David Gochfeld

No exit: Writer-actress Tonya Krohn as the flight attendant in her one-woman play "Puddlejump."

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The July 30 program of The Brick Theater’s first annual Hell Festival, directed by Hope Cartelli, Michael Gardner, Robert Honeywell and Jeff Lewonczyk, took audiences down to the Lower Regions in a variety of ways, some more successful than others, but all highly innovative and creative.

"Man of Infinite Desire," written and performed by Christina Nicosia and directed by Jonathan Van Gieson, is a one-woman show that retells the Faust legend from the point of view of a libidinous female Mephistopheles.

The show certainly doesn’t lack in originality. Nicosia uses striptease, monologue, masks and puppetry to make her point. But alas, she is no Gypsy Rose Lee (neither in body nor bump), and her dense monologue suggests what might have happened if Mae West had gone to Harvard and lost fifty pounds.

At times Nicosia’s shifts from Mephistopheles to Faust to Gretchen (the young girl Faust seduces) are not well defined. And the use of masks and puppets (Ninja Theater serves as puppetry consultant) seem to confuse more than clarify.

There was much promise in "Man of Infinite Desire," but in the end, it left much to be desired.

"Balleto Inferno," written and directed by Kourtney Rutherford, is a 15-minute adaptation of Italian director Dario Argento’s 1977 classic horror film, "Suspiria," about a young girl who becomes a student at a German ballet academy that turns out to be inhabited by a coven of witches.

More spoof than suspense, this version takes aspiring dancer Lucy Brown (Katie Workum) to a prestigious dance academy run by sadistic directors and filled with the walking wounded - a pot-bellied blind man and a crippled diva.

With its atmosphere of fear and hysteria, and its smile-provoking parodies of dance exercises, "Balleto Inferno" will no doubt strike a familiar chord with anyone who has ever been the victim of one of these institutions. It’s also pretty funny for the untalented klutzes.

"Balleto Inferno" was presented in a double bill with excerpts from Lone Wolf’s "Animal," a full-length theatrical play for puppets and actors commissioned by Basil Twist’s Dream Music Puppetry Program at HERE.

"Animal" follows a shaman and his lovable, semi-human creature-test subject through a series of harrowing experiments designed to explore the nature of happiness. The animal, which is manipulated in Japanese bunraku style, appears so natural one would swear it’s alive, despite the presence of the black-clad puppeteers.

The animal is tortured in many horrific ways. He is shocked by the very toy he desires. He is told he is inferior and worthless. Don’t look here for subtlety. Nevertheless, those who don’t mind being bludgeoned over the head with meaning will enjoy the excellent puppetry.

"Puddlejump," is a one-woman show written and performed by Tanya Krohn and directed by Sheila Bandyopadhyay, two young women who founded the production company Groundplay, which first presented the show at the 2004 Montreal Fringe Festival.

In this extraordinary play, four people win a free vacation to the universe’s newest hotspot - hell. The four people are a Jewish widower ("hell is seeing food and not being able to eat it," he laments), a lovesick boy scout who has ADD, a frustrated opera diva who never recovered from her second-grade failure to secure the role of Pippi Longstocking, and a Russian Buddhist nanny whose dim view of life is not relieved by the hope of reincarnation ("Life is pain, pain, suffering, frog").

They are guided by an amiable stewardess with a noticeable (and quite deliberate) lack of personality.

Krohn’s ability to metamorphose into her various personas with the help of a black shawl and a red kerchief is a delight to watch. Her glimpses into character are formidable. And her poignant humor always hits its mark.

Honeywell says he and Gardner, who founded The Brick Theater, fell in love with their space at first sight - especially the brick walls (hence the name). Now their goal is to "appropriate the Manhattan art scene and bring it down to where all the artists are living."

For the moment that happily looks like "Hell."

The Hell Festival continues through Aug. 22. "Man of Infinite Desire" plays Aug. 9 at 8:30 pm, Aug. 14 at 3 pm and Aug. 19 at 7 pm. "Puddlejump" plays Aug. 16 at 9:15 pm and Aug. 17 at 8:15 pm. Tickets: $10. All tickets are sold at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. The Brick Theater is located at 575 Metropolitan Ave. between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg. For more information, call (718) 907-6189 or visit www.bricktheater.com.

©2004 Community Newspaper Group