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.
