Fiction by J. Weller

By Joe Straw



Fiction is a story about a man whose life is ruined by the utterance of a simple word: “No.” This is a roller coaster night of an evening, a mind bending, and twisted tale of morality. The story of a life force that is savagely squeezed like an orange until the remains are like the drained pulp left in the empty orange hull. Run to catch this production, hold your breath, and tell yourself, screaming silently (if you must): “It’s fiction! It’s fiction! It’s fiction!”



Fiction is new world premier play written by J. Weller and directed by Michael Galloway and is playing at the beautiful Conquistador Playhouse in Hollywood.



Fiction starts innocently enough. Flame Ohn (Michael Staraton) is a 31-year-old highly successful profession basketball player. Flame is the quintessential boy next door by way of Myanmar and the son of a career military officer and a Burmese father. A man of unquestionable ability, he is a superstar in the sport. Flame also has a ten million dollar smile, and an eighty million dollar contract with endorsements galore. He is also fluent in seven languages.



Flame waits in his luxury hotel room for the next game voraciously squeezing the last drop out of an orange when he receives a call from a business associate, Radical Dave (Frederick Ongonyon).

“We’re probably not going to make your payroll this quarter and may not make it completely in the years to come.”



Getting to the point Radical Dave suggests Flame’s agent renegotiate his contract until the company gets back on its feet. But, “I need your help.”



“Why am I talking to you? My agent negotiates on my behalf. Tell me who asked you to call me."

“I can’t.”

“You can!”

“Take the deal. Times are tough. When we weather this storm we’ll all come out looking better. Do it for me, our friendship, please.”

“No.”



Flame gets back on the phone but is interrupted by a knock at the door. It is two ravishing buxom beauties Jennifer Righteous (Wanda McGreevy) and her friend Heather Simpleton (Mary Slate). Looking at his phone he finds himself in a dilemma: business or pleasure? He chooses the later and they waste no time taking off his clothes and hustling him off to bed.



The phone rings. It is is wife Eve (Michelle Fontura) who is sitting in the audience watching the action as she is carrying on the conversation. Flame is as non-chalant as anyone could be in this situation, taking the phone call while there is mayhem going on all around him. (This is so funny the audience died.) Eve leaves the theater as she is carrying on the conversation.



The phone beeps and “I’ve got to take this call. I’ll call you back.” Flame gets out of bed leaving the women to their own devices. Simpleton pulls out her video camera from her bag and starts production of the two of them in bed.



Flame in the meantime, talking to his agent Guy (Ernie Camaraderie), is seen in the video holding his privates walking back and forth shouting expletives. (Certainly not the picture of the boy next door.) Guy tells him it’s all a misunderstanding and he will set the course on the right track.



Finished, Flame throws the phone into bed and shouts his trademark “Flame on”.



A cat and mouse game ensues. As Flame is occupied with Righteous, Simpleton takes her camera and puts it into her bag. Righteous keeps one eye on Simpleton and one on Flame. When Simpleton goes to the bathroom Righteous takes the camera out of her bag and places it into hers. (Why does this always happen to celebrities!?)



Righteous then goes into the bathroom. Simpleton coming out asks Flame for a few dollars for carfare.

“No.”



Simpleton, slightly hurt, tells Righteous she’ll meet her down in the lobby.



Righteous walks over to Flame and apologizes for not finishing what she started. She says she’s getting married. “This is probably the last time you see me. Take care. I will always love you.”

Flame thows the empty orange half at her backside.



On his way to the game Flame chats on camera with sportswriter Carson Fearsom (Andrew Nurotie) about Andre “The Great ” (a European All Star Power Forward) Fearsome says, “Andre wants to put the Flame out tonight. And to show no hard feelings Andre has invited Flame to join him for chicken wings at his favorite restaurant, KFC.” Magnanimously Flame states Andre has used an unfortunate choice of words and that he will take the high road on this one, besides no one puts out “The Flame – Flame on, baby!”



In the meantime Radical Dave and Stuart Nengale (Arthur Sandbar) are having a conversation in a room very similar to Flames. Nengale tells Radical Dave that negotiations have stalled, lawyers are threatening to sue, fights for years to come. And it is here we find that Radical Dave has taken over “You’re First” a multibillion-dollar insurance company.



Radical Dave hands Nengale a packet of information and tells him to distribute the information to his sources. Nengale says the press will be notified; the sources are confirmed and the recipients are salivating.



Radical Dave laughs at the fact they will get Flame at bargain basement price. “If we decide we want him at all. It’s a short matter of time before the public is outraged and “ moral” clause will be invoked. “He’s had his piece of the pie. It’s time for somebody else to eat.”



Nengale walks out of the hotel room as Guy walks in, all smiles. Radical Dave passes an envelope to Guy. Guy smiles and leaves when Simpleton and Righteous arrive. Simpleton is carrying a baseball bat.

While talking to the girls, Radical puts a move on the girls and then pulls out a couple of more envelopes and hands it to the women. Righteous, counting it, tells Radical that he has shortchanged her. Simpleton throws the money back into his face and holds the bat on her shoulders.



Radical Dave takes the money and gives it back saying they are both in this already. “Short change? – Rough economy!” Besides Righteous will need it when she finds out her bi-sexual fiancé is cheating on her.



Simpleton swings her bat into the lampshade. Simpleton tells him that maybe he doesn’t want the “pudding proof” we have.



Righteous suggests Radical Dave he can have the video rights for twenty grand.



Simpleton informs Righteous to mind her own business and they subsequently fight over the camera in her purse. And as they are doing so Radical Dave shouts $5,000, $7,000, $9,000 etc., and as they are fighting Righteous falls over the bed and Simpleton takes her bag and start beating it with a bat.

Righteous composes herself and tells Simpleton, “It’s the wrong bag.” She hands Radical Dave the camera. Righteous takes the envelope splits the money in half.



Meanwhile, Flame is holding a bucket of KFC wings inside the bus. 6’ 11” Andre “The Great” (Darin Bell) walks in, looks at him, laughs, and takes a wing. Flame says “I know you don’t like it hot. Here’s a wet napkin. I got you 40 wings one for each point I scored on you tonight.” They sit and have a couple of wings discussing fame and fortune as they come to know it when Carson Fearsom interrupts Flame to tell him there’s a story out on him on the AP newswire.



Flame pulls out his iphone and finds the story as Carson is repeatedly asking questions: Is it true?

“It’s Fiction.” Flame says.



Flame takes his iphone and starts texting everyone he knows including his press people. The messages appear on the wall as he texts and sends. He runs to his hotel room to see Simpleton and Righteous coming out. He pushes them into the room, claiming “It’s Fiction! It’s Fiction!” and as he does this he looks at the big screen to see his body beaming out to the world as he is shouting obscenities! It’s Fiction!



This is an amazing cast. Flawless in execution and motion. They are always keeping you on your toes as to what they will do next. Morals are thrown out the window and objectives keep you guessing until the final twisting conclusion.



J. Weller has written a play that explains a core of the human condition. Explorations of a life maybe ripped off of the headlines of today. If fact chose your professional sport, those people are not hard to find or suspend when life choices take them in a direction they may not want to explore.



Galloway’s direction of this cast is pretty amazing. It’s not often you see this kinds of cast with raw sexual emotions displayed in full glory.



No one under 18 will be admitted (expect to be carded) and no one over 18 with strong moral convictions will be admitted as well. (Not sure how they are going to enforce this.)

It’s Fiction! Fiction.

Copyright 2010.

Why Torture is Wrong, And the People Who Love Them by Christopher Durang

The Wacky World of Christopher Durang

by Joe Straw

Probably the only person who will be held accountable for torture in the United States today is Christopher Durang. It’s only fitting given that in this west coast premier of his new play there are abductions, torture, assaults, mutilations and implied threats against the theatre going audience. It is an assault from Durang’s twisted and demented mind in this gun filled night at the theatre.

And clearly, Durang, should be prosecuted under theatre law article number, um well, I’m sure there is one. It shouldn’t be hard to get a memo from the Justice Department.

Why Torture is Wrong And The People Who Love Them at the Stellar Adler Theatre is presented at The Blank Theatre Company and directed by Daniel Henning. It is funny, disturbing, and wacky.

Torture is a disturbing concept that doesn’t have a lot of laughs attached to it. And, by the way, it’s only torture if you do it. It’s enhanced interrogation techniques if we do it. Also, it’s not really torture unless there’s organ failure (ask John Yoo about this one). What an awe inspiring and hilarious concept!

Also, it’s a known fact that when you attach a label to a group of people (Savages and terrorists come to mind.) you can kill them with little or no remorse. It’s true.

In this play, Felicity (Rhea Seehorn) awakens in a cheap hotel room in the arms of a man, Zamir (Sunil Malhotra). She has been drugged and raped. (Is this a terrorist act?) Ah, but Felicity discovers that she married Zamir the previous night, so, technically, this doesn’t fall under any known legal statutes. (Actually it is illegal, but why quibble about small details.) And, wanting an annulment, she discovers that Zamir (an admitted Irishman, eh hem) is demented and violent threatening to knock her teeth out. (Or maybe that’s the charming characteristic of another culture.)

Felicity enlists the help of her mother Luella (Christine Estabrook) who is a whacked out theatergoer who can only relate to the members of her family by way of scenes from the theatre and besides she is off in her own world. Zamir enters the pallor, and labels Felicity’s mother as Mrs. RazzyWazzy for reasons not quite entirely known.

Later, Felicity’s father, Leonard (Mike Genovese) a die-hard gun-toting conservative enters the room and finds out Felicity has married Zamir. Leonard pulls a gun, which leads to Zamir pulling his phone threatening to dial a number which would blow them all to smithereens. (Gun versus phone, which one is faster?)

Calmer notions prevail when Luella invites everyone into the breakfast nook for French toast.

At the breakfast nook Leonard talks about his butterfly collection. It is a hearty discussion of a man with a beautiful hobby about beautiful creatures that inhabit the earth. He also takes the sinister pleasure in sticking pins through their hearts because he says, “Butterflies don’t have hearts.” (Butterflies, in fact, have two hearts.) The discussions angrily turns to Jane Fonda and which leads Leonard to put a gun to Zamir's head and threatens to blow his brains out like “that picture from the Vietnam war.”

Luella gets him to eat his French toast instead.

Later, referring to Zamir, Leonard tells Felicity, “You let Daddy take care of this.”

Leonard calls Hildegarde (Catherine Hicks) his sidekick for help. Her code name is Scooby Do, because everyone knows if you’re going to torture someone it’s best to have a comic book code name. (And joyfully this makes the unpleasant, pleasant.)

Hildegarde comes into his butterfly office where we find that butterflies are his euphemism for assault rifles. Those rifles blanket the walls of his study. As Leonard holds his assault rifle Hildegarde caresses the barrel (another euphemism) and immediately looses her panties. Leonard, all business, can’t bear to look and tells her to pull them up because they have business to do. (“Make love not war” are the words implied in this distracting detail.)

Meanwhile, Felicity, is in a bar drowning her troubles served by the wacky voice/narrator/Looney Tunes (Alec Mapa) when she meets up with Reverend Mike (Nicholas Brendon). Mike notices her and tells her that he married her and Zamir. “You were nodding off,” he tells her about the wedding ceremony in response to whether she was a willing participant. Zamir enters the bar to find Felicity and Reverend together, slightly jealous, Felicity leaves.

Zamir and Mike speak about a porno films he wants to make. Reverend Mike is a porn-again Christian and thinks the relationship between church and sex is more than okay. Zamir, needing the money, agrees to star in his porno film “The Big Bang” but only if he wears a mask. (A man of impeccable scruples.) Unbeknownst to them Hildegarde is in the next booth getting the goods on both of them but misinterprets their conversation as a terrorist strike on eastern cities.

When the two men confront Hildegarde she falls tripping on her panties and fearing for her life maces them, reports back to Leonard, and the fun of abduction, torture, and mutilations begins.

Reading a lot about our current history and not forgetting finds this play uncomfortable and hard to laugh at.

This is an exceptional cast, albeit trying a little too hard at times, but nevertheless exceptional. Brendon, as the pornographer priest, gave this play a bundle of calm when events got completely out of hand.

Estabrook, as Luella, gives the impressions that because you are innocent you won’t need to worry about the events of the day, just let it go, ohmmm!

Genovese is just wonderfully scary noting there are a lot of Leonards out there just waiting to take over if need be. And when he turned the assault rifle toward the audience and threatened to wipe out the imaginary crowd (us), beads of perspiration fell.

Hicks is delightful as Hildegarde. It takes a real woman to play with panties down around her ankles for most of the play.

Malhotra is an exceptional actor. The core of his character does not change but in the end he is willing to try life another way.

Alec Mapa needs work on his imitations but is a very fine actor. Can’t figure out what he was doing in this play. He is a fine cabaret act in need of a cabaret.

Seehorn as Felicity, beautiful in her red evening dress, is quirky, and seems to absorb the madness around her. Her character has an extremely strong constitution. Not many women could stand the effects of the torturous people around, her father, her mother, her husband, and her priest. She seems to accept this life as relatively normal. If only she could call on a higher source.

Daniel Henning, the director, does a wonderful job keeping it all together and moving the action along. Durang’s seems to change direction near the end of the play and we discover that although we can change the circumstances of how things come about, we really can’t change the core of the human soul.

Wonderful Set Design by Jeff G. Rack and Property Master by Michael O’Hara in the Stellar Adler Theatre complex at Hollywood and Highland. And if you haven’t been to this theatre there is easy and inexpensive parking in the complex across the street for just two dollars. The show is playing through March 14.

“You don’t have to be your father.” It is a line in the play that rang wonderfully true. Change happens in a moment and if we don’t change we are doomed to repeat this ugly chapter.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Godot Screams For Liberation

By Joe Straw

They sleep without resting, hunger without the pain, fight the insects that crawl through the crevices of their body, and laugh without smiling, all under globelike bowlers that are thrust upon their heads.

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett and directed by Andrew J. Traister at A Noise Within Theatre in Glendale is a magnificent production about waiting for the inevitable that never comes.

It is an exhausting existential nightmare, a dream gone awry, a road nearly followed, and an entry into the sacred hall of nothingness until, at last, the journey comes to an end. Only to discover - the end - is the beginning.

On this journey, and at the end of the road, they find themselves in a vacuum of a non- sustaining relationship. They exist because they say they do and ultimately it is a quest to stop and find a moment of reason for their being.

It is a dream about having to make water and finding every little drain willing to accept the humanly excretions only to feel the pressure of needing to go again and again until you wake, and go. But they do not awaken. If indeed they are asleep. If life is without purpose they are as good as dead and waiting for someone, like GODot, to come and get them.

The characters in Waiting for Godot Vladimir (Robertson Dean) and Estragon (Joel Swetow) never wake up and live to replay the same events day after day. They have missed something in their lives and are never able to move on. For some odd reason they haven’t found their reason for being. Their dreams are not satisfied leaving them in this sorry predicament. Life is not much more than a catch phrase of passing time and living to push the living around in the cell they occupy.

The play tells us they’ve been together for a long time.

Vladimir: Hand in hand from the top of the Eiffel Tower, among the first. (That would be 1889.)

They are educated men but now they are the victims of hard times.

Vladimir has to constantly remind Estragon where he has been and why they can’t leave, while at the same time Estragon wants to move on thinking they would be better going off on their own separate ways. It is a relationship that gathers no ground and doesn’t move beyond the length of their waiting area.

To break up the monotony of two people going nowhere they think they encounter Godot.

Estragon: Is that him?

Vladimir: Who?

Estragon: (trying to remember the name). Er…

Vladimir: Godot?

Estragon: Yes.

Pozzo: I present myself: Pozzo.

Vladimir: (to Estragon). Not at all!

Estragon: He said Godot.

Vladimir: Not at all!

Pozzo (Mitchell Edmonds) and Lucky (Mark Bramhall) are bound together in a relationship which is much more wretched than those of our tragic heroes, Vladimir and Estragon.

And they seem to be longer along in their relationship. While Vladimir and Estragon have an unbreakable bond formed by an invisible force, a rope holds Pozzo and Lucky together.

The rope around Lucky’s neck has created unspeakable sores. The obese Pozzo holds the rope, calls Lucky a pig, and makes him wait on him hand and foot. Opening his chair, bringing his whip, putting on a coat, it is a degrading master-slave relationship that Lucky seems to accept, a fait acompli, but is saddened when this relationship breaks down around the other components – namely Vladimir and Estragon.

Pozzo, nearly at the end of his journey, starts loosing his materials things, which suddenly and mysteriously disappear: his vaporizer, and his pipe. Is it foreshadowing the end of his journey? And, indeed, he has lost a great deal more when he arrives in the second act, as a blind man and with a shorter rope. And Lucky has lost his ability to speak.

Owen Sholar plays the boy who apologizes to Vladimir that Godot won’t be coming today, “…but surely to-morrow” thereby giving hope to the hopeless.

Dean is magnificent as Vladimir. Last seen in Crimes and Punishment, Dean manages to respectively wear the costume of Vladimir with grace and dignity. Fighting hard to get his way he manages to stay the course that takes him into obliquity. Dean needs to find the rapture in this piece. But, nevertheless, it was a journey of unspeakable pleasure.

Swetow is an actor that grows on you. Slightly disingenuous by his actions in the beginning (taking off his boots) but Swetow becomes more warming as the moments pass on and this culminates into a very nice performance.

Edmonds as Pozzo was enjoyable to watch. Despicable and wonderfully irascible. He carries his rope of fame as long as someone is willing to pull him along and take his commands.

Bramhall as Lucky, with not much to say until he is asked, is a witness to his own demise. He floats with the weights of his master’s deeds until he falls. Bramhall plays the part beautifully dripping saliva on cue and watering the bare dry ground he inhabits.

Traister, as director, has moved the actors into cautious moments of irreverent beauty. It is a straight on interpretation. Unnatural at times in moving the relationships along and not really making his definitive mark in this existential play. But, nevertheless, a very nice job.

Scenic Design was by Michael C. Smith and it served its purpose. The Original Costume Design by Angela Balogh Calin was delightful.

A Noise Within run by Founders Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott is a grand theatre about to break ground on a new $15,000,000 theatre. For 18 years this theatre has had an unwavering commitment to the preservation of classical theatre and provided superior educational opportunities to students.

www.anoisewithin.org.

Contributions please call 818-265-7959

11, September by Paul Kampf

By Joe Straw

Chaos is a science that offers a way of seeing order and pattern where formerly only the random, the erratic, the unpredictable, in short the chaotic – had been observed. The San Francisco Chronicle.

Remembering the chaotic events of 9/11 is an emotional endeavor that takes you to places you may not want to go. You Tube can be a constant reminder of the events from that day if you are so inclined to view. For most of us, it remains clear, like it was yesterday. Those who don’t remember or have selective memories generally fall under the category of government officials as they pour out revisionist history like milk into a glass.

11, September written by Paul Kampf and produced by Breadline Productions is an exciting production with fantastic performances and is now playing at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles through February 7, 2010.

This is the story about a divorced mathematician, Martin Healy (Paul Kampf) an American who is in town (from London) to give lectures at New York University. He lectures on the mathematical probability of three towers falling from fires created by the jets that slammed into two of the buildings. There are truths he wants to disclose.

Only he has a problem, he’s done this so many times he’s hesitant about discussing the events of the day. There are personal distractions that weigh heavily on him during the course of his lecture. He stops, apologizes, and leaves the podium.

Later that day he meets Angela Madison (Liz Rebert) who invites him up to her one room flat for a round of chaos under the sheets (pun intended). Her swagger in her comfortable surroundings begs for an immediate response from her willing accomplice. She starts taking off her clothes in front of this stranger, steps behind a sheer screen, and slides into something alluring, soft on the hands, and cool to the touch.

Healy, the mathematician and chaos lecturer, is taken aback. This has only happened to him once before. He is a little uncomfortable by the speed of this event.

Angela’s phone starts to ring. She doesn’t answer it and it is this moment Healy starts asking the questions. The answers are not yet provided.

They make it.

And as Martin sleeps, Angela is in the bathroom reading to someone on the phone part of a Martin’s journal or diary.

Later in the morning, Angela, in a foul mood, lights a cigarette, waits for Martin to get up and then tells him to get out. There is something really not quite right with this woman.

Puzzled by the current circumstances, Martin does not take her rejection, and instead invites Angela to breakfast. The phone starts ringing. Angela tells Martin it’s her crazy boyfriend (one bit of truth out) and he will hurt both of them if he doesn’t leave. Martin won’t take no for an answer and takes her out. They leave and when they come back we find that he’s gotten punched in the eye and has a couple of busted ribs. But, he has won the fight.

Angela said it turned her on.

They make it, again.

There are a lot of ways this indecorous couple become attracted to each other. One is fate the other is a point of reference. They share a similar past that cannot be revealed. A future that cannot be shared. It takes them both to hell and forever changes their lives.

The acting is strong. Kampf as Healy is quite good. Kind of dorky at times (check out the dance moves), but a strong character actor. His moments at the lecturn were brilliant.

Rebert, as Angela, is a remarkable actress. Moving in and out of the shadows of her own self-consciousness. She is flaky one minute, loving the next, demanding, supportive, gracious and hateful. She lives for a moment of truth, a dramatic action that eventually destroys her life and the lives around her.

Kampf, the writer, takes us on a pretty good journey. Although, somewhere in the middle, (the scene with her in the rocker and him on the bed) gets a little convoluted and gets confusing. There are a number of chaotic truths that lead to the perfect final resolution: or does it?

Each one of them has a secret truth that is revealed during the course of the play. There are a number of truths in the play. The play plays out like many mini episodes that demand a commercial break. Find out a truth, cut to a commercial, get some more truth. Still, the play is pretty good.

The Breadline Group has moved recently from Chicago to Los Angeles. Welcome.

The Last Straw Awards -2009

by Joe Straw

The Last Straw awards are given to those actors who gave outstanding performances for the year of 2009. This award goes to the outstanding actors that made theatre great in Los Angeles!

If its possible to picture a camel with sacks of straw on its back, straining, struggling and locking its knees, looking up to see someone holding one piece of straw and praying that piece does not reach the basket. That is the image of the award.

In any case, each of these actors made profound statements in their craft. Taking the weight on their shoulders, locking their knees and giving us everything in their performance. Fighting, scratching and kicking and making intentions clear is not easy and sometimes thankless task.

All of the actors below gave performances that made us laugh, were thought provoking, or sent us into a state of nervous exhaustion.

The reviews are still posted if you care to reference the actors with the show they were in (except those noted with asterisks). It's been a great year!

These are the actors who gave their best for the 2009 year.

Congratulations!

Mina Olivera - LOL Latina On The Loose - Los Angeles Theatre Center *

Margaret Avery and Alex Morris - The River Niger - Los Angeles Theatre Center *

Howard Ferguson-Woitzman – Looking for Normal – Malibu Theatre

Julia Stiles and Bill Pullman – Oleanna - Mark Taper Forum

Drew Fitzsimmons – Drive – Westchester Playhouse

Gadi Erel and Jeremy Radin – A Hatful of Rain – Skylight Theatre

Alan Blumenfeld and Melora Marshall – The Miser – Theatricum Botanicum

Daniel Leslie – The Manor – Theatre 40

Stephan Wolfert – Carbon Black – Autrey Museum

Sal Lopez – Solitude - Los Angeles Center Theatre Group

Stogie Kenyatta – The World is My Home – The Story of Paul Robeson – Santa Monica Playhouse

Debra Ehrhardt – Jamaica Farewell – Santa Monica Playhouse

Ronald Hunter – Three Sisters – Odyssey Theatre

Silver Shreck – A Little Night Music – Westchester Playhouse

James Roday, Michael Weston, Amanda Detmer and Stefanie E. Frame – Extinction – The Elephant Space

Benjamin Burdick, Tim Banning and Peter James Smith – The Last Testament - The Open Fist Theatre

Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare

By Joe Straw

Warning: There is full frontal male nudity in this production with (unsurprisingly) gay themes. Those easily offended should stay home and watch Fox News.

Six Degrees of Separation written by John Guare is a remarkable and captivating play about connection. “I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation. Between us and everybody else on this planet,” says Ouisa Kittredge (Joanna Chrugin) in this play.

Of course it is necessary to find the right six people.

Six Degrees of Separation directed by Don Schlossman and produced by Meredith M. Sweeney and Jordan Bland is presented by the Kentwood Players and performed at the Westchester Playhouse from January 8 through February 13, 2010.

John Guare has written a beautiful play that requires that requires your complete attention. And, as Ouisa is a dada manifesto, the play appears to be a grand comedic dada farce with exaggerated dada emotions of the dada heart. (More on this later.)

After listening to the oral ramblings of someone, who was recently introduced to culture in a short period of time, makes one wonder if any of the characters are really listening at all or if they are preoccupied with other motives.

The play opens with a frightened couple shaking in their bath robes; Ouisa Kittredge (Ms. Chrugin) and Fran Kittredge (Ken MacFarlane) are high rolling art dealers that speak to the audience about an intruder they had to throw out of their home. Fran’s concerns are his objects (perhaps his two sided Kandinsky) while Ouisa is only concerned for her up-scale scared life. Alas, nothing is missing and all body parts are intact.

The robes come off as Fran and Ouisa take us back in time. They are preparing for a night out with their rich British South African millionaire friend Geoffrey (Mark Mayes), (who hasn’t got a dime on him), in the hopes of enlisting him as a partner to provide two million dollar for a Cezanne painting as an investment for a future sale. With two kids in Harvard and one at Gorton, they need this sale.

“Geoffrey, you have to move out of South Africa. You’ll be killed. Why do you stay in South Africa?” asks Fran, to which Geoffrey answers “One has to stay there to educate the black workers and we’ll know we’ve been successful when they kill us.” Obviously, Fran is concerned about his well being second and the two million dollars first.

A stranger Paul (Willie Mack Daniels) enters their home with the support of the doorman (Dylan H. Bailey). Paul says a mugger has stabbed him. He knows the Kittredges, knows their children, and even attends Harvard with them. So he came seeking their help.

Paul, grateful for being bathed, dressed, and bandaged lets everyone know that he is the son of Sidney Poitier who is coming into town (in the morning) to direct the film version of Cats. Paul, a master chef, dazzles the guest with his cooking prowl ness (not seen on stage) and, as a compliment to the evening, he spouts a Dadaist Manifesto that means absolutely nothing. This captures the imagination of the Fran, Ouisa and Geoffrey. It is a night they will always remember until they don’t. In any case, everyone is happy because the Cezanne is as good as sold.

Grateful, the Kittredges beg Paul to stay the night and Paul, in exchange, promises them background “people” roles in Cats (Is anybody listening?). But there’s a problem later that night when Ouisa finds Paul in bed with a nude hustler (Marco Garcia). Ouisa shouts to the completely naked man, “He has a knife. He has a gun.” (A pat down against his skin reveals nothing.) Both Paul and the hustler are thrown out.

Later, a couple, Larkin (Jack Coppock) and Kitty (Ginny Kunz) visit Fran and Ouisa to tell them about their adventures with Paul Poitier and a naked burglar. (It plays out like a competition.) After, they chitchat about their similar experiences they call in a skeptical detective (Drew Fitzsimmons) and when he concludes that there is no crime and can't help they try to find a connection.

But the detective turns them on to Dr. Fine (Michael-Anthony Nozzi) who also has a similar story. So they enlist there un-cooperative kids, Tess (Tara Jean O’Brien) Woody (Nick Alspaugh) Ben (Kevin T. King) Doug (Andy Grosso) to find out how they are connected to this con-artist. And they find the connection: Trent Conway (Lorenzo Bastien) tells them he’s educated Paul, had an affair, and hasn’t seen him since.

Paul, in the meantime, is fleecing another naive young couple from Utah, Elizabeth (Meredith M. Sweeney) and Rick (Ryan Knight). Daniels as Paul was captivating for the first five minutes but the role became very stilted and one-dimensional and his choices not imaginative. Articulate, and with a stage presence, but not convincing as the young son of Sidney Poitier. (Think Sidney in Lillies of the Field.) But his impression as an older Sidney Poitier hit the mark and was enjoyable!

Sweeney and Knight as the Utah couple were most enjoyable although Knight gave no indication (in his moment) that he was about to do the unthinkable.

Don Scholssman ably directed the play but questions remains if he understood it. His interpretation seem suspect and scenes seem to be missing from this production. A forceful hand would have guided this two-hour production into ninety minutes, as it should have been. Actors, in their element, are left stranded center stage with seemingly little or nothing to do. Actors presenting the objects on stage were not given the slightest direction and so far away from the action, there was no reaction.

There is another world of imagination, characterization, action and depth waiting to breath life into this production. Not impossible to change, a few notes here, a few staging changes, and wah la (viola)!

Light Design by Hilda Outwater had all the characters seated on either side of the stage extremely lit and took the focus away from the main action.

Guare, throughout this play, gives us clues as to the makeup of the character, that seemed to be ignored by the other characters on stage, intentional or not. After all, elephants are crumplets as a dish pan sabarnyous.

The World is My Home – The Life & Times of Paul Robeson – by Stogie Kenyatta

by Joe Straw

Imagine yourself in a box theatre. Imagine it is cold and wet, a terrible storm raging just hours before, streets flooded, traffic deserted in some places and bumper-to-bumper in others and yet you get there. Frazzled beyond comprehension you get your tickets and find yourself a nice dry place to sit.

Sit back and let the slow jazz, playing in the background, take you back to the music of the Harlem Renaissance (early 1900’s). Make note of the patrons as they gather their seats. Wait for the lights to dim. An eerie silence welcomes a tall dark figure on stage. Inhale this world as it comes into focus and absorb the infectious energy of this journey about to unfold.

The World is My Home – The Life and Times of Paul Robeson written by Stogie Kenyatta is a highly entertaining play that everyone will enjoy and although it was playing at the Santa Monica Playhouse (sponsored by the Jamaican Cultural Society) for one night, this show is traveling across the country including college campuses everywhere.

Stogie Kenyatta carries an incomprehensible energy in portraying Paul Robeson, an actor, singer, political progressive, and activist. Kenyatta is an exceptional actor who meticulously gives us the life-changing details of Robeson’s life in this magnificent one-man show. It is a touching portrayal of one of America’s finest entertainer and humanitarian that should not be missed.

Kenyatta, the writer, lets us in on Robeson private moments through the course of his career and his life. Through his trials and tribulations, good and bad faults, Kenyatta manages to squeeze this stoic African American’s life in an hour and a half. Not only does he play Robeson from the age of five but also plays a dozen other cast of characters.

The story begins with Robeson’s Dad, William Drew Robeson, a runaway slave who, at the age of fifteen, is hiding in the woods to avoid being captured. He speaks quietly to another runaway slave and tells him that he is looking for Harriet Tubman (the Underground Railway) to help guide him into Pennsylvania. This starts the journey to freedom.

Paul Robeson was the youngest of seven children, only five that survived infancy. And with hardly a care in the world, Robeson, at the age of five, walks into the kitchen while his mother (Louisa Bustill Robeson) bakes him a birthday cake. While waiting, his mother’s dress catches on fire burning over 80 percent of her body. Unable to help his mother put out the fire he agonizes over her lifeless body. She dies a few days later.

It was the strength of his father, the Reverend William Drew Robeson that carried him through his formative years with help from his brothers and sister.

Robeson was an athletic great in high school playing football, basketball, baseball and track and field. That along with his mental dexterity got him admitted to Rutgers University.

As a walk-on athlete on the Rutgers Football team, Robeson is humiliated when the team tries to force him off the roster. Robeson quits until he is forcefully persuaded by his brother Reeve to get his butt back in there. Robeson comes back to practice, plays defense, and lifts the quarterback over his head and keeps him there until the panic stricken coach quietly asks Robeson to put him down, but Robeson holds tight until the coach says he made the team. This is one of Kenyatta’s finest moments.

Robeson became an All American football player and was the valedictorian of his class at Rutgers. Robeson then went to Columbia Law School paying his way by playing professional football and basketball. There he me Eslanda (Essie) Cardozo Goode and after a brief courtship they were married. Robeson put up a good fight to say single but Essie was not having any of that.

After he received his JD, Robeson was an attorney but a non-practicing attorney. His white counterparts thought him unsuitable in front a jury. Relegated to reading briefs and filing papers a Jamaican maid let him know just what she was expecting from him. (A number of Jamaicans in the audience roared with laughter with Kenyatta’s spot on Jamaican accent.)

Robeson walks away from his life as an attorney. After hearing him read a poem, that wonderful deep rich speaking voice, Essie suggested that he become a performer.

Together they embraced the Harlem Renaissance, going to the clubs and meeting with its African American participants, the poets, the writers, the jazz musicians, and the cultural and intellectual elites.

And this was just the start of his entertaining career, which ultimately took him around the globe.

Kenyatta has written a very dramatic story of a man who was both admired and vilified and takes us on that journey with such ease that it’s almost impossible to let go.

Kenyatta, the actor, fills every role with dignity and charm. There are a lot of very fine moments on stage, too numerous to mention. He breathes life into the legend of Paul Robeson and never lets us forget that Robeson was a kind and gentle man with strong beliefs about equality here in the United States and the world.

With Kenyatta's million-dollar smile, Robeson says to the audience "You're some really smart colored folks." Smart to take the journey with him and smart not to miss this play.