The Whale - The Unicorn Theatre

The Whale was beautifully done and masterfully written. It was difficult to stomach, at times, so be prepared if you have a weak gag reflex. One of the audience members next to me almost lost it during on of the more graphic scenes dealing with food. 

We all have addictions. It can be food, drugs, religion, alcohol or smoking. Our addictions take a toll on us physically, and the pain we feel we try to control chemically with a variety of methods. The Whale explores all of this, along the back drop of a very sad man who is dying under his 600 pound frame. He urges his students to write the truth and tell the truth, all while hiding alone in his grief. 

It's a painful play to watch, whether or not you can relate to the body and weight issues addressed in the play. It forces the observer to decide if they will be authentic, honest and true, or if they will hide. Hiding can take many forms, and uses a variety of vices. 

This one broke my heart, and will stay with me for a very long time. 

Mr. Burns - A post Electric Play

It has taken me a long time to decide on how to write this review. This play seems ecclectic and irreverent, but something is brilliant over the surface. Over time, art changes. The Shakespeare of today is hardly recognizable from the Shakespeare of his time. What he considered crass jokes and throw away lines that he wrote in a hurry for money we now study in a classroom for our doctorates. In the same way, Anne Washburn really hits on what would happen if our modern day society stopped in an apocolypse and what stories would we tell from that point onward. When the play ends, 75 or so years after the first act after the apocolypse, the music and stories told regarding lost television and musical history are far different than what was actually real. Over and over, the characters remind each other of the bits and pieces they recall, hobbling together a show and buying lines from others. At the end, they create something that is so different than what was the original product that we would see on our television screens at the beginning. It is a written testimony of how storytelling and history changes perception, and how what was inane and simple could be misconstrued to be revered or holy.

It is absolutely insane to try and explain or summarize it. The Unicorn's dramaturg did a brilliant job. 

Please visit unicorn.org for ticket information. 

This production is co-created with UMKC and it is absolutely well-done from the set to the costumes to the acting. The start, however, is Manon Halliburton. She gave a chilling monologue delivery at the beginning that set the tone and description of the entire apolocolpyse. If she didn't do her job on point, the entire first act would have been off kilter. She absolutely nailed it. I would highly recommend any aspiring actors watch her from start to finish with her physicality and her voice control - she is a force. Matthew King's over the top humor in the second act was a surprise. He over-played in just the right areas. As a team, the entire ensemble had to ebb and flow between multiple changes, both in character growth, while almost playing themselves as a morality play. This is extremely difficult and demanding work. They did an outstanding job. 

Word of warning, the Simpsons music will be in your head for a week afterwards. 

The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl - The Unicorn

For details on tickets, visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/796884210410704/ 

This is the opening show to the Unicorn's 42nd season. It is absolutely a risky and complicated show. The topic itself, motherhood and attachment parenting across cultures, is difficult to master. Add in puppetry, time jumps, and scene changes can leave this as one monumental task. 

Katie Kalahurka (mother) was brilliant. I adored her in last's season's Spinning Tree Production of Ghost Rider. It's amazing to see her capture humor and grief in one performance. She is probably my favorite local actor. 

Vi Tran (father) was masterful in his portrayal of one having to move between cultures. His character grew, changing his opinions and convictions, which could have easily been flat. He brought a depth and warmth to the character and turned the play in the direction it needed to go. 

Alex Espy (oldest boy) and Andi Meyer (puppeteer) were masterful and gorgeous in their flow, movements and stage presence. I can't describe too much of what they did because I want any new audience members to be surprised. 

Wai Yim (A Lama) was simply amazing and incandescent when he has scenes to play off of with Katie Kalahurka. It was akin to watching a perfectly timed tennis match. Every gesture and line had another volley back. Brilliant. Sharp direction by Cynthia Levin and impeccable acting. 

Thomas Tong (a monk) did a wonderful job of cluing the audience in to what was going on before it was revealed. I hope to see him grow in more roles in other productions. 

The technical aspects of the play were seamless and amazing. Sarah White (Scenic designer), TzuChing Chen (Asst Scenic designer), Paul Mesner (puppet direction), and Mike Horner (puppet design and construction) had a large challenge that they conquered wonderfully. As always, Tanya Brown (Stage Manager) was on point to make sure it ran on time. This was a preview night, and I'm usually prepared to be very gracious in my reviews with technical glitches. It was flawless. 

My only critique is the second act felt very rushed. There was a lot of great build up in the first act, backstory and emotional discussions. The second act felt like it was hurrying to tie everything in so quickly in a bow it felt unnatural. What it felt like was a major decision was almost made off stage. I can't tell you anything else without spoiling it for you, but that's my only negative in an absolutely gorgeous and well done work. It's honest, daring, difficult, gutsy and complicated with emotions and technical challenges. What a way to open a season. 

Tribes - Unicorn Theatre -

I experienced "Tribes" last night at the Unicorn Theatre. I went last night on purpose as it was going to be interpreted into sign language. 

As I was getting to my seat, the audience was filled with members of the Deaf community who were signing to each other across the theatre, gesturing and translating where to sit in order to see the interpreters. It was a partially quiet audience since half of us were speaking only in sign language. I felt like an outsider but I was ok feeling like an outsider. It was part of the point. 

Even though this show has four seasoned actors and two newcomers, all six of them balanced beautifully. They all were intense and quiet at the right times. The emotion and the fighting could have pushed to melodrama, but it felt authentic of a family who is dysfunctional in the way they show affection. Is it dysfunctional in the conventional way you think of abuse? No, it's more insidious, and it's brilliant and almost feels too long and uncomfortable as the backdrop to Billy's (Paul Ososki) silence at the top of the work. Christopher (David Fritts), Beth (Jan Rogge), Ruth (Nicole Marie Green), and Daniel (Jake Walker) are all yelling at each other, leaving us, and Billy, confused. Billy has been treated as not deaf, but in doing so, he's been left feeling isolated. The very thing the parents and family was striving to do had the opposite effect. 

Jan Rogge is brilliant. I can't say enough about her. She has to be sympathetic, angry, liked, hated, near tears, the whole gamut. It's easy to overlook her performance with the caustic lines that David Fritts delivers as the patriarch Christopher, but Jan is a jewel. Caught between these parents, Nicole has to play Ruth as sometimes in control and sometimes not. Though her part is smaller compared to the rest, she never lets you forget she's there. She shows us heartbreak in the midst of a dark comedic moment. 

I'm completely biased because Jake Walker is a friend of a friend, and an alum of Creed Rep. What he had to do as Daniel was absolutely dangerous. Whenever one interprets someone with a mental illness, there is the danger of becoming a caricature, or laughable. Jake's brilliance was the believability and the breath-holding moments of not knowing what Daniel was going to do next. Was he going to kill someone? Kill himself? Kill Billy, his anchor, if he tried to go off on his own? Drive Sylvia away if she tries to take Billy away? You just don't know what Daniel is going to do or say next, within the confines of a believable character in the midst of unbelievable physicality. As I told him, he killed it. Absolutely killed it. 

Among all this, Paul Ososki (Billy) and Lisa Lehnen (Sylvia) navigated their relationship with a new language. I think there was supposed to be screens on the stage that showed what was being signed but they malfunctioned. As someone who didn't know sign, I missed some of Sylvia's dialogue. I actually thought that was brilliant. Earlier, when half the audience was signing to one another, I was similarly lost. I wasn't in that tribe. This play wasn't for me, or about me. I was going to miss parts. 

As I was leaving the theatre, I patron behind me mumbled, "Well, I give that a C+, I couldn't understand what they were signing or saying half the time. I felt lost." I almost turned around to give him a hand gesture I knew he wouldn't misinterpret, but I kept it to myself. Really, I think that was the part of the play that is important, and having the subtitles break in the middle of the show was actually quite brilliant. The Deaf community doesn't have the benefit of subtitles and people patient enough to teach or show them what is being said. As a hearing person, lost at what is happening, we got a taste of our own medicine. 

This is an exceptional article which talks about the director's desire for authenticity of the casting of Paul Ososki (Billy) as a profoundly deaf actor and of casting Lisa Lehnen (Sylvia) a ASL interpreter: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/performing-arts/article22930440.html . 

* The best translation? Having Paul Walker gesture a blow job, and watching the interpreters interpret it again. Hilarious. The interpreters were just as expressive and on point as the actors, and they become part of the show themselves.

Cock - The Unicorn Theatre (the play that must not be named)

This play is hard to explain. (Pun intended). Basically, John has a long term boyfriend, M, and goes out with a woman, W. John is confused about his feelings and sexuality. And M's dad, F, puts in his two cents which doesn't help. All played out without props, just a set laid out like a boxing ring and four actors. 

90 minutes. No intermission. A ding of a bell signaling the next movement. Actors spitting on each other but never touching at all. Circling. Everyone in gray but the love interest in red like a red flag at a bull fight. Amazing. Dizzying. 

The writing in this is like being dropped in the middle of a conversation where you want to interject by yelling at everyone involved. It's beyond snappy. Everyone was brilliant, but Zachary Andrews (M) was something incandescent. He had to be somewhat of a bastard, but likable at the same time. He had to be angry but testy, fed up but not willing to stop. Everything circled around him, and if that actor hadn't been magnificent, this show wouldn't have worked. Everything plays to him. 

John, played by Jacob Aaron Cullum, is written as milk toast, as someone with no spine and no direction. That is difficult to play as an actor without coming across as low energy. It took a while to catch what was happening, and then I saw John with (W) Molly Denninghoff. John was himself. But sweet. Communicative. With new mannerisms but the same confused core. It's easy to downplay Jacob's brilliance in light of Zachary but he did exactly what he needed to do. We hate John because he won't make up his mind. His silence is infuriating. 

The end scene, the farce-like dinner party, is so brilliant. It's written well, and the fight between (F), Matthew Rapport, and (W) Molly Denninghoff is controlled and then on fire. 

The whole show is angry, seething, a bit of sweet, but quite a ride. Not for the faint of heart. Well done. 

National New Play Network Wine Tasting

Tonight I met Nan from the National New Play Network. I got to chat with her just a bit. She told all of us that by supporting new works that we aren't patrons - we are artists that are influencing the Anerican canon of theatre works that will go on to influence the world. 

She asked me what I did. I told her I was a playwright, and she told me for sure I need to get my work on the new play exchange. For $10 year a playwright can submit their work and Theatres can search by topic, number of actors, length and pick a play from the new play database. She said 5 plays have already been produced from this database. 

I met 3 new playwrights - we all sat at the same table - and they've put their works into the Fringe festival. Tonight was amazing. I'm so lucky. 

Women Playing Hamlet - Part 2

I cannot get over Women Playing Hamlet at The Unicorn. I was at work the other day and I started laughing, and my coworker asked what was going on. I just mentioned I was laughing about the show that I'd seen.

The week before.

This show was everything a theatre production should be. Funny, well executed, a set and costumes that seamlessly worked to convey the entire message. Every actress (yes, all women!) was on point for every minute of the play. The audience was engaged the entire time.

The actresses: Katie Karel, Kathleen Warfel, Cathy Barnett, and Meredith Wolfe were dazzling as they jumped from character to character or from scene to scene. It was breathtaking to watch. 

The men's roles were played by these women, but it was not performed in a caricature fashion. Underneath the humor was a story of heart and an examination choices we must face as artists. Do we go for the difficult choice, to play Hamlet? Or do we go to the sure thing, to act on a daytime Soap?

You do have one easy choice. Whether or not to see this show. You have to go. There are still nights that are 'pay what you can' that are open on the calendar, so there is no excuse.

May your Hamlet handbag fall apart in the wash and your drama teacher drown you in scarves if you miss this show.

Women Playing Hamlet - The Unicorn

I will post a more detailed review tomorrow, but I feel like I'm going to bawl over this play. If you are a woman in theatre you have to see this. This is not optional. 

This play touched on so many struggles that female artists face. This play was hilarious, but it gave a lot of substance to women's roles in theatre and how they are viewed undertaking this role, and the women who've played Hamlet before. The cast was four women, all of whom switched roles (except the lead), and the women played the men's parts. They mentioned Patrick Stewart frequently and Benedict Cumberbatch once. It was like Christmas!! 

I can't get over how within a week I've seen two shows in Kansas City with great roles for women. We really are a lucky town. Go see Black Pearl Sings at The Spinning Tree and then watch Women Playing Hamlet here at the Unicorn. You will see some of the most talented and diverse talent in Kansas City, in addition to being treated to two new plays. This town is amazing. New York ain't got nothing on us. 

 

Jessie Salsbury

Brick Street Theatre

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Unicorn Theatre Season 41 : Opening Night Amazing

They have a new roof, the newly christened Levine stage, and they are incredibly gracious and giving to their patrons. There was a snack meet and greet after the show. Cynthia Levin is amazing and I definitely want to be as brave and amazing as her when I grow up. 

What an opening night to Hands on a Hardbody. Sold out show, rocking music, champagne toast. 

Here's to the local KC theatre that now OWNS their own space. 

Here's to new improvements, including a new roof!

Here's to more new plays by new playwrights. 

Here's to 41 more amazing seasons!

My review is as simple as my Facebook update "omg I wanna make out with this show."

Www.unicorntheatre.org

See this. Get season tickets. Go!