[This is my second
installment of “Quirky Theater,” a selection of reviews from around the U.S.
that cover what I feel are intriguing performances from some of the more
adventurous troupes in different cities.
[As I explained in the
first installment, I’m an associate member of the American Theatre Critics
Association and I get its monthly e-mail newsletter, The Update. One section is called “This Just In,” a list of
links to reviews and articles by ATCA members from their base publications.
[I always glance at them,
and recently, I kept aside several of the notices that just looked
interesting. I posted several on 25 February,
and I’m taking this opportunity to post some more of the reviews to show what’s
going on in some of the theaters across this country. See what you all think.]
“THE POLITICAL IS PERSONAL”
by Kerry Reid
[Kerry Reid’s review of a
new show by the renowned Second City comedy troupe ran in the Chicago Reader of 15 June 2022. The Reader is an alternative weekly
newspaper noted for its coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater.]
Second City’s new mainstage revue triumphs by
centering people over polemics.
Like the rest of the
world, Second City has been through its share of upheavals in the past two
years. Longtime owner, CEO, and executive producer Andrew Alexander stepped
down in June 2020 in the wake of increasing public allegations about institutional
racism at the comedy powerhouse. Anthony LeBlanc stepped in as interim
executive director, followed by Jon Carr, a veteran of theater and improv
comedy in Atlanta, who came on board in December 2020. Then Carr stepped down
earlier this year. Meantime, the company itself was bought by a private equity
firm, and the instructors at the Second City Training Center in Chicago, Los
Angeles, and Toronto have all been fighting for union representation.
And that’s not
taking into account everything happening outside Second City’s doors: a
pandemic, a failed domestic insurrection, the Russian war on Ukraine, and
courts and legislatures across the U.S. seemingly bent on rolling us right back
to the 1850s.
What’s remarkable
about Second City’s latest mainstage offering, Do the Right Thing, No
Worries If Not, is that it ignores almost all of that. And I gotta say, I
think that’s a good thing. We know things are terrible. Does
anyone really need to pay Second City prices to hear the same commentary we can
find dished out for free on late-night television (or in the current January 6
hearings)?
But that’s not to
say that the 110th revue, directed by Jen Ellison in her mainstage debut, is
lacking in politics. By virtue of the diversity of the cast and the way their
intersecting identities are dissected, sent up, and ultimately celebrated, this
show tells us that the very act of unapologetically being who you are is a big
political statement. And one that is absolutely essential to the survival of
the species.
And as the title
tells us, adjusting to each other with grace is also a political act. We’re
going to fuck up. The big question is if we’re willing to listen and
learn—which, as the “yes, and” gurus have been telling us for a minute, is one
of the reasons improv can change your life.
[Second City, for those who
don't already know, is an improvisational comedy troupe. “Yes, and” is a fundamental notion of improv theater. In my post “How to be the Greatest
Improviser on Earth” (10 January 2017), described this technique: “. . . first
you must mentally accept and agree with what your scene partner says [the “yes”].
It becomes an established element of the
world the two or more of you are creating. From there, you build upon the idea by adding
details of your own [the “and”] . . . .”]
In 2018’s Algorithm
Nation or the Static Quo, Second City’s 107th revue, the company leaned
hard into darkness with scenes involving gunshots and an over-the-top parody of
a female Trump supporter. But as Brianna Wellen noted in her Reader review (where
she quoted former Second City cast member Tawny Newsome’s observation that
women were required to wear dresses onstage as recently as 2012), “when there
are so many other progressive and innovative shows happening in the city, it’s
becoming increasingly difficult to see where a theater that wanted to keep
women in dresses fits in.”
In Do the
Right Thing, the cast seemingly wears whatever the hell they want. And
they’re unafraid of crafting vignettes that delve right into the heart of
identity.
So for example, we
have a brilliant scene set at Dick’s Last Resort, where Claire McFadden’s waitron
hands out obscene nicknames at a birthday party for 12-year-olds. But when
informed that one of the guests, played by nonbinary actor Kiley Fitzgerald,
uses they/them pronouns, McFadden’s character falls apart in a spectacularly
cringeworthy display of liberal self-recrimination. When she tries to hand
Fitzgerald’s character a name tag reading “HERO,” Fitzgerald tries to explain
that they don’t want to be called a hero; they just want to live their life
enjoying the same things everyone else gets. Including name tags reading “BIG
SLUT.”
In an audience
participation call-and-response musical segment, Evan Mills (the sole returning
mainstage performer from previous revues, and the co-creator/co-director
of Queer Eye: The Musical Parody now running at Second City’s
UP Comedy Club [the venue for stand-up comedy]) asks us to raise our hand if
we’re from various states, if we’re single, etc. (He also acknowledges the
zeitgeist with “Raise your hand if the news is hard to read,” and “Raise your
hand if you think the world is ending.”) Finally he whittles the demographics
down to “Raise your hand if you’re from Michigan, half Filipino, queer with a
gay dad, and left-handed. [Pause.] Yeah, I thought I might lose some of you on
that one.”
But in addition to
the performers embracing their individuality, there is a theme of duality
running through the show as well, shored up by the title’s implication that
we’re all a combination of our best impulses and our worst. Literal twins are
onstage in a sketch where McFadden as an ob-gyn shrinks herself down, a la the
1966 sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage, and is projected into the uterus
of expectant mom Julia Morales, just to make sure the babies are chill and
relaxed. (Fitzgerald also plays an ob-gyn in a later sketch—but they’re a
dinosaur and their tiny arms just aren’t ideal for manipulating a speculum.)
Sometimes that
duality comes out in observational humor on race. Morales and E.J. Cameron are
the proprietors of “Blackbuster”—a retro video rental store whose motto is “For
every white movie, there’s a Black movie as good or better!” So if you
want The Wizard of Oz, you get The Wiz. If you
want Edward Scissorhands, you get Barbershop. If you
want Forrest Gump, you get . . . Radio (though
Cameron has to blow the dust off that one). Morales and Cameron are also
standouts in an office sketch where they have to code-switch with their white
boss, played by Andy Bolduc with a hearty air of gormless bonhomie. (Product
shout-outs to LaCroix—pamplemousse flavor, especially—and Patagonia apparently
are the lingua franca for talking to white people.)
Ellison, her cast,
and musical director Jeff Bouthiette have built a show that isn’t trying to
impress us with faux-edginess. Instead, it’s a thoughtful and often sweet
showcase for actors who exhibit a great combination of complementary skills,
and who work together with seemingly seamless generosity. A late-night car
scene between longtime friends McFadden and Bolduc, where they both finally start
coming clean about their mutual attraction while role-playing cockney chauffeur
and upper-class Brit boss, is a lovely mini-play. A first-act closing scene
pays homage to high school detention, a la The Breakfast Club, but
with a surprising and poignant reveal.
It’s also hard to
ignore the physical comedy chops of this cast, especially Mills, whose rubbery
physique and mobile facial expressions remind me of a silent-film comedian, and
Fitzgerald, who, in addition to their hilarious dinosaur doctor, turns a
disquisition on fatphobia triggered by their “breaking” a chair into an
increasingly chaotic and hilarious aria of grievances while wriggling all over
the stage.
Speaking of
wriggling: In a second-act musical number, McFadden takes on the persona of a
French chanteuse, crooning a song about how good life can be. Soon we find out
that she’s an earthworm. And she’s cut in half when rain sweeps her onto the
sidewalk. But duality again saves the day; Mills’s earthworm finds and
recombines with her, and life goes on. If earthworms can patch things up and
keep going in the face of a storm, surely we can, too.
[Do the Right Thing, No Worries If Not opened on 8
June 2022 at Second City’s mainstage and is still running (through 19
March).]
*
* * *
“OUT OF THIS WORLD FUN”
by Kerry Reid
[My second selection is
also from the Chicago Reader and
also from Reid. The notice of a “goofy”
show from Chicago Shakespeare Theater ran on 6 July 2022.]
Chicago Shakes shows us a good way to feel
alienated in It Came From
Outer Space.
Last year, Chicago
Shakespeare offered We Are Out There, a digital sneak peek of Joe
Kinosian and Kellen Blair’s goofy musical adaptation of the 1953 Universal
Pictures sci-fi film, It Came From Outer Space, which was itself
based on an original story by Ray Bradbury. Now it’s finally onstage at Chicago
Shakes’s cozy upstairs studio space in a production that’s loaded with
groanworthy jokes (including a long setup to a Bradbury shout-out), cheesy
effects, and everything else you need for the live theatrical equivalent of a
retro night at a drive-in. (Well, no popcorn inside the theater.)
The story follows
John Putnam (Christopher Kale Jones), a wannabe “astronomer-astrologer” who is
convinced that aliens have landed near tiny Sand Rock, Arizona (a town whose
main attraction is a sand museum). Because John is an annoying know-it-all, no
one believes him, except for his schoolteacher girlfriend, Ellen (Jaye
Ladymore), who is also the object of affection of the surly and not-so-bright
Sheriff Matt (Alex Goodrich). But then the townspeople start acting really weird.
With a spritely
score, clever direction by Laura Braza, cunning sets, lights, costumes, video,
and sound design (by Scott Davis, Heather Sparling, Mieka van der Ploeg, Rasean
Davonté Johnson, and Nicholas Pope, respectively), and a skosh of social
commentary (we fear the “other” before we really try to understand them), it’s
an absolute toothsome delight start to finish. The entire ensemble (most of
whom play multiple roles) is pitch-perfect, including Jonathan Butler-Duplessis
as everything from a verbose telephone lineman to Coral, the barfly/confidante
for Ellen who blows the roof off during “I Can’t Figure Out Men”; Sharriese Y.
Hamilton as the energetic local muckraker; and Ann Delaney as a daffy old woman
and as one of the aliens, who achieves maximum expressiveness with her tentacle
appendages.
[It Came From Outer Space ran through 31 August 2022 at
Chicago Shakespeare Theater.]
*
* * *
“RICKY 3’S HIP-HOP SPIN ON SHAKESPEARE”
by Lou Harry
[Lou Harry’s review of a
hip-hop Richard III ran in the Indianapolis
Monthly on 18 July 2022. The Indianapolis
Monthly is a lifestyle magazine published in Indianapolis.]
This month, a local Shakespeare company
stages a hip-hop version of Richard III at the Taggart Memorial Amphitheatre—a
treatment almost as new as the venue.
Indy Shakespeare Company artistic director Ryan Artzberger admits
that fusing Shakespeare with hip-hop is not a completely original idea,
pointing to shows such as The Bomb-itty of Errors and the UK’s
on-the-nose-named Hip-hop Shakespeare Company. “But all of those are really
adaptations,” he says. “I’m interested in the correlation between Shakespeare’s
actual text and hip-hop beats.” That interest sparked the development of Ricky
3: A Hip-Hop Shakespeare Richard III, which the ISC will stage July 21-30.
The company has made
a home for itself at Riverside Park’s Taggart Memorial Amphitheatre, which recently
underwent renovations thanks to a $9.2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment.
The amphitheater is part of a larger $120 million Riverside Regional Park
Master Plan, which organizers hope will help revitalize the surrounding
neighborhood that has seen years of disinvestment. Ricky 3 promises
to be one of the higher-profile productions there this summer.
“We’re cutting and
trimming,” says the play’s director, Mikael Burke, a Butler grad who made a
splash in Chicago before returning to direct at the Indiana Repertory Theatre.
“But we’re staying as true to Shakespeare as possible.”
At least in the
text. “We’re leaning into an Afro-futurist aesthetic,” he says, “creating a
world where hip-hop can be an authentic representation of the culture.”
Ricky 3 is a dramatic change for the company,
whose shows have been fairly traditional since it started offering free Shakespeare
to crowds in 2008. The idea of colliding modern sounds with classic text has
been nudging Artzberger for years. He first experimented with the
hip-hopification of the Bard while teaching at the IRT’s conservatory, where he
guided students through the sonnets by giving them a beat. “It helped them
knock down the wall of perception that it’s an old and dusty thing. Putting a
rhythm in your body helps you get out of your head.”
But would that work
as a full play? A series of conversations exploring those ideas with Burke and
other local artists led to Bale Boy Geechie, a producer at CityDumpRecords who
became the show’s composer. “I like to think I’m heading toward expertise in
theater, but I’m by no means an expert in hip-hop,” says Burke. “Geechie is
exactly that. I knew we’d get to learn from one another.”
With all of
Shakespeare to choose from, why pick Richard III, the story of one
man’s vicious rise to the top of the royalty food chain? For one thing, the
creators saw a connection between King Richard’s talent for wielding words and
a rapper’s ability to do the same. But they concede that, rather than being the
result of a lot of debate, it just felt right. “‘Now is the winter of our
discontent’ just makes more sense when you hear it to a beat,” Artzberger
says.
*
* * *
“ESSENTIAL PLAY FEST’S ‘OUTRAGE MACHINE’
HAS GROWN MORE TOPICAL IN WAKE OF COVID”
by Benjamin Carr
[Benjamin Carr posted his
review of the delayed première of a new play on the Atlanta website ArtsATL on 29 July 2022. ArtsATL was founded to provide
comprehensive coverage of the arts in metropolitan Atlanta.]
Playwright Daniel
Carter Brown crafted a timely, urgent work with his script The
Outrage Machine, which was set for its world premiere with the Essential
Theatre Play Festival in 2020. [The Essential Theatre is an Atlanta troupe.]
Then, the pandemic delayed his production for two years.
The play opens on
Friday night, and Brown is excited for audiences to finally see it.
“When the show got
canceled because of Covid in 2020, artistic director Peter Hardy told me the
intention was to produce the play whenever it was safe to open again, and I
didn’t know what that meant,” Brown said. “I assumed it meant that one year
they’d do two festivals to make up the missing one or they’d work in a weekend
somewhere. I was expecting to get, in some way, less than the Essential
Festival. And I didn’t hear anything for a while and thought it was possible
I’d been forgotten about.”
When John Mabey’s
play A Complicated Hope was announced as the 2022 festival
prize winner, Brown received an email, though, proposing that the two shows
could run in repertory until August 28 [2022].
The Outrage
Machine centers on
Rina, played by Hannah Morris, a young woman in an unspecified city who drives
for a rideshare company. She gets a new freelance gig crafting catchy, shocking
headlines — and only the headlines — for a news website looking to drive up
traffic. Her grasp of eye-catching clickbait, eventually, puts Rina and her
sister Ellie (Ellie Styron), at the center of a political firestorm while Rina
is still driving around rideshare customers.
Brown said the first
draft of the script he wrote was in 2015, when he noticed how people were
consuming misleading news through social media.
“I sensed a growing
awareness of the problem of irresponsible journalism online and maliciously
irresponsible journalism,” the playwright said. “It was an idea that wasn’t
talked about much, at least where I was reading. And then 2016 happened, and it
became what everybody was talking about because it was impacting all of us.”
Reality had started
to mirror satire.
“This fringe issue
was no longer a fringe issue, so my next draft of this script after the dust
settled was a version that didn’t have to introduce the idea that it was an
issue,” he said. “I needed to go deep into how it happens and get into the
heads of the people who are creating these headlines. And ultimately the story
shows how someone with good intentions even ends up doing the same thing.”
The delayed
production hasn’t forced much to change in his script, aside from some details,
including a reference to the former Washington Redskins — now renamed the
Commanders.
Also, one of Brown’s
characters is germophobic, yet that detail has to be illustrated differently
since the pandemic.
“Carrying hand
sanitizer in your purse is no longer a character trait, it’s just something
that we all do,” he said.
Another moment
resonated differently for him in 2022 than it did when he wrote it.
“One thing that’s
really fun is that we’re in the midst of all this fallout and investigation of
January 6, and there’s a moment in the script that wasn’t written in response
to that but feels like it was,” Brown said.
The production
features nine actors portraying 20 characters, many of them rideshare
passengers in Rina’s car. Brown drove for Uber several years ago, and he used
moments from his own work experience to flesh out the script.
He said that one
aspect of the show of which he’s proudest is that most of the characters can be
played by any performer. He avoided pronouns and used gender-neutral character
names.
“I wrote all the
ensemble roles to be played by any gender without having to change the script,
so if you see the next production of The Outrage Machine, Blair
Weeks may be played by a man or a non-binary person,” said Brown, who has
directed and produced at Onion Man, Academy, Onstage Atlanta and Out of Box
theaters. “My background as a director and producer informs my writing, in
that I can make writing decisions that make my play easier to produce. So if a
casting pool at a college has 20 women auditioning and three dudes, the play is
still doable. It also opens up opportunities for non-binary performers.”
That open casting
approach also changes power dynamics in how certain scenes in the script play.
But that doesn’t affect the underlying theme of The Outrage
Machine.
“The overall message
doesn’t change because this impacts all of us,” he said. “We all have some
level of engagement with modern-day news sources and fake news sources and
intentionally satirical sources that some people don’t realize are meant to be
satirical. Because the message of the play is about American society and
humanity at large, the message works no matter what the demographics and gender
dynamics onstage are.”
As divided as the
country is, Brown said he has created a play that he hopes appeals to both sides
of the political spectrum.
“With each draft of
this play, as the world changes, I want this play to be enjoyed by
conservatives,” he said. “I want them to not feel like they’re being attacked.
We all need to work on this. This impacts all of us. Picking examples of things
that everybody gets wrong, all over the political spectrum, is important for
this piece. It’s very political. I think it’s a moderate play, but the moderate
line has moved drastically in past years.”
Brown hopes the work
leads the audience to better consider who delivers their news to them. He aimed
to critique the echo chamber that social media becomes when consumers only
surround themselves with like-minded voices.
“It’s easy to see
that the other side has this problem,” he said. “It’s harder to see that we all
have this problem. When we read something that confirms what we want to
believe, we don’t question it. And so I want the audience to develop that
awareness, that it’s worth taking a moment to question who your sources are and
who your source’s sources are.”
[Benjamin Carr, a member of
the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who
has contributed to ArtsATL since
2019. His plays have been produced at
The Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan, as part of the Samuel French Off-Off
Broadway Short Play Festival, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. His novel Impacted was published by The
Story Plant in 2021.]
*
* * *
“PICK! ASR THEATER — BIG FUN IN CHINATOWN:
‘THE EMPIRE STRIPS BACK’”
by Barry Willis
[The website Aisle Seat Review (Menifee, CA) published Barry
Willis’s review of what he called an “audacious” piece of theater from San
Francisco on 4 August 2022. ASR covers
theater, opera, ballet, music performance, movies, art, and writing in Northern
California as well as the great Inland Northwest region.]
San Francisco has a
long strong history of audacious theatricality.
Home-grown dazzlers
include The Cockettes, The Tubes, Beach Blanket Babylon, and Teatro ZinZanni.
Add to this list two or three annual performances of “The Rocky Horror Picture
Show,” periodic revivals of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” an occasional
over-the-top production of “Cabaret” (SF Playhouse, summer 2019) and hilarious
touring shows such as “Head Over Heels” that rocked the Curran in spring 2018.
At Chinatown’s Great
Star Theater through October 2 [2022], “The Empire Strips Back” is very much in
this tradition. The show originated in 2011 for a three-evening run in Sydney,
Australia and became a national hit, touring Down Under for years before it
went global.
Billed as “a parody
of Star Wars,” the show is more a Star Wars-themed spoof, with dancers assuming
the guises of many Star Wars characters and the stage filled with props from
the long-running film franchise. The lack of a through-line doesn’t tarnish the
production, a music-and-dance revue that in classic burlesque style features a
comic emcee who keeps the audience laughing while stagehands scramble behind the
curtain, prepping for the next act.
Old-time burlesque
featured not only a comic emcee, but jugglers, clowns, and assorted other
diversions between the real attractions: scantily clad female dancers, with
which the Great Star is abundantly supplied. Jugglers and clowns are notably
absent, unless you count a twerking Chewbacca late in the second act.
In a pale blue
“Lando Calrissian” cape, Oakland comedian Kevin Newton serves amiably as emcee,
with perfectly paced commentary on everything happening onstage and in the
audience—a full house on opening night, and a rowdy one too. Who knew that San
Francisco still had so many heterosexuals?
The show’s dancers
are talented, gorgeous, and aggressive, with moves that encompass every dance
genre from the early ‘60s to the hip-hop present. Erin Vander Haar is a
standout, a superb performer with a compelling ability to flirt with her
audience. The show’s pop music also encompasses the past 60-some years, going
as far back as the Spencer Davis Group and into the contemporary era with
pieces like “Seven Nation Army.”
Musically, and
choreographically, there’s something for everyone in this show, but it’s geared
for a young, contemporary crowd—especially those steeped in Star Wars lore,
pretty much a definition of everyone born after 1965. Newton generates plenty
of laughs with cult-insider humor.
Dance segments are
outrageously delightful, such as one that liberally quotes the famous
hair-slinging scene in the film “Flashdance,” done here atop Luke Skywalker’s
hovercraft. As big as a dump truck, Jabba the Hutt appears onstage with dancers
cavorting around and on him. Whether solo, duets, trios, or ensemble, the dance
troupe is phenomenal. Stagecraft varies from amateurish to astounding.
Takeaway: “The
Empire Strips Back” is as far from serious theater as we can get, and what a
welcome departure it is. We have to go back to “Head Over Heels,” more than
four years ago, to remember a show where the audience sang along and afterward
lingered on the sidewalk out front as if they didn’t want to leave. It’s
probably some of the most fun you’ll have in a SF theater all summer long.
[Aisle Seat Review NorCal Executive Editor Barry
Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of
the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.]
*
* * *
“THEATRE REVIEW: ‘FIREBRINGER: A NEW
STONE-AGE MUSICAL’ AT DOMINION STAGE”
by Jeannette Mulherin
[MD Theatre Guide, a Baltimore-based website, ran Jeannette
Mulherin’s notice for “a new Stone-Age musical” on 24 August 2022. MDTG is an online performing-arts news
magazine covering theater, music, and dance in the Maryland; Washington, DC;
and Northern Virginia areas.]
‘Firebringer: A New
Stone-Age Musical’ is a laugh-out-loud reminder that the more things change,
the more they stay the same. Directed by Michael Page with musical direction by
Chad Rabago, ‘Firebringer’ is as much a commentary on contemporary life as it is
a humorous look at humanity’s first attempts to organize itself.
When we stumble on
these early Homo sapiens, their leader, Jemilla (Jessi Scott), has gained the
title “Peacemaker” because she was able to resolve an on-going conflict between
tribe members Smelly-Balls (Glenn Williams) and Chorn (Edward “Teddy” Nagel).
Following a blessing from the Almighty Duck, Jemilla speaks with the tribe’s
former leader, Molag (Melanie McGuin), who admits she invented the group’s
belief system to better control them. Jemilla is shocked when Molag tells her
that Almighty Duck is not a deity and Tiblyn’s (Sara Alipanah) years of holding
up the world with her bare hands has been completely unnecessary.
As the story
unfolds, Schwoopsie (Erin Kemp), the inventor of comedy tells her one joke, and
Emberley (Melanie Kurstin) befriends an outsider named Grunt (Cameron Powell)
who is promptly chased away by the group. Jemilla announces that the duck is
not divine, and Tiblyn can drop her arms without the sky falling in and killing
them all. Ducker, the Duck’s vicar on earth, (Ryan Washington) is outraged at
the loss of his privileged status, and Tiblyn, the loss of her life’s purpose.
Most importantly,
Zazzalil (Lindsey Capuno) invents the spear, and Jemilla and the tribe declare
the invention worthless, turning on Zazzalil. In a fit of frustration, Zazzalil
leaves the cave in the dark of night to prove the spear’s value, accidentally
inventing fire at the same time. Zazzalil exploits the tribe’s amazement at
this new creation to convince them to banish Jemilla and make her the group’s
new leader.
When Act II opens,
the tribe is enjoying the benefits of fire but also coming to see the
drawbacks, Jemilla is enjoying herself in exile as she is now the leader of a
new tribe full of beautiful people, and Duck attempts to reclaim his priestly
power by announcing that he can interpret Fire’s wishes. Grunt reappears before
being snatched by the bloodthirsty Smilodon, Snarl. Unfortunately for Grunt,
the flame has gone out and the tribe is again without fire.
Fire or no fire, the
tribe decides to rescue Grunt. They try scaring Snarl with a picture of fire
etched on a stone. When this fails, they attempt to stab Snarl with spears and
miss, but through a lucky twist, create fire again by rubbing together the
stones on their spears. They set Snarl on fire, killing him and saving Grunt.
In a final surprise, Chorn announces he is an alien, takes credit for the
existence of fire, and shares his knowledge of humanity’s future with the tribe.
The cast
demonstrated an immense amount of vocal talent as well as a gift for comic
timing. Notable performances included Emberly and Grunt’s duet, “Just a
Taste,” Zazzalil and Jemilla’s
“Together,” and Chorn’s “Chorn.” High energy ensemble pieces included “Fire,”
“The Night Belongs to Us,” and “Ouch, My Butt.”
From the bone in
Zazzalil’s hair to Chom’s purple glow-in-the dark sneakers, costume designer
Larissa Norris’s creativity and attention to the smallest details played a
significant role in the show’s success. Set designer Alex Bryce created an
environment true to stone-age fashion that consisted primarily of rock
groupings, and puppet maker Maria Littlefield contributed a memorable woolly
mammoth as well as a larger-than-life Snarl.
If you missed
“Firebringer,” Dominion Stage’s 73rd season has just begun with a selection of
must-see productions!
[Firebringer’s running time was two hours and 35
minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.
It ran through 20 August 2022, presented by Dominion Stage at Gunston
Theatre Two in Arlington, Virginia.
[A native northern New
Yorker, Jeannette Mulherin has a fondness for used books, off-the-beaten-path
travel, and of course, live theatre. She
earned a master’s degree from Georgetown University and an undergraduate degree
from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. She’s currently pursuing a Ph.D. at George
Mason University in the Writing and Rhetoric program. Mulherin is a member of the American Theatre
Critics Association.]
