It’s time once again for the annual LaBute New Theater Festival at St. Louis Actors’ Theatre. This is the sixth year for the festival, and a good chance for theatre-goers who want to avoid The Same Stuff to see brand new work. As William Roth, SLAS Artistic Director, said on opening night, the short plays are basically still being workshopped – they’re in progress. And unlike sausage, as the old saying goes, it’s interesting to watch art being made.
Understand this does not mean these are rehearsals, the sort of thing where a director stops what’s onstage and says, “Eileen, can you give that line a little more anxiety? And Rufus, come downstage a couple of feet. We want to see you react to her.” But the scenery is minimal, and the actors on hand may well appear in more than one of the four plays presented in each half of the festival.
Set One has just opened; Set Two opens July 20. Each of them opens, as usual, with a new short play from Neil LaBute, who was in attendance on opening night. This year’s offering from the eponymous playwright was The Fourth Reich.
LaBute can often give an audience a slap in the face. This is more like gradually turning up the volume on a piece of music so it’s easier to recognize the recurring theme. Eric Dean White plays an ordinary sort of guy seated in an armchair for a little chat. Perhaps he’s making a video for YouTube. As he speaks, there’s the sort of affability one might associate with small-town grade school principals. But we realize pretty quickly that his discussion of history being written by the winners but “other truths” are omitted is leading into something bigger. Much bigger. It’s a voyage of growing horror and disgust. Then the snake, so to speak, just slithers away, leaving us gasping and relieved.
Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich wrote Shut Up and Dance about a Rockette, Erin Brewer, who has refused to participate in the inaugural festivities last year. It’s part fantasy/nightmare and part dialogue with her mother, Margeau Steinau. The women talk past each other for most of the time, and while the dialogue is an accurate portrayal of how many people felt at that time, it’s not enough to carry things.
After the intermission, the tone changes considerably. Advantage God is by Norman Kline, about an affluent couple empty-nesting in a gated community. Colleen Backer and Eric Dean White discover the neighborhood is under siege and being invaded. Backer is so blissfully self-absorbed she’s really not disturbed. Fine work from both actors, especially White, whose gift for comedy seldom seems to be displayed. The piece is wonderfully over-the-top satirical, especially the voice of God, Reginald Pierre, and shows considerable promise, although the very end needs a little work.
James McLindon’s Hipster Noir, gives us a Brooklyn coffee shop that has an old-fashioned corded land line phone. That right there proves we’re entering the land of cognitive dissonance. Reginald Pierre is a Raymond Chandler-esque guy who’s also working a day job as a barista, although he would surely look puzzled at the title. But he’s not surprised when a, yes, hipster customer played by Joshua Parrack comes in carrying a vintage Smith-Corona portable typewriter and gushes over the barista’s fountain pen. He’s followed by a glamorous dame, Carly Rosenbaum, much more in the oeuvre of Chandler, who is clearly interested in more from him than what’s coming from the coffee machine. The dialogue is perfectly, deliberately, sappy, and everyone is having way too good a time.
Wendy Greenwood directed Shut Up and Dance; the others were directed by John Pierson. It’s a fast, fascinating and, in the second half, fun evening.
LaBute New Theater Festival Set One
through July 15
St. Louis Actors’ Studio
Gaslight Theater
360 N. Boyle
314-458-2978
Comments