THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS AIRDATE: January 12, 2007
Theater’s supposed to be
provocative, right? So what better way to kick off the year than with a few
plays about sex and politics? Or sex and war, to be precise. 6th @
Penn Theatre is filling its schedule with beguiling titles and bewitching fare.
On weekends, it’s “Slut,”
a solo show about a woman who really likes sex. And for that heinous crime, and
more than a few willing partners, she gets arrested for prostitution. We meet
Matilda in jail, as she struggles to come to terms with her incomprehensible
predicament, forced to explain her life to a sex addiction therapist and a
macho but potentially sensitive cop. Written and directed by Brenda McFarlane,
the one-act gets bogged down in an unnecessary backstory about Tilda’s noisy,
messy neighbors in the senior residence next door. Susan Hammons is most
engaging when she’s playing multiple characters at once. The writing, direction
and comic timing could use some tightening and sharpening. But the piece is
noteworthy for shining light on one of those pesky gender stereotypes: how
society perceives men vs. women as sexual beings. There may be some frank
language, but the ideas are the most
titillating part of the presentation.
Off-nights, Sunday through
Wednesday, 6th@ Penn is premiering Challenge Theatre, a provocative
concept it its own right. Local playwrights were challenged to write a one-act
about War, with particular reference to Iraq. In addition, each writer was
assigned an object that had to figure in the story: a ticket stub, a key, an
address book or a wallet. They were given nine weeks to write, cast, rehearse
and stage the play. Each writer had a lot to say, and no more than 20 minutes
to cram it all in. All chose to direct their own work for the evening entitled
“War and Quiet Flowers.” The timing couldn’t be better.
“Drafted,” Jason Connors’
intriguing play with music, is set in 2046 and concerns a young guy with an
activist girlfriend, a hawkish father, and a crisp new letter from his local
Induction Station. In George Soete’s Wagner-inspired play, “Glorious Victory
Street,” an American soldier and an Iraqi woman make a life-changing
connection. Matt Thompson’s “Opera of the Oasis” is a spoken word trio of
perspectives – from a torpid reporter, a pedantic teacher and a frantic
prisoner of war. Experimental in form, potent in language. “Flowers of War,” by
Jim Caputo, takes a pointed look at two families, Red and Blue, coming to terms
with the death of a loved one in Iraq. Butting up against these fantasies is a
bracing dose of reality: the gut-wrenching poems of Carrie Preston, about life
with a jet pilot about to be deployed to Iraq.
This is thinking person’s
theater, the kind that might even change some minds.
©2007 Patté Productions
Inc.