A Poetic Tribute to Juliet

Juliet awakens to find herself among the dead. She sits within what looks like a tomb and stares at the constraining gossamer walls that enclose her insular space. A candle flickers beside her. She is not Shakespeare’s heroine however, and the setting is not the Capulets’ catacombs. This Juliet is a mother, a mother of seven to be exact, and she has been imprisoned in Romania after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. She speaks in words penned by her youngest son, to a God she fears has abandoned her. This is the premise of Andras Visky’s play Juliet, which has recently been translated into English from Romanian. The story chronicles Visky’s mother’s internal struggles during the time she spent in a prison camp and the play is structured as one long monologue directed toward God. The strikingly gorgeous and talented actress, Melissa Hawkins, plays the leading lady. Hawkins’ devotion to the text and Christopher Markle’s astute direction bring Juliet’s fragmented memories to life. Her remembrances of events seem to ebb and flow from bliss to devastation as her personal biography takes shape on stage. The Independent Theater’s tiny playing space and Terrence McClellan’s scenic design heighten the poetic realism of the piece. The lighting scheme, however, sometimes brings us out of Juliet’s reality when it flickers from light to dark at seemingly random times.

Juliet’s only major deterrent is its length. The play’s running time is 1 hour and 30 minutes, which is a long time to listen to one person speak, however, Hawkins does a great job of keeping the dialogue moving at a rapid pace. Potential viewers are encouraged to sharpen their attention spans, as Hawkins' performance is well worth the effort.

All Talk No Action

Len and Ernest chronicles the inability of two men to solve a conflict. The play begins in a dilapidated Brooklyn bar where Len and Ernest are waiting for a phone call. They sit on opposite sides of the room, consumed by their own thoughts, and speak candidly with one another about their insecurities. When the phone rings both men seem non-plussed, yet it is clear that this call is meant to change the course of events. They seem to know who is on the other line but the audience does not, nor does it ever learn. The call essentially serves as a catalyst for the men to argue over who should leave. But rather than leave right away, they question who should go, when they should go, how they should get to wherever they are going, and so on - perhaps a small nod to Mr. Beckett’s Godot. These seemingly mundane and often ambiguous conversations build to physical altercations, verbal spats and deadly silences but the relationship between the two men never escalates or develops. The conflict is drawn out in such a way that for 50 minutes no one actually does anything or goes anywhere. Finally, at the end, one man leaves. The actors who play Len and Ernest, Francesco Saviano and Mauricio Bustamante, are like two lost electrons that bounce around the wide empty set in slow motion. Their intentions are earnest but the dialogue doesn’t allow them to make any choices.

Characters need to make choices in any story, whether it takes the form of a play, a television show or a fairy tale. A character's decision to act pushes the plot forward. When there are no choices, there is no action, and if there is no action, there is no plot, and if there is no plot, the only result can be a very boring play.

Religious Therapy

At the start of Jesus Rant, the house lights dim and a stool and two suitcases are illuminated. A man dressed in black pants, black converse sneakers and a “got jesus” tee-shirt comes from behind a curtain, quickly surveys his audience, takes a seat on the stool, and begins to talk. The topic at hand is Jesus Christ, if you haven’t guessed that already, and the speaker, H.R. Britton, over the course of his life, has become something of an expert on the subject. In a one hour one-man show Britton unpacks more than thirty years of religious angst generated by the Christian icon. Britton begins by recalling the first time that he was in the center of a familial prayer circle, a mildly amusing account that is followed by other examples of his participation in exercises of religious fervor. These stories are intended to be funny but the punchlines to his tales often get lost. Jesus Rant feels much like a shaggy-dog story that twists and turns but never gets to the point. This sense is exacerbated by Britton’s tone of voice, which seems intended to elicit a casual air, but comes off sounding merely uncomfortable. One gets the sense that he is still struggling to remember his lines.

In the latter half of the performance, Britton talks about his hobby or obsession with reading Christian propaganda. He shares numerous excerpts from books about Jesus that he has collected over the years, many that he pulls from the suitcases on stage. The physical representation of unpacking and re-packing of Jesus in his life conjures the idea that perhaps all of Britton’s anxieties could be alleviated if those suitcases on stage were traded in for a couch and an hour of therapy with a seasoned professional.

Drop Fifteen for Drop Six - It's Worth It

In Drop Six: Mr. Lucky a dynamic group of young comedians called "Drop Six" use music as a vehicle for storytelling. The show is comprised of a number of sketches that rely heavily on the juxtaposition of sound and action, using irony to emphasize the comedic nature of a situation. For instance, in one sketch, Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy" blasts over the sound system to suggest that the barren stage has transformed into a hip club. Enter three young nerdy men who try their best to get jiggy, but to no avail. Of course, a nerdy girl emerges midway through the scene and looks slightly disappointed by her prospects. Though not an entirely original sketch, the performers, Marcus Bonnee, Alicia Levy, Rodney Umble, and Tim Girrbach commit to their personas with such gusto that viewers forgive them for offering a cheap laugh. In another sketch a young man finds himself face to face with a beautiful mermaid while Chris Isaak’s "Wicked Game" blares in the background. The story, which is completely pantomimed, details the young man’s infatuation with the finned femme and eventual realization that he cannot teach a mermaid how to walk. Alicia Levy, the token female in the collective, tries her best to shuffle along with her two-legged suitor and elicits plenty of chuckles in the process.

Many of the sketches in Mr. Lucky build upon one another, although some do not. The lack of complete continuity does not diminish the quality of the performance but may bother viewers who prefer to see loose ends tied up by the end of a show. Overall, Drop Six: Mr. Lucky is entertaining and is no doubt one of the better shows in the Fringe this year.