarthy’s play The Foreplay Play which is currently being produced by CAPS LOCK THEATRE at a site-specific location (WAY off-off Broadway) in Williamsburg. This dramedy about the tension which builds between two couples as they tentatively (and sometimes not so tentatively) lay the foundation for a night of orgiastic bliss has many titillating moments, but the one which encapsulated this show for me was probably the least sexual of the night.

After a series of awkward missteps, false starts, jumping the gun (but not without a few hot hot, drrrrrty, breathtaking, throw-you-up-against-the-wall, take-you-right-now-on-the-kitchen-counter moments) Kyle, the sole male of the intended foursome is strumming a guitar and the quartet has just finished a rousing rendition of Springteen’s Hungry Heart. In and of itself Hungry Heart is a beautiful moment – each character singing with completely different motivation: some with actual hunger in their heart, some with nothing more than Springsteen Joy, and others with the taste of a memory, perhaps. Regardless of subtext, the four voices blend beautifully, and yet perfectly naturally – the way any four people with decent singing voices might automatically take the harmonies. They all know the words, they understand the nuances, they enjoy the camaraderie the singing produces, and the moment is binding. The telling moment comes right after, when three of the four decide to launch into Since You’ve Been Gone.

Nic Grelli, Lindsey Austen,Diana Oh and Parker Leventer (Photo by Kacey Stamats)

“I don’t know this song,” pouts Anika (Lindsey Austen) and soon her pout erupts into full-on anger. She has a tantrum, runs from the room, and leaves the others feeling awkward, embarrassed, perhaps guilty, but – let’s be honest – a little smug. We know something you don’t know.

Herein lies the key to good group ANYTHING – but for the purposes of this review we’ll stick to group sex. In order for it to work, everyone has to be in harmony. Everyone has to feel comfortable. Everyone has to know where to pick up, where to leave off, where to come in, and when to hold back. Moving forward when someone clearly doesn’t “know the words” to a certain song (read – doesn’t know the rules of a certain situation) is only going to lead to tantrums.

What The Foreplay Play illustrates and illuminates beautifully is that bringing the fantasy (again, of anything, but specifically group sex) into the real world is a daunting process even if all the clothes are laid out neatly on the bed for you beforehand. Just because you have a piano and ten fingers doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly sit down and start playing Mozart. Even further – simply because you can play the piano doesn’t mean you’ll be able to play a complete performance of all the Chopin Etudes. And so – just because you like sex doesn’t mean you can have it with three other people you’re fond of without someone hitting a harsh note. Perception is easy. Reality is hard. Or … let’s go with “difficult”.

The foursome of The Foreplay Play is made up of Kyle (Nic Grelli) who is sweet, earnest and charming. He’s manly and studly but he’s gentle enough to break down and fall apart when emotions overwhelm him. (And this night is rife with overwhelming emotions of all types). Kyle’s girlfriend is Anika (Lindsey Austen) - a yearning, tentative girl who fancies herself experimental but, when push comes to shove, can’t get out of her own way far enough to move past “vanilla” (which, to this crowd, is more of an insult than a subtle flavor choice). They are hosted for the evening by Anika’s co-worker Isabel (Diana Oh) who is a power house of sexuality and seduction. While Izzy doesn’t actively set out to seduce everyone in the room she is somehow the center of the sexual vortex here as both Kyle and Anika find themselves longing for her in ways that (if you’re an audience member with any sort of pulse) will have you catching your breath. The quartet is rounded out by Isabel’s live-in lover Kelly (Parker Leventer) who is sure of herself, a self-professed Dom who dominates in rooms other than the bedroom and enjoys making others feel uncomfortable, even as she insists on ground rules and guidelines for the evening.

Throughout the evening of foreplay each gets their turn to take a spin in front of the mirror, as it were. On display this evening for all of us (and for each other) to see are each character’s most charming qualities, their most annoying habits, their sexiest urges, their most awkward discomfort. Separately and together they all find themselves acting out, taking the lead, taking a backseat, or simply bobbing along as they watch the inevitable happen.

The cast is strong, each delivering a nuanced performance which gives you an opportunity to side with them or against them depending on the flow of the evening. Under Leta Tremblay’s fine direction the night is hyper-real. The play is, as I mentioned, site specific – so this Williamsburg apartment (big by New York standards but rather intimate for a play) creates an immediate fly-on-the-wall scenario. (Be warned that seating is limited and, like a game of musical chairs, there’s a rush for seats once the apartment door opens. Latecomers will be sitting on cushions up front. Those with knee problems who are loathe to sitting on the floor are, unfortunately, SOL).

The intimacy of the space allows Tremblay to give the characters a whole host of real-time actions to work with – actual dinner to be prepared, actual exits from the apartment to be made. Tremblay also deftly balances all the craziness (Twister! Knife play! Costumes and fake accents! Spin the bottle!) with a solid anchor of gravitas so that rather than feeling MacCarthy is throwing a lot at the wall to see what sticks in terms of theme this feels much more like four actual people who are twisting and turning their way through a strange encounter in order to make it fit for all involved. Unfortunately no matter how many games of Twister they play the right combination just won’t fall into place.

MacCarthy aims for – and delivers – a night of questions rather than answers. A night of seeking rather than finding, and a night which flips over the rocks to explore the grime underneath. While no one gets very naked, emotionally the cast strips bare and the four individuals share intimacies on a level much deeper than the simple exchanging of bodily fluids. Ultimately sex is besides the point. MacCarthy, in her Playwright’s Note, admits that the play “ends up being a celebration of love, not sex”.

CAPS LOCK THEATRE, on their website, states, “We like plays where people are at both their worst and their best; where people screw each other–or themselves–over, and have to find a way to deal with it; where people’s hearts hurt, or open, or blossom.” I’d say that The Foreplay Play does all of this – and perfectly.

~~~

THE FOREPLAY PLAY

A new play by Mariah MacCarthy
Directed by Leta Tremblay
This play takes place at a site-specific apartment in Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
Location will be disclosed to audience members upon ticket purchase

Thursdays-Sundays at 8pm

April 19-May 6, 2012

Click here for tickets

The Happiest Medium » Parker Leventer

Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse – The End Is Nigh In Fairy Tale Land (Fringe Festival 2012)

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