by Geoff Hoff

Photo by Meredith Donahue.

<3 is the emoticon for the heart, or love. It is also the mathematical notation for less than three. Both meanings pertain to the play <3 presented by the Brimmer St. Theatre Company, now playing at Studio/Stage in Hollywood.

I am always moved, impressed and inspired by anyone, or any group, who pull together a work from their heart and soul, who cobble together a company to continue to experiment and who find the means to make the work and present it to an audience. This process should always be encouraged, no matter what the individual result may be. The result may be thought innovative by the young artist, but, as with the protagonist in Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the young artist must often take the time to understand what came before him in order to create something new, to appreciate beauty in a new way.

This play is touted as an innovative, multimedia experience, which, according to their press release, “aims to take a further step in [the direction of a new definition of what theatre can be] by not only challenging traditional forms, but also taking multimedia integration to a new level.” There is multimedia, lots of well produced asides, historical prospective and cell phone conversations projected in mostly interesting ways on the sparse set, as well as the entire IM text of chats held by characters staring at their cell phones on stage. Although most of the multimedia is well done, it is hardly innovative, or taking anything to a new level. With much less technology at their disposal, there have been shows using multimedia as well since the sixties. Yes, even in small theatres.

The story is of a group of self-styled “millennials”, at the cusp of adulthood (although by their behavior, this is a comedy after all, none of them is very close, yet, to crossing that cusp) coming to a wedding reception to await the arrival of the bride and groom. It is an odd combination of My Best Friend’s Wedding and Waiting for Godot (or, perhaps, Waiting for Lefty. Or even Waiting for Guffman. Suffice it to say they’re all waiting) with a little Lars and the Real Girl thrown in for good measure. One of the women, whose boyfriend wants desperately to marry, is still in love with the groom and one of the men is desperately in love with the bride. (The couple is less than three, hence the second meaning of the emoticon.)

Again, there is little new, here, unless you take into account that one of the wedding guests is a robot that no one seems surprised to know is a robot and one of them is an “apparition” that really freaks another one out. There is also a lesbian who seems to have become pregnant by immaculate conception. There are some very funny moments, one especially which involves an heirloom ring, and there is some interesting staging, such as the rooftop scenes overlooking the Los Angeles skyline at different times of day, but a lot of it is pasted in, such as the pantomime, theatre-game “work” scene which seems plopped in for no other reason than that they thought it interesting.

A note in the program is very telling, that the company set out to do three things: “to experiment with total integration of multimedia theatre technologies; to develop a study of several interwoven characters: to put our story on the stage.” I assert that, if, in their next production (and I do hope there is a next production, and one after that, ad infinitum) they adjust the third goal to be to find an interesting story to put on stage and start with that, letting the rest of it be a slave to that master, they will be better served. There are a lot of stories to tell, as their program also states, about their “unique experience as the first… to have computers in the classrooms, to socialize through instant messaging and to come of age post-9/11″.

<3 was directed by Jenny Byrd. The stageplay was by D. Jette, based, I assume, on improvisations and recollections by the ensemble. The set was by S. Logan Wince. There was fun choreography, (although it was mostly played off to the side, behind the set) by Jillian Szafranski. The videography was by John Matysiak and music and lyrics (notably a rather grand group finale) by Freddy & Francine.

The ensemble included Jillian Szafranski, Dan Gordon, Joseph L. Roberts, Drew DiFonzo Marks, Emilia Richardson, Amy K. Harmon, Ian Madeira and Tyler Jenich.

The play is performed Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm through Saturday, May 9^th, 2009.

Studio/Stage is located at 520 N. Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90004, just south of Melrose.

Ticket prices: $12.00

Reservations online at http://www.restartyourheart.com.