Occasionally, my schedule is so packed I’m not able to catch a show until late in its run. This summer, a broken wrist suffered during a family vacation added another complication. Though the shows noted below have closed, the producing companies are already working on their next opening. If you’re intrigued, I encourage you to make plans to “go see a show.”
LaBute New Theater Festival offered food for thought in five provocative short plays
The 9th LaBute New Theater Festival at St. Louis Actors’ Studio featured five interesting and overwhelmingly satisfying one-act plays that gave theatergoers plenty to think about. Crisply directed by Kari Ely and John Contini, each show featured storytelling that’s easy to grasp and engaging, though not always comfortable.
Safe Space by Neil LaBute, featuring Reginald Pierre and Jane Paradise, takes place in a professional theater that has designated today’s performance as a “Black Out” show, encouraging white audience members to attend a different performance. In light of that, it is understandably surprising when a white woman takes a seat shortly before the curtain. Though the details feel contrived for the sake of argument over discourse, their conversation bristles with intellectual and emotional fire.
In Da Vinci’s Cockroach by Amy Tofte, featuring Colleen Backer and Laurel Button, a quirky scientist and unfulfilled assistant-assistant art gallery curator strike up a conversation that quickly moves from trivialities to science, art, love and death. Filled with unexpected reflection, the story is touchingly funny and oddly heartwarming.
One Night in the Many Deaths of Sonny Liston, by J B Heaps, featuring Reginald Pierre and Eileen Engel, imagines the death of boxer Sonny Liston in a thoroughly compelling dramatic vignette. His glory days behind him and bound to addiction, Sonny enjoys one last night reminiscing with a pretty girl (on a deadly mission) hanging to his every word. A sad tale beautifully spun.
The Mockingbird’s Nest by Craig Bailey, featuring Colleen Backer and Jane Paradise, mixes ethical questions surrounding artificial intelligence and technology with the human response to loss and grief. Told with unexpected humor and a hint of terror, the smartly written show gives audiences a literal ghost in the machine to ponder our own mortality.
The Nerd is an absurd farce with a clever comic twist
Moonstone Theatre Company closed its second season with a madcap show that’s a romantic comedy at heart and a broadly slapstick comedy of manners on the surface. The clever script by Larry Shue zips from plausible to laugh-out-loud ridiculous to comically surprising in two acts.
William is celebrating his 34rd birthday in a sort of rut. He finds his current work project stifling and his overbearing boss brash and unimaginative. His best friend Alex and Tansy, the girl of his dreams who is about to get away, are determined to cheer him up but are not succeeding. All hope seems lost until an unexpected guest arrives, turning William’s world on its head. A series of increasingly funny coincidences and comic misunderstandings amp up the tension and laughs, while an elaborate prank unfolds to wrap the show in a tidy bow.
Director Gary Wayne Barker guides a talented cast anchored by a sympathetic Oliver Bacus as William and the impressively expressive and always watchable Ryan Lawson-Maeske as Rick, the stranger who saved William’s life. The script and jokes are somewhat dated and the energy occasionally stalls. Still, the performances are strong and the overall production keeps the laughs coming.
A Gothic ghost story and a community theater rivalry thoroughly entertain
Opera meets horror with ghostly excellence in The Turn of the Screw at Union Avenue Opera. A governess finds herself battling evil to try and save the lives of the two children in her care. Soaring soprano voices dominate the haunting melodies while the orchestra reverberates through the deep, richly sinister score. It’s an effective combination that entertained and occasionally spooked the enthralled audience.
Amy Lytle’s hilariously over-the-top Red Curtain Rivalry, part of Tesseract Theatre’s Summer New Play Festival, is a genuinely funny contemporary comedy. Seemingly by accident, a town’s two community theater companies secure the rights to perform the same show at the same time. The mix-up yields hilarious results that keep the audience laughing and a happy ending that makes it easier for audiences to buy-in to the implausible set-up.
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