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Overview

Went over to CPT last night and saw Darwinii: The Comeuppance of Man. Tony Brown, several years back, described it as “mesmerizing” and it was indeed that. It started off a bit slowly and I was thinking, “oh, shit…I’m going to have to watch a guy walk back and forth on a strip of red carpet for an hour-and-a-half;” however, once the ball started rolling…

Darwinii

About the play

The play is an apology, of sorts, by Cristobal (Brett Keyser), a man who claims to be the great, great, great… grandson of Charles Robert Darwin. Using ideas about inheritance and genetics and history and sheer comedy Cristobal makes a splendid case as to why this is the truth. In some ways, the play reminded me of Thom Pain: Based on Nothing by Will Eno, which I saw at Dobama some years back, but Darwinii is far less aggressive and confrontational–and far more funny. Keyser keeps the play chugging a long by using varied techniques that are delightful: he comes out in an orange jump suit with his hands cuffed behind he back (he escapes them), he wears Argentinean clothing under his orange jump suit and wields a few hidden knives to demonstrate his prowess, he has imagined conversations with people, he engages in a battle during the Falklands, he sells tchotchkes related to Darwin, plays a book on tape with a woman whose voice leads him on a quest of love, steals rare books from a host of repositories, etc. The play becomes simply a marvelous tale that is not only well-written and reflexive, but well-told and both amazing and delightful to behold.

The play was commissioned in 2009 by the American Philosophical Society Museum, and worth every penny the put into it.

Later that same evening…

Afterward I went to XYZ to have a beer and read some of my screenplay book where I bumped into Celeste Cosentino, Ian Hinz, and Katie Nabors so I got the chance to introduce myself to the Ensemble Theatre folks, which, coincidentally, I could have done on Saturday, had I simply stuck around long enough. Also saw Stuart Hoffman earlier at Darwinii who is having a reading done at Ensemble on the 28th (Cocopelli: a fairy tale for adults) which I hope very much to see. Also saw Mike Williams, who is wrapping up his MFA soon, he was just leaving Poor Little Lulu, which I hope to see next week. Convergence opens its season this weekend, too.

Went to the NEOMFA festival on February 4 and February 9 at convergence and had a blast.  First of all, there were so many faces there that I recognized that it literally was like walking into a holiday celebration at a family house.

Mike Williams’ piece Plant Life was up first.  While it felt a bit unfinished, it was a yearning piece that sought and looked forward with hope to the possibility that the future might bring.  Alan’s (Tom Kondilas) wife Leslie (Liz Conway) has liver disease and needs a new liver.  The waiting list game isn’t working for the pair and they opt in to the possibilities for a new liver presented by a research scientist (Michael Regnier) whose work with plants has yielded intriguing possibilities.  Combined with this, the deterioration of Alan and Leslie’s relationship begins against the disease and the financial stress on the pair (he is a poor artist, she is the bread-winner).  There were two real highlights, I felt. The first was the rapid succession of wake-up-we-have-to-go moments when the phone rang announcing a possible liver donor had been found.  The succession demonstrated the frustration, terror, and effort that is involved in dealing with transplantation and accomplished the task of moving the play forward both in time and in plot.  The second was the work of convergence in using their trap to allow the birth of the plant Leslie from the pod. Having planted and tended the seed given him by the mad scientist, Alan receives the fruits of his labors in the form of a “new” Leslie who holds within her the liver that the real Leslie needs.  While at first an innocuous plant, at the end it is a massive pod that breaks open revealing: Leslie.  The effect was incredible and the audience rejoiced in seeing it—showing again that to a certain extent spectacle is what drives entertainment in a theater.

Jarod Witkowski’s play Nothing Funny was quite different from Williams’ piece, which was primarily plot-driven. Witkowski’s play’s concern is innocuous enough, a son (Benjamin Gregg) and his relationship (or lack thereof) with his parents played by both Amy Bistok Bunce and Wes Shofner—whom it was great to see at convergence again.  The play begins with the mother shoving dinner to her son saying, “I never liked you much as a kid.”  From there the play explodes in an onslaught of strange and rambling monologues, songs, dislocated scene sequences, jumps in time and space, odd interludes, and startling uses of the space that create a highly expressionistic and subjective emotional dissection of a family’s dysfunctional life together.  A television and colorful old pump assembly (put together by Wes) allowed for movement through time at the push of a…handle.  So the play jumps between the present, the future, the past, funny interlude, monologue, etc.  By focusing on these three people and their relationship with one another, Witkowski does a highly effective job of excavating the emotional life of the family: the resentments, disappointments, yearning for connection, and inability to connect or even express themselves—comically highlighted by the constant refrain of both parents: “grammatical error” as their son speaks.  That is, it’s not enough to strive sincerely to express yourself clearly to another person, but to have to do it in precisely correct grammar—as that seems to be what the person your talking to is focused on—well, that just makes it all the more difficult.

Both of the plays were challenging and fun to see and convergence really came together to put on a wonderful set of shows for the NEOMFA playwrights.