Upcoming: SARAH FLOOD IN SALEM MASS

In SARAH FLOOD IN SALEM MASS, blood feuds, black magic, and the birth of capitalism merge in this dizzying portrait of a village on the brink. Can the women of Salem alter their destiny?

SARAH FLOOD stars Bradley Anderson (White Hot), Jamie Bock (White Hot), Veracity Butcher (A Letter from Omdurman), Thomas Carman, Yong Hyun Choi, Whitney Conkling (Restoration Comedy), Matthew Cox (Restoration Comedy), Hannah Finn, Glenna Grant (The Electric Lighthouse), Kana Hatakeyama, John Paul Harkins, Jed Krivisky, Christine Lee (a cautionary tail), Hank Lin, Elizabeth May, Jeff Ronan (These Seven Sicknesses), Isabella Sazak, Michelle Silvani (I Hate Mexicans), Elly Smokler, Mariette Strauss, Kate Thulin, and Nate Washburn (These Seven Sicknesses). It features sound by Adriano Shaplin, set by Caitlin Lainoff, lighting by Dante Olivia Smith, and costumes by Nikki Delhomme.

Adriano Shaplin is a playwright, performer, sound designer, and artistic director of the Riot Group, an ensemble he co-founded in 1997. He is the author of 11 plays for the Riot Group including Wreck the Airline Barrier, Pugilist Specialist, Victory at the Dirt Palace, Freedom Club and Sophie Gets the Horns. In 2004 Adriano joined Pig Iron Theater Company to create the Obie Award winning Hell Meets Henry Halfway, an adaptation of Witold Gombrowicz’s The Possessed. In 2006 Adriano became the first International Playwright-in-Residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company and his first play for the RSC, The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, opened at Wilton’s Music Hall in London in 2008. Adriano is a four-time recipient of the Scotsman Fringe First, a Sloan Foundation grant recipient, and has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, the Royal Shakespeare Company, New Paradise Laboratories, and Interact Theatre Company. His plays have been produced at the Soho Theater and Riverside Studios in London, the Arches in Glasgow, the Magic Theater in San Francisco, the Theater Der Welt Festival in Germany, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Princeton University, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Ice Factory Festival, 59e59 and The Culture Project. His most recent play, Sophie Gets the Horns, debuted at the Incubator Arts Project in May 2012. His plays have been published by Oberon Books and Playscripts Inc.

Rebecca Wright has directed and dramaturged for PlayPenn, the Lark Play Development Center, and InterAct Theatre Company. She has developed work with Philadelphia-based performers for First Person Arts, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Micro-Fest Philadelphia, and SoLow Festival. Recent directing credits include Sophie Gets the Horns with The Riot Group, Merry Wives of Windsor with Shakespeare in Clark Park, 17 Border Crossings with Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, and Joan of Arc: Voices in the Fire at Columbia University, co-directed with Kristin Linklater. Rebecca is a co-founder of Applied Mechanics, with whom she creates immersive performance pieces, including Philadelphia Fringe Festival hit Overseers, and the 26-person historical fantasia Vainglorious: The Epic Feats of Notable Persons in Europe after the Revolution. She is a recipient of a 2012 Independence Fellowship in the Arts and a graduate of Artists U.

The Bats are the resident acting company members of The Flea Theater. Each year over a thousand actors audition for a place in this unique company. The Bats perform in extended runs of challenging classic and new plays. The Bats have recently appeared in premieres by A.R. Gurney, Will Eno, Adam Rapp, Beau Willimon, Mac Wellman, Elizabeth Swados, Thomas Bradshaw, Itamar Moses, Sheila Callaghan, Julian Sheppard, Ken Urban, Tommy Smith, Jonathan Reynolds, Trista Baldwin, Laurel Haines, Qui Nguyen, Sean Graney, and Amy Freed.

Job does Heavy Lifting at the Flea

Job, now playing at the Flea, is a reasonably accurate retelling of the biblical story of Job, from the Old Testament.  As such, it is not a laugh riot.  The adaptation by Thomas Bradshaw follows the trials of Job (played in full voice by Sean McIntyre) as he is tested in his love for God.

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Sean McIntyre, Adam Lebowitz-Lockard photo Hunter Canning

Job embellishes the backstory wherein Satan (the always excellent Stephen Stout) is given full reign to challenge Job’s fidelity to God, played by Ugo Chukwu.  In Thomas Bradshaw's version, God’s sons, Jesus and Dionysus, function as witnesses to the bet.  Grant Harrison and Eric Folks play the sons of God as bickering brothers, self absorbed and uninterested in human endeavors.  It is a funny diversion that pops up occasionally during the show.  And the diversion is necessary because Job has more than its share of tragedy.  The Gods are unconcerned with the humans, except as a reflection of themselves.

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Marie-Claire Roussel, Sean McIntyre    .

Job, a penitent and honorable man, with full faith in God is subject to tests that no mortal should have to endure.  One of Job's sons graphically kills and then rapes Job’s daughter.  His other son witnesses this and kills his brother and then himself.  Job’s wife, Cleo Gray bringing the inconsolable woman vividly to life, leaves him when he cannot renounce God.

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But for Satan and God, this isn’t proof enough of Job’s faithfulness; Satan is allowed to test him again – this time with physical pain.  Job’s eyes are gouged out and he is castrated by the same men he once sat in judgment of.  But still Job puts his faith in God.  Then his friends turn on him – he has lost all, his family, his wealth, his health and his friends, but he will not curse the Lord.

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Job does complain, he demands to know why this is happening.  And God ultimately appears to him, not so much out of love but because he is tired of the whining.  God doesn't answer Job's questions, he merely states that man cannot question such a being.  Ultimately God restores wealth, health, a large extended family and long life to Job.

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The moral of the Bible story is that sometimes bad things happen to good people and we cannot fully understand why, but Job is a long way to get there.  We know that Job suffered but did not forsake God.  However, in seeing the whole thing acted out – well, it is a little disconcerting.  What about the children who were driven to incest and murder for no reason but to test the father?  What about the wife, who renounced God after this happened to her family?

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And all this pain and suffering for a celestial bet?  I had to go back to my Bible to check this, and sure enough it is right there (Job 1:11).  Job is excellently acted, well put together and nicely paced (directed by Benjamin H. Kamine) but you don’t leave the theater all bright and cheery.

Job

Playwright: Thomas Bradshaw

Director: Benjamin H. Kamine

Cast: The Bats (including Sean McIntyre, Jennifer Tsay, Cleo Gray, Ugo Chukwu, Stephen Stout, Grant Harrison and Erik Folks)

website

The Innocence Charms of The Wundelsteipen

The second of The Flea’s trio of new plays is The Wundelsteipen, by Nick Jones.  The full title is actually The Wundelsteipen (and Other Difficult Roles For Young People) and refers to setup for the show.  The piece is a number of short plays, as performed by young people at acting summer camp.  It is a device that allows any number of inappropriate choices to be made, and they all seem to work.  Having “young people” create these characters brings them to life with less self-conciseness than an “adult” would bring.  An adult couldn’t very well come into a story about why God would bring a baby to Heaven, and treat it as a comedy.  And, having The Bats (the Flea’s resident players) play “children” allows the audience to laugh the actors in a way that we could not, if they were actually youngsters.

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The seven mini-plays range from pitch perfect (and entirely inappropriate) to just okay, but the actors to a great job with all of them.

Briana Pozner (the Wundelsteipen herself) and Alex Herrald

My favorite of the various plays, in both writing and acting, was Alex Herrald and Tommy Crawford in The Wundelsteipen.  In this piece two brothers, hip deep in puberty and internet porn, make a wish and are rewarded with a visit from the sex fairy.  But the sex-fairy has changed a lot in an age where Playboy magazine is quaint and would hardly be rated PG-13.  Briana Pozner is a fairy, who’s payment for wishes has changed with the times.  It is inappropriate on a million levels, and hilarious.

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Tommy Crawford (standing) and
Dominic Spillane (Caligula - in repose)

Tommy Crawford played a slave opposite Dominic Spillane as Caligula in Caligula In The Morning.  It was all about the trials and tribulations of trying to wake up an Emperor that just doesn’t want to get out of bed.  It is an aspect of Caligula that only a young person would be fascinated by.  It was great.

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The direction, by Tom Costello, kept the cast and audience in the moment excellently.  The show never grew past the idea of a bunch of young people putting this together, and it wouldn’t have worked if it did.

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All of the players participated in the story Everybaby – the story of a young baby summoned by God to Heaven to atone for his sins.  The child (played with wide eyed innocence by Donaldo Prescod) doesn’t understand the idea of original sin, or why he can’t get his playmates to go with him.  Everybaby is a perfect example of a story that reads differently when played by children, rather than adults -  where someone might have really lost a child.

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Not all the pieces worked for me.  College Romance and Salome both seemed like SNL sketches that went on too long.  But the others were very good.  The Wundelsteipen … was a very funny time at the Flea.

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The Wundelsteipen (and Other Difficult Roles for Young People) @ The Flea Theater

Playwright: Nick Jones

Director: Tom Costello

Cast: Maren Langdon, Donaldo Prescod, Dominic Spillane, Tommy Crawford, Hannah Corrigan, Eric Folks, Alex Herrald, Briana Pozner

Website

The Electric Lighthouse: Making it in London

The first of The Flea’s trio of new plays is The Electric Lighthouse, by Ed Hime.  The title refers to a London Art House Cinema, a common bond between this group of friends and acquaintances. There are six characters, and they normally interact in various sets of 2.  It is the type of story where happenstance meetings abound and each interaction multiplies the complexity of the story.  Often times, these type of plays wrap everything up with a pat and happy ending.  The Electric Lighthouse avoids the expected route, but is extremely satisfying in its conclusion.

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The primary couple is Marie and Rick.  They are an estranged couple with unresolved feelings still at play.  As Marie, Margaret Odette carries much of the emotional heft of the show admirably.  Ms. Odette is able to hold your attention whether in silence or at full throat.  Even standing still, Ms. Odette’s Marie twitches with constrained energy.  Rick, well played by Seth Moore, is no match for Marie.  Rick is a slacker with dreams of success, but not the initiative to pursue them.  Rick is emotionally younger than his years.  He is confident in his sexual prowess and little else.  Rick can’t really commit to Marie, until she breaks up with him.  Mr. Moore and Ms. Odette have a natural rapport, honest in both tender and raw moments.

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Margaret Odette & Seth Moore in The Electric Lighthouse

Kerri and Keith, Allison Buck and Jack Corcoran respectively, work or worked at the Electric Lighthouse Theater.  For Kerri, the job is a step towards independence, her first job in London.  For Keith, it is a safe haven and sanctuary from the city.  Both Kerri and Keith need the sense of family the job provides.

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Stephen Stout plays Chaz, a London hipster video artist (with an appalling choice in pants).  Mr. Stout is the catalyst for a great deal of action, and he manages it with a light touch.  His character is outgrowing his impishness, but isn’t sure what he is growing into.  Glenna Grant plays Cynthia, the most adult of the characters.  She has made it in London already, but life isn’t living up to her expectations.

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The direction, by Kristan Seemel, was simple and well done.  The action moved well and grew in intensity as the play progressed.  The actors brought these characters to life, and made the audience care about them.  All of the actors used a British Accent, with varying degrees of success and consistency.  In a story about London, this makes sense, but a bit less cockney wouldn’t hurt.

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Kat Foster does the Set Designer duties and creates a number of unique and recognizable spaces with a minimal amount of set changes.  She has created an appropriate amount of space that these actors fill well.

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The Electric Lighthouse is an excellent start to the Trio of new plays.

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The Electric Lighthouse @ The Flea Theater

Playwright: Ed Hime

Director: Kristan Seemel

Cast: Margaret Odette, Seth Moore, Alison Buck, Jack Corcoran, Stephen Stout, Glenna Grant

Website