Bo-Nita @ PCS

I didn't read anything about "Bo-Nita" prior to seeing it on Friday. The logo of the production is an innocuous cereal bowl, which gives no hint at all to the edginess of the show. It is no wonder that I was caught off guard. Bo-Nita speaks with such nonchalance about the horrific things visited upon her in her short thirteen years that it takes some precious time to process what she has said.  More than once I was knocked mentally off-balance, and briefly lost track of the narrative. It gives me great pleasure to warn of disturbing subject matter, because it is to my taste in drama. But, I must reiterate again that this is a sucker-punch of a show. Somehow it manages to mix streaks of dark humor in, and sometimes it works, other times it just increases the feeling of dread. The show is a lean 85 minutes, and if you think that you can take it, you will be glad you saw it. I almost said, "I think you will enjoy it", but I don't think "enjoy" is the word to use here.

I must also take a moment to thank PCS staff for letting me stay warm during transportation difficulties. It was much appreciated.  

"The Monster-Builder" @ Artist's Rep.

Adjectives like "reptilian" and "serpentine" are over-used to describe slimy and unpleasant characters. Watch Michael Eilich's otherworldly performance as architect Gregor Zebrowski  in Amy Freed's "The Monster-Builder" and I dare you to tell me any other description would do the character justice. Especially in the scene where he interacts with the eel he's about to dine upon. Elich's all-in performance is worth the price of admission by itself.

There are even more pleasures to be had: the askew set by Tom Buderwitz, the dark and sly humor of the script. I must note that the script sometimes talks past its audience, the rapid-fire name-dropping can pull you out of the action for a bit. (The playbill does contain a glossary, but it's buried on the last page before the Cast List, which undercuts its usefulness.)

I can't shake the feeling that I am short-changing Mr. Erlich's performance, here's one more attempt to capture its brilliance: He is as imposing as the structures he creates.

  

Jonny Lang @ The Roseland

Last night Jonny Lang reminded me why I love live music. The thing I love beyond all else- beyond lyricism, beyond rhythm, beyond synchronicity, is watching a musician,-a band- put every ounce of themselves into a performance. If you're lucky, you may be able to hear that on a record, but it really must be seen. Part of what I'm trying to describe involves sweat and energy, but sometimes it also involves something else, something deeper.  A person like Jonny Lang puts his soul on stage. "Red Light" was already my favorite track on "Long Time Coming," but when Mr. Lang sang it last night with all the desperation of someone searching for more, it's an entirely different song. Some may want to dismiss Lang's recent religiously influenced work as only for those who share his faith, but I think that is a mistake. Many of those songs are among his best work, due in large part to what they obviously mean to him personally. I am not a Christian, in fact the closest thing I have to a religion is the experience we shared last night. The electricity that exists between artist and audience is very spiritual indeed.

I've been laughing lately about how the word "epic" is overused, and used as a synonym for "excellent" or "cool," instead of lengthy or wide in scope. But, there is no other word but 'epic' to describe the extended versions of songs Jonny Lang played last night. They were truly astonishing.

If I were to meet Mr. Lang someday, the first question I would ask him is: "where do you go?" I believe he would know exactly what I was asking. What does it feel like in that place of obvious transcendence? Where are you when you seem to leave the rest of us?

Maybe someday I'll know.

"Chinglish" @ PCS

"Chinglish" is a play which finds humor and meaning in the mundane.  Our protagonist is David Cavanaugh, an executive at a sign company looking to land a lucrative contract to produce signs and provide English translations for a museum in China. The play's opening scene provides hilarious examples of signs with translations gone awry, and the many moments of humor in the play revolve around not only the mind boggling complexity of Mandarin, where a incorrect tonal inflection can mean completely different words, but also the difficulty of interpreting and translating idioms. The latter humor was probably my favorite, communication between people is a messy business under the best of circumstances-- everyone wants to say the right thing--add in the oddities that native speakers never notice about their own language and the comedy is as surprising as it is funny.

Most of the rest of the plot concerns salesmanship and politics, and because these subjects lead to the play's twists, I will not elaborate on them.

I'd be remiss not to tell you that the play has quite a bit of Mandarin in it, rendered in subtitles projected on a  screen above the stage. (The Press-Notes put the amount at about half the dialogue.)  Once you get used to reading the subtitles it becomes easier to follow both action and words at the same time, (the synching felt perfect.)  Still, I would say that it did feel much more difficult to do than watching a subtitled film. Especially when actors would stand in front of the screen, luckily this was rare. If you decide you're up to the challenge, I'd recommend opting for a few rows back, perhaps that will allow you to see better at those moments. I believe that "Chinglish" will reward your effort, but I also now understand why Milagro Theatre touts their "Gringo Discounts" for their bilingual productions. One last suggestion that might make things easier: theatres have copies of their scripts on hand to assist patrons who are hearing-impaired, it might behove you to take advantage of this service as well.  

Xmas Unplugged @ Artist's Rep

In my review of Portland Center Stage's "Twist Your Dickens" I wrote that it was: "both a good way to get a dose of holiday-mirth and get your humbugs out in a safe place before the big day." Artist's Rep's holiday offering on the other hand is not. Think of it this way: "Twist Your Dickens" is a good-natured nose-thumbing to the holidays, "Xmas Unplugged" is a full-on Middle Finger. Only those who view their place on The Naughty List as a point of pride should attend.  I'm sure there is no shortage  of people who fit that description, and the central event in "The Reason for the Season" will probably provide catharsis for some, but don't say I didn't warn you.

The second of the two One-Acts is "The Night Before Christmas", two British thieves and a prostitute have captured someone who claims to be an elf, but may just be a festively dressed drug-using burglar. The play ends on a note just a shade happier than the other, and as cynical as I am, I think I preferred it to the other play for that reason. In fact, its slightly happier resolution even compensated for thick accents that were sometimes difficult to understand. Let me be clear, both were enjoyable in their own ways, they both had moments of laughter, but in the context of the holidays, I guess I appreciate a happier ending, even if the moral is that we should learn to embrace the holidays as an invitation to debauchery. Huh, perhaps this is just enough to ensure that I don't get coal this year.... Fingers crossed!

Second City's "Twist Your Dickens" at Portland Center Stage

"Twist your Dickens" is as the title suggests, a parody of "A Christmas Carol." It uses the basic framework of the classic story to unleash a rapid-fire skewering of all things Christmas, from "It's a Wonderful Life" to "A Charlie Brown Christmas." But, there are aspects of it that make it difficult to review, the Charlie Brown bit for instance, (which was one of my favorite parts) concerns political-correctness and religious observance, it is introduced by a star of the TV-show "Grimm" as an "original ending" that the network wouldn't show. Will the bit still be in the script when someone else does the Celebrity Cameo, who might not be in television? I don't know, and I am sort of curious to find out. There is a improvisational looseness to "Twist your Dickens" which adds to the fun, I suspect there might even be more differences from night-to-night other than the cameos.

All types of humor are represented here, from light-hearted to a jet-black dark closer, (and a healthy-dose of my favorite kind-- cripple jokes-- in between.)  Oh, and there is chocolate at intermission--who doesn't love that?

"Twist your Dickens" is both a good way to get a dose of holiday-mirth and get your humbugs out in a safe place before the big day.

Update: The Charlie Brown bit is permanent!

What Does The Fox Say? "FoxFinder" @ Artists Rep

I instantly feel the need to apologize for the title of this post for two reasons: The first being that I have more than likely gotten that wretched song stuck in your head by mere mention. The second is that "FoxFinder" does not deserve to be associated with such dreck. In my defense, however, there is a scene in which a character is slowly gripped by the FoxFinder's paranoia that he claims to have heard the fox's call. In the play's world, even a FoxFinder, (a government investigator tasked with eradicating foxes, who are blamed for all manner of misfortune) has never actually seen nor heard a fox and must consult his manual. Watching him do this, I had a brief mental-chuckle as I imagined the cast breaking into a chorus of "What Does the Fox Say?"As stupid as the thought was, it did serve as a much-needed break from tension. And there is a lot of tension. Tension which is aided by truly haunting sound-design by Doug Newell, which is so rich that it could be called a score. Lighting design too helps create a gothic gloom which reminded me of a dark fairytale world.

I also had the privilege of having the play's climax unfold at my feet, and for those of you who don't know, my disability includes a severe startle reflex. Despite the noise and proximity, I managed to refrain from kicking an actor. I am proud of that, but I also felt the need to include the warning for readers of this blog who are similarly afflicted.

Joe Pug at the Doug Fir Lounge

Last night's performance at the Doug Fir Lounge was the first time I've seen Joe Pug accompanied by a band. This gave Pug's songs a new dimension, and I am still undecided if I prefer them, or Pug's original stripped-down folk versions. It really is a a toss-up. Joe Pug's songs are so richly poetic they nearly defy description, and can only be compared to early Dylan-- right down to heavy use of harmonica. Seriously, the Dylan comparison is well-deserved, Pug's lyrics could easily be read as poetry, and then only enhanced when one learns of their musical accompaniment. Pug seems to be from a different time, someone who would feel at home at Woodstock, or an impromptu performance at a college campus, surrounded by the smell of smoldering Draft cards. If you think lyricism is dead in the Age of Bieber, go see Joe Pug and have your faith restored. Begin with his stunning EP "Nation of Heat", and I am confident you will seek out the rest. Most of Pug's all-too-brief set came from that album. I guess I have to think of it as a French meal, a tiny portion of finely crafted decadence.  I suspect that the food metaphor was likely prompted by my mind still being blown by the quality of food at the Doug Fir. There are plenty of concert venues that have menus of various sizes, but none that I would rate higher than "if you want to be first in line for the door and you don't have time to make anything before you leave, or are hungry between sets, you won't hate having eaten there," and the places that merit such faint-praise are few. The Doug Fir Lounge on the other hand is a destination unto itself. I honestly can not wait until I have another opportunity to see a show there, because it truly is a place to enjoy spending a full evening, feed your body upstairs in the restaurant, then go downstairs and feed your soul with music.  I also must note the accessibility of the venue, and the friendliness of my escorts through the long way around the building to the downstairs entrance, and the venue's open floor allowed me to park myself up front. Great food, great music, and prime, easy to access seating, it really doesn't get any better than that.

"Mistakes Were Made" @ Artist's Rep

Michael Mendelson's performance in "Mistakes Were Made" is astounding. It would be impressive under normal circumstances, because he is essentially alone on stage nearly all of the play's ninety-minute length, save for a few brief appearances by a secretary, and large puppet of a fish. In those ninety-minutes, Mendelson must not only breathlessly try to please everyone involved in the Broadway-bound play his character is producing , but also to  keep the audience engaged, while most of the other people he interacts with are on the phone. As I've said, all of this is a feat under the best of conditions for any actor. Now consider that Mendelson had to fill in for an unexpectedly absent leading-man. due to a family emergency. This unspecified emergency took place ten days prior to opening-night, and Mendelson only had a week-long postponement in which to prepare. Add all that together and Mendelson should bee awarded a medallion which declares, "World's Greatest Actor" to be worn unashamedly throughout the run. Ok, maybe that's a bit much, but having read the exact time table in the playbill, I was truly shocked it was possible to learn that many lines in so little time.

The play reminded me a little of "Fully Comitted," a play mounted by Portland Center Stage several years ago, which also involved one man on the phone. If you happened to have seen that show, you are likely to enjoy this one. Go anyway to see an actor embark on a test of endurance.    

"The Big Meal" @ Artist's Rep

"The Big Meal" is a play that shares much with the metaphor of its title, the narrative spans decades in the life of the family at its center,  all of the action taking place in a restaurant, and therefore the lives that unfold before us can be seen as one "Big Meal." And like a big meal, while one can appreciate the breadth of delights spread out upon the table, one might also wish to take a breath or two between courses. The whirlwind pace of "The Big Meal" is quite possibly deliberate, to show how fast time can seem to pass, and in certain ways it is effective, (there are moments when characters appear to age in an instant.), and the skill with which so few actors play so many parts within less than 90 minutes is remarkable. But,  I couldn't shake the feeling that as I worked to keep up with the action in terms of what, where, when, and who, I was missing something in the meantime. Yet, this is a minor quibble, in an otherwise fantastic production. I particularly enjoyed seeing Allen Nause preform again, having enjoyed him in "Death of a Salesman" years ago. Though he is retiring from his post as Artistic Director, I hope that we might get to see him grace the stage every now and then.

There are moments of happiness, dashes of humor, and at least two servings of terrible sadness. Bring your  knife and fork,  some napkins for dabbing tears, and dig in.