By Joe Straw
The Odyssey Theatre is so close to everything on the west
side. It is a hop, skip and a jump from
anywhere north, west, east and south of Sepulveda and Pico. They have wonderful theatre there. I’ve seen some good things and I am always
happy to return.
Village Green Productions presents the world premier of The
Boomerang Effect, written by Matthew Leavitt and directed by Dámaso Rodriguez,
through April 29, 2012. It is produced
by Del Shores, Linda Toliver and Gary Guidinger and is a guest production at
The Odyssey Theatre.
Del Shores has been around forever and he has an eye for
entertaining audiences. The Boomerang Effect is no different. It is a crowd pleaser and something more,
which I address later.
The Boomerang Effect breaks down into various chapters with five
couples having assorted conflicts. One bedroom set is used for all places where
our couples engage in their lively sexual pursuits. They are connected with other couples in the
course of the stories, sometimes as friends, and sometimes as relatives. The play does not have an intermission so it
flies by in a brief period of time.
Chapter 1: The Birthday Present refers to Paul’s (Luke
McClure) birthday present, which is, in effect, oral sex given to him by his
partner Stephanie (Kim Hamilton). It is
an act she hates to perform (this time every year) and runs to the bathroom upon
a satisfactory conclusion or unsatisfactory conclusion depending upon your
perspective.
But, there is more to their relationship than meets the
eye. Paul and Stephanie are in
love. But it is not endless love because
Paul works at Trader Joe’s; a job that Stephanie believes is taking him
nowhere, and Stephanie wants more from their relationship. The conflict between the two in not without
merit when we find that Stephanie is pregnant.
Chapter 2: Pillow Talk is about the small talk that Renee
(Tiffany Lonsdale) gives Andrew (Will Christoferson) while they are in the
throes of lovemaking. In short, her
little speaks are awful, and takes him to flaccid places where, in brevity, no
man wants to go. When he’s trying to
make love, she speaks about the holes in his shirts and buying him new ones.
But there’s two side of this story. Andrew wants Tiffany to try new things, say
the right things, and even biting may be a wonderful addition to the mix. When she does bite him she almost tears his
nipple off. Sometimes relationships have
no middle ground. It’s either one doesn’t
go far enough or one goes too far in the wrong direction.
Chapter 3: Words with
Friends is about a couple David (Jonathan Stavin) and Nick (Emerson
Collins). David is a not-too-bright
man. And to top things off he doesn’t
have a job, is not really pursuing a job, and spends the day on his iPad playing
an internet game with internet friend, Ian Chang. And David always loses because Ian Chang is
slightly smarter. Not a lot, slightly.
Although Nick loves David, he doesn’t like the fact that David does not
have a job and is not really looking. And for those reasons, Nick is not putting
out.
But David has got this dry spell all figured out. He wants to become an actor and wants his
partner to help him with a 5-year plan to succeed as an actor. Nick thinks his ideas are ridiculous, an actor
needs money for acting classes and he doesn’t even have a job. No job equals no acting classes.
Chapter 4: Des Moines is a wonderful place of liaisons and
this is no exception for Alexander (Charles Howerton) who loves to go out on
business outings and rent a hotel room.
When he asks his receptionist Julie (Kat Bailess) to take a memo, he
subsequently asks her to stop and…
“Sleep with me or you’re fired” - Alexander
But, Julie is a very headstrong southern woman. She threatens a lawsuit against the sleazebag.
Alexander tells her to calm down. He calmly states that sleeping with him will
get her a promotion and raise, a nice corner office, and two secretaries.
Julie eventually comes around to the idea of a raise and
promotion and looks at this sleazy opportunity as an opportunity gained.
Chapter 5: The
Ignoble Fate of Timmy the Rabbit is about another couple. This is a story about an office party that got
completely got out of hand when a married man Marcus (Joel Bryant) and single
woman Janetta (Liza de Weerd) got drunk and sleep together. When they wake up the
following morning, Janetta is extremely happy that Marcus is still in the room
with him. She bounces into the bathroom
and Marcus wakes up in terror, calls his wife, and tells her that he made too
much of the night and stayed at the office.
In other words, he lies, three ways to Sunday.
He gets half dressed and runs out of the hotel room only to
remember that Janetta is wearing the necklace that his wife gave him. He needs it back and then needs to leave but
Janetta is not willing to give in so easily.
Later we revisit all of the couples where they settle their
differences in uncordial and unsightly manners.
There is a lot to be said about The Boomerang Effect and
something about the concept of the entire production and its execution. The acting by all was well above par. The
relationships were well defined and the conflicts were strong enough to keep
the show moving at a brisk pace. It was an enjoyable experience for audience
and performers alike.
Luke McClure as
Paul has a nice name for Hollywood work.
There could have been more in the opening moments of his scene. I did
not buy it for a second and if there’s one thing an actor must do is sell the
performance. Also, McClure needs to lower
the pitch of, and strengthen, his voice.
That aside he did have his moments and the bathroom scene was hilarious. It’s too bad we didn’t get to see any of it.
Kim Hamilton as
Stephanie has some very nice moments on stage.
One can really feel her predicament.
She is very convincing in the role and all in all, she did some very
nice work on stage.
Tiffany Lonsdale
as Renee has not reached the point of maturity with the character. On this particular night, she did not set an
imaginative objective that carries her through her two scenes. As the role
grows on her, possibly the character will come to her. But part of the problem
is that the scene does not go far enough so that she makes sense. She doesn’t want him to come prematurely so
she throws out bad small talk. But
here’s the point, they never get to the moment where he is even out of his
clothes much less near coming prematurely. If this
is a modesty issue, better to play the scene under the sheets.
Will Christoferson
as Andrew is a nice looking tall statuesque leading man type from Texas who
doesn’t know how to take off a woman’s boots.
Are you kidding me? The synonym
for a Texan is “Male or female, I know how to take off boots.” Where’s
the macho thing that we expect from a Texan?
Seriously, when an action on stage is unbelievable to an audience, an actor
is forced to make up a lot of ground to get the pendulum swinging back into the
believability factor. That aside, as
the character, he has a slight premature ejaculation problem and that problem
is not fully realized. As it is now, the
relationship is too middle-of-the-road and lacking imagination. So the way to
approach the scenes is have a macho Texan (or man) with a problem who needs to
overcome the problem in ways that are completely out of character. In short, he needs an inner conflict as well
as having conflict with his partner. That
conflict will translate into a believable relationship and a successful scene.
Jonathan Salvin
as David does a very nice job. He has
actually developed two relationships.
One offstage, with Ian (or E.N.) Chang, and the other with his partner. He
understands the conflict and achieves his objectively magnificently. As the
character, he is fully developed and knows instinctively where to go and where
not to tread. This was a very dry and funny performance.
Emerson Collins as
Nick does a fine job. As the character
he doesn’t want to have sex with his partner until he gets a job. But his imagination
is lost and it leads him to pursue the other character off stage. Also his
apology is a middle of the road apology when he should in fact be kissing the
feet of the only one in his life he has injured. Still, this is only minor. A few adjustment and the moments should play
out fine.
Charles Howerton
is exceptional as Alexander the lusty old businessman who adds one more
secretary to his life’s conquest. It doesn’t take long to see where Howerton is
going, the actions he takes to pursue his prey, and the manner he goes about
achieving his objective. As the
character, he is ripe as the devious manipulator, the sole proprietor of his unworthy
soul. Thinking he may be older and wiser
than all of the secretaries he has come across in his lifetime, he forgets that
he is physically a lot slower and he gets his.
This is a wonderful performance.
Kat Bailess is
equally remarkable as Julie. She is a strong, forceful woman, who will not take
anything from anyone unless there’s money involved. And then she goes after it like bees go to
honey. She has a strong southern accent
(a product of Vicksburg, Mississippi) and a wonderful way of using her voice to
create a character that takes situations to extremes. It all works so
wonderfully. As the actress, Bailess makes
use of her body and her mind to achieve her objective. She goes about getting her objective in
physical ways and by taking situations to extremes until fully realized. In this type of theatrical production, these
are the choices one likes to see and hers are life and death situations treated
with the utmost reverie and respect.
Liza de Weerd as
Janetta plays a lonely girl who thinks she has got her man. The problem is he is married. She figures it out but doesn’t care. As the character, she holds on to her most
prized procession, his necklace and she’s not giving it back, wife or no wife.
She wants him badly. She holds onto the necklace until finally she is finally deceived.
There is a moment missing in the end of that scene that should be elevated. It is a minor flaw in a performance that was
otherwise quite excellent.
Joel Bryant did a
nice job as Marcus. He was very physical on stage. So physical in fact sweat was pouring out of
every conceivable pore from his body. One must admit that Bryant was running
around considerably. As the character,
his one job is to get the necklace off of her body and get out. The odd thing
though is that he is a consummate liar. They both know it. The only way he is going to get the necklace
off her neck is to trick her with the sad bunny story. That said he needs to find more imaginative
ways to get closer to her to achieve his objective. One is not sure why he never gets completely
dressed during the progression of their intercourse.
Dámasco Rodriguez
is a well-regarded director in town going from one project to the next. This project is an interesting look at personal
conflicts and relationship, which he handles, successfully both gay and
straight with a sense of class and dignity.
But one gets the idea that things did not go far enough, that modesty
was not left at the stage door, and that characters needed more development.
There are a lot of wonderful things in Matthew Leavitt’s play. The
Boomerang Effect refers to getting back what you throw out. A lot of the
characters throw out a lot and they seem to get it back tenfold. The play is
smartly written, the characters are engaging, there is purpose and meaning in
the telling of the story. The play has a
lot more potential than the final outcome. And I keep using the words extreme
to define characters and I believe some characters need to define themselves in
order for the play to work in its entirety.
Once the characters are defined and the situations are believable the
play will come around.
The production team includes John Iacovelli, the Scenic
Designer. Jared A. Sayeg is the Lighting Designer. The Costume Designer is T.
Ashanti Mozelle. The Sound Designer is Doug Newell. Judith Borne did the Publicity. The Photographer is Ed Krieger. Casting was by Rich Delia and the Graphic
Designer was Jessica Smith.
Is Matthew Leavitt’s play is a theatrical showcase? If it is, it is well done. If he wants more, he needs to throw the
boomerang farther.
Go! Take a friend who was abused in their last relationship.
Reservations:
310-477-2055
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