By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO—This past weekend had me settled in the Uptown/Hillcrest area catching two very different shows but both worthy of mention. Diversionary Theatre and Moxie Theatre have teamed up to mount the U.S. Premiere of Canadian playwright Michele Riml’s new play Poster Boys. Just down the street @ 6th and Penn Ion Theatre Company is mounting William Mastrosimone’s The Woolgatherer.
Both Diversionary Theatre and Moxie Theatre are kicking off their 2011/2012 seasons and what better way to do it than to team up together. This isn’t the first time the two theatres have worked together and in fact, before Moxie found a permanent place to call home, they mounted two plays in the Park Avenue space, Pulp and Bluebonnet Court.
In keeping with its mission statement of “producing plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender themes that portray characters in their complexity and diversity both historically and contemporary” Poster Boys under the deft direction of Moxie’s artistic director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg is bound to be a crowd pleaser. It’s sharp, witty, and timely and fits the bill of its mission statement to a tee.
And while it is all these things plus all the wonderful trappings of a Delicia Turner Sonnenberg’s directorial touch, it’s predictable, by the numbers and with no particular earth shattering revelations.
The play, inspired by a true story, follows 40 something advertising (Zenspiration Advertising) executive Caroline (Julie Anderson Sachs) as she pushes ahead on an agenda she hopes will catapult her into a vice presidency slot by launching a gay friendly add campaign for one of her company’s major advertisers, ClearWater Savings in Orlando. Encouraged by the positive feedback she gets from the Credit Union, she and her co worker, Brad, (Justin Lang) find the ‘perfect gay couple’, Jack and Carson (Charles Maze and John Anderson) who are willing, after some prodding and promises to be the Poster Boys for their gay friendly campaign.
Major conflicts pop up to topple Caroline’s plans one right after the other. First we have the tug of power sharing between Brad and Caroline. Then we learn that Jack and Caroline had a thing (before he came out 13 years prior) and she is still secretly harboring ill thoughts about him especially when Brad introduces him to her as one half of the ideal gay couple. Carson has Catholic guilt and when he sees the advertising spreads that may become the Credit Union’s lead story, he worries about his mother seeing his picture in the paper.
Caroline has flashbacks showing her own intimate insecurities (this was pretty way out in left field) that might have added a bit of humor. Yours truly found them distracting. Finally, when the Catholic Church sees what the Credit Union has in store, it pulls money from a charitable children’s fund almost tanking the whole campaign.
As timely as the piece is, especially with all this nonsense about DADT still having to be enforced by a court order in the military and
not looking at gay marriage as an equal rights violation, Poster Boys needs more substance to give it some juice.
The production is snappy and has its number of laughs. Julie Anderson Sachs looks mahvelous in Jeannie Galioto’s costumes. Her character is bright, pushy and seems to be one step ahead of Brad, but in the relationship department she’s a minus one. Some of the little idiosyncrasies and self-doubt she seems always to fall back on are difficult to comprehend especially someone in her position of power. The three men, on the other hand, are more credible even in terms of what they know about themselves, what they want and how to go about getting it. The men have much more going for them than Caroline. Someone should boycott.
Poster Boys is billed as ‘smart, sexy, political and wickedly funny’. I’ll admit it is political but wickedly funny? You be the judge.
Matt Scott’s sleek set makes all the playing areas easy to see and Luke Olsen’s projections are spot on.
Poster Boys will be playing during Pride Week. Diversionary Theatre will be one busy place.
Enjoy.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through July 31st
Organization: Diversionary/Moxie
Phone: 760-809-2810 or 619-220-6830
Production Type: Comedy
Where: 4545 Park Blvd. San Diego, CA92116
Ticket Prices: $20.00-$45.00
Web: moxietheatre.com/diversionary.org
Venue: Diversionary Theatre
*
The Woolgatherer at ion
SAN DIEGO–Just minutes down into the ‘Hood’ ion Theatre is presenting William Mastrosimone’s The Woolgatherer. Some might remember his 1983 play Extremities which was later made into a movie staring Farrah Fawcett. It’s about a woman who turns the tables on a man who invades her home and tries to rape her.
The Woolgatherer resembles Terrance McNally’s romantic comedy Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune. Last year it was given a beautiful rendering at Ion. It is a two-person play (again made into a movie) about two ordinary but lonely misfits who find each other.
The Woolgatherer is also a two-person play but the characters are not only downtrodden and misfits, they are really both downers. Rachael VanWormer plays Rose a Woolworth’s five and dime store candy salesperson. Brian Mackey as Cliff is a ‘streetwise’ truck driver whose truck has broken down and just happens to pop into the five and dime where he becomes instantly smitten (read one night stand) with Rose. For whatever reason, (especially after we know she doesn’t take many chances) she invites this perfect stranger to her apartment.
Her apartment (Jaymee Ngernwichit) is a dingy, non descript studio with a boarded up window (it’s too complicated to explain), a table, one chair, one glass, canned foods in the cupboards, a bed and a free standing metal closet. Rose is as plain looking as her apartment. What goes on in her head though, is more complicated than a Rubik Cube. What comes out of her mouth, from murdered birds to trying to save birds to jilted friends to knowing just about everyone who died from some trauma you might never have known existed, she is a contradiction whose life is confined to the area from her apartment to her work. She has never stepped outside the Jersey Shores.
Cliff, on the other hand, is a jaded truck driver, a cynic whose wisecracks keep the level of repression in Rose’s room a step above depression. He is actually funny, if you like wisecrackers. But with all his bravado, Cliff is an injured soul looking for a soul mate after his one night slam, bam, and thank you ma’am romp falls flat on deaf ears. Both are looking for love in all the wrong places. She’s dreamy; he’s seen it all. As the evening wears on they are able to coax a bit more from each other but the play turns a bit bizarre after intermission and things go from bad to worse to better but not convincing enough to persuade me that anything these two might be planning will actually happen.
The production directed by Glenn Paris has to be rated A+. Brian Mackey is simply a standout as Cliff. Without him this play would drown from sinking into an abyss of make believe. Mackey brings an energy that propels it past the point of fantasy to a level of engagement. You almost want him to succeed in whatever it is he wants. Ms. VonWormer does the best she can with the up tight, closed off, boring and fragile character called Rose. Together they make this work a fine theatrical experience.
Brian Mackey, however, makes the trip to Ion worthwhile.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through July 31st
Organization: ion Theatre
Phone: 619-600-5020
Production Type: Comedy/Drama
Where: @ 6th and Penn
Ticket Prices: $31.00-$33.00
Web: iontheatre.com
Venue: BLKBOX