Clubbed Thumb's Annual Summerworks Festival  at the Ohio Theater, 2009   2 Reviews

punkplay

Clubbed Thumb Summerworks Festival at Ohio Theater
June 8, 2009
Reviewed by VanLoan
vanloan@nyconstage.org

Since 2000, the fiercely innovative Clubbed Thumb has staged their annual Summerworks Festival at the Ohio Theater. An anchor in the downtown New York theater scene, it's a month long festival of new plays using some of the city's best theater talent. Two of the plays (of the three in the festival) that I viewed are both so fresh and wildly imaginative that one is left dramatically shocked and awed. We can only bow our heads in thanks for the muscular energy that Clubbed Thumb has shown through their commissions and development in this time of economic constipation.

punkplay by Gregory Moss is a story of adolescent angst set in during America's claustrophobic Reagan years. As Duck (an intense Alex Anfanger) proclaims, "the 70's was the asshole and the 90's are the balls, the 80's are the skin in between". He's a problem teenager in the 'rebel without a cause' mold that has been kicked out of his home after refusing his father's request to go to an "army school". Duck shows up at his best friend Mickey's (a wonderfully awkward Michael Zagen). Mickey allows Duck to temporarily camp out on the floor of his cramped white on white bedroom (the ingenious set design is by Lee Savage who pulls a lot of surprises out of the small room). The only outlet the two boys have in the deadening confines of their insipid suburban world is the anarchy and outrageous rebellion of the era's punk rock music scene.

Director Davis McCallum opens the play explosively with the two young actors ferociously roller skating (no rollerblades yet) around the tiny set. With their excellent maneuvering, Mickey and Duck perfectly capture the volcanic energy of the decade's lawlessness while the musical track is pitch perfect, running the gamut from the Dead Kennedys to the Circle Jerks. One of the best scenes in the play has the two actors facing the audience spitting out the possible names for their band growing more and more offensive before finding the best (worse?) name in a rush of orgasmic delight.
Despite all the volatile mayhem, they're still two scared little boys struggling to grow up. Mickey starts to fall for Sue Giki (a suitably disdainful Carie Kawa) a young Asian girl thought to be the school slut. Duck falls (of sorts) for Chris Sawtelle (a menacing Matt Burns), a stereotypical leather jacked thug of the era. Both relationships end badly with Duck especially destroyed ("there's nothing out there, man, you are alone"). In a heartstopping closing, Mickey and Duck slow dance in a homoerotic embrace under a mirror ball with McCallum perfectly capturing the intense bonding inherent in male teenage friendship. An emotional parting between the two boys brings with it the harbinger of the disillusionment of adulthood. Both Anfanger and Zagen are terrifically gifted pulling off the delicate feat of portraying young male anxiety without a misstep. punkplay is a dizzying display of testosterone talent.

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Telethon

Clubbed Thumb Summerworks Festival at Ohio Theater

Reviewed by VanLoan

vanloan@nyconstage.org
June 23, 2009

When the lights come up on Kristen Newbom's play Telethon, the last in this year's Clubbed Thumb Festival, five people are seated at a table in Halloween costumes (clown, skeleton, fairy princess, etc.). We soon realize that two if not three of the adult masqueraders are physically or mentally handicapped. The humorous beginning turns a little confusing if not downright queasy as we try to get our dramatic bearing. Surprisingly and most gratefully, the talented Newbom allows us to become enthralled with and ultimately moved by this band of misfits.

The two group leaders Scott (Greg Keller) and Ann (the always fascinating Christina Kirk) work at a home for the disabled and have just returned to count the proceeds from an outdoor fund raiser. Their three charges Jerry (Andrew Weems) the clown, Gary (Debargo Sanyal) the fairy princess and Shelly (Birgit Huppuch) the skeleton all are wound up from a day outside the facility. The table is at a Dunkin' Donuts where presumably little notice of the group will be taken. The loud banter and outrageous (of sorts) behavior is taken in stride by Scott and Ann. A short blackout allows the scene to be changed to Christmas then later followed by Easter. All the scenes take place in the appropriate seasonal costumes and at the same Dunkin' Donuts (since we have become prepared for the set-up, the ensemble in Easter bunny outfits draws the biggest laughs).

As we watch the recurring post-fund raiser countdowns, we realize that Ms. Newbom's wants us to accept the group as a sort of dysfunctional family. As the pseudo-parents, Scott and Ann bicker, flirt and gossip over work related situations. As the "children", Jerry, Gary and Shelly while obviously a bit more than the usual handful slowly ingratiate themselves into our consciousness. What propels the play out of that dismal "disease of the week" category however, is Newbom's clever handling of the potentially, politically incorrect-ness of the situation. Her dialogue is crisp, sharp and never condescends to her characters. Scott and Ann take the 'antics' of the disabled trio in stride even making good natured fun of them to their faces. While at times shocking (both intentionally and not), the trio seems to know how much they can 'get away with' and are suitably remorseful when chastised. The emotionally charged situations provoke both laughter and melancholy simultaneously.

The author is blessed with a top-notch production team. Director Ken Rus Schmoll (recent Obie winner for his direction of Telephone) keeps a firm hand on the sensibility of the piece knowing which scenes to heighten without allowing any sentimentality to creep in. Costumer designer Kirche Leigh Zelle brings just the right amount of levity to her work. But it's really the actors who steal our hearts. All of them are superb finding both touching and obnoxious nuances in their characters (personally, I was taken with Sanyal's gay paraplegic in his motorized wheelchair). The elegiac final scene seems totally appropriate; an admiring but never patronizing look at a disabled but never disenfranchised family.

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