My Mobster at Artworks Theatre

by Kyle Moore ~

Every girl has a story to tell about her first time, but it’s probably a safe bet that most of these stories don’t wind up becoming 90-minute solo performance pieces. Then again, most women aren’t as engaging and gifted a storyteller as is Joy Nash, and most “first time” stories don’t involve Venice, Paris, London, and a huge, gregarious, doting but ultimately untrustworthy foreigner.

Nash goes from an insecure, honest-to-God virgin chafing against her uptight religious upbringing to the “sadder but wiser” woman in the course of her journey, and she does so with a winning combination of wit, vulnerability, and resilient willingness to take a chance on first love. “I’m taking a leap, because even if I fall on my face, for a minute I’ll be flying.” A minor quibble is that her story could stand maybe a bit of trimming here and there, but she never commits the sin of losing her audience’s interest. This is a brave, funny and touching performance worth making time to see.

“My Mobster” plays June 19, 21, 22, 25 & 26

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The Sex Life of Achilles at Theatre of NOTE

by Joel Elkins~

In ancient times, unlike today, gods were seen as anthropomorphized, flawed creatures, their lives playing out like a celestial reality show. The Sex Life of Achilles draws on that concept, recounting the lascivious life of the demigod Achilles, offspring of the goddess Thetis and the mortal king Peleus.

The story is acted out by two storytellers at the forceful request of, we soon discover, Thetis herself. In fact, as the narration unfolds, it becomes apparent that all three participants are intimately involved in the subject matter, and the purpose of the retelling is more therapy than entertainment.

Playing on the legend that Achilles had slept with half the inhabitants of Greece, both female and male, the play juxtaposes classical prose with contemporary profanity that is effectively jarring but at times goes slightly overboard for this writer. Love it or hate it, however, it thoroughly earns its “adult” rating.

David LeBarron, who also wrote the script, starts off slow, but overall gives a powerful performance as Acheanus, and Shanna Beauchamp is perfect in the role of Briseis. Rebecca Norris is also strong in the lesser role of Thetis.

Thanks to the choreography of Dan Graul, the wigs of Rene Maldonado, and the period costumes of Daniel Terrazas, the play is visually stunning, particularly so given the constraints of a small theater with virtually no set to speak of.

And the Fringe appears the perfect vehicle to bring this professionally produced but slightly off-beat production to the theater-going hoi polloi.

The Sex Life of Achilles plays June 18 at 8 p.m., June 21 at 6:00, June 25 at noon and June 26 at 4:00 p.m.

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FreakShow Deluxe at Fringe Central-Mainstage-ArtWorks Theatre

by Erin Scott ~

Everything FreakShow Deluxe does is “Real—Real stupid” and so opens this modern carnival sideshow with Amy Amnesia performing the human wood block. This act consists of using a nail and hammer, building on this premise, she goes on to shove a screw driver up the other nostril. So the audience would see “new” freak show tricks as well as old school, Amy Amnesia pulled out a power drill and threw that back a nostril as well. This reminded me of the time I stapled my finger with an airgun and had 100 pounds per square inch behind it. There was a quarter inch piece of wood in between my finger and the staple but it made me want to never have that happen again, where as many of these performers may have had something like that happen and they continue to perform feats of danger, pain, and mystery.

Be ready for sword swallowing, contortion, fan dancing and strip tease. There was a straightjacket contest between Ghoulia and Jonny Panic and the duo returned to display feats of pain and pleasure with a bed of nails.

Most enjoyable was William Draven’s act of swallowing and procuring dental floss. Although a small audience, where audience participation is key, the ladies chosen to come out of the audience represented the gamut of thrill seekers. With Draven’s act he chose a young girl thinking she was off the hook and her reactions along with Draven’s banter created comic genius.

FreakShow Deluxe returns to the Hollywood Fringe after winning the Best Cabaret/Circus. The show strives for family friendly but it still is people doing bodily harm to themselves as well as the expected innuendo and banter a sideshow would have.

FreakShow Deluxe plays Monday June 20 at 6 pm, Thursday June 23 at 10:30 pm, Friday June 24 at 6:30 pm and 11:59 pm

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Fact & Fiction at the Elephant Theatre

by Kyle Moore ~

Like a great sleight-of-hand magician, playwright William Nedved leaves his audience wondering just what is real and what isn’t even after the “trick” has been revealed. In this highly-anticipated world premiere production directed by Damaso Rodriguez, two very different stories are told in two half-hour monologues.

Nedved himself takes the first shift, recounting his experiences as a high school foreign-exchange student in Brazil, mostly by simply reading his journal from that transformative year. It’s an entertaining, if innocuous story of his sexual awakening, but it leaves a viewer wondering, “Really? This is what theatre has come to? A guy can just read his diaries now and call it a show?”

Then comes Adam Silver, with his pitch-perfect delivery and timing and a Gene Wilder-esque grin, telling a far more unusual tale of being relentlessly and hilariously stalked cross-country by a would-be filmmaker. To reveal any more now would be a disservice both to Silver’s consummate charm as a performer and Nedved’s skill as a writer. It’s enough to say that this show is worth seeing once, maybe even twice to get the full effect.

“Fact & Fiction” plays June 16, 20 & 23.

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BEAN at Open Fist Theatre

by Carmelo Valone~

Michelle Lema’s one woman show Bean is a very up close and personal experience; an experiment in intimacy and disclosure of those moments in life that make you who are, or who you think you are. A girl sits on a small red chair, and holds a few items that turn into a string of lovely anecdotes from Bean’s childhood.

This show felt like an exercise in early Stanislavski acting methods based on the concept of emotional memory, during which an actor focuses internally to portray a character’s emotions onstage. But this felt like it was reverse in concept, as if the sense memories and ideas were the show.

Bean has great heart, enthusiasm, and a real way about words. She is a great narrator but the ultimate message is hard to figure out, or is it? Maybe you should be the judge, because after all she is a bean, something you can put in your pocket and perhaps later digest.

Bean plays June 17th, 19th 23rd and 25th showing on both the Open Fist theater and Fringe Central theaters.

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Home Free! at The Complex Theatres

by Melanie Keller~

In Lanford Wilson’s debut play, Home Free!, siblings Joanna and Lawrence are in a state of arrested development while the real world they are incapable of dealing with looms outside of their door, and inside of Joanna’s belly. Fishface Productions version captures most of the intricacies of Wilson’s unique one act, being at once bizarre and captivating, unnerving and fun. Morgan Michaels is whimsy as Joanna, who incessantly taunts Lawrence (sharp and aptly played by Ryan Lahetta) with her encounters of life outside of their apartment that Lawrence’s extreme agoraphobia prevents him from experiencing. In a story that doesn’t have much action, the actors kept the pacing with their natural, energetic, and playful banter. Joanna’s pregnant belly caused by Lawrence, their imaginary friends whom they persistently address, and the ritualistic, childish games they play depict adults who, from either past trauma or ignorance, are confined to a world of their own creation, rules and limitations.

The vintage jingles of the pre-show music were upbeat yet slightly jarring and helped to establish the tone of these adults stuck in a literal child’s playroom. Although the set design was indicative of this, a few times the actors seemed cramped with a relatively large table in the center of the small stage.

Directed by Lois Weiss.

Home Free! plays June 21@ 7:30, June 22@ 6:00, June 23@ 8:30 and June 25@4:00.

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Maizy: A Fable at Open Fist Theatre

by Joel Elkins~

Perhaps the more obvious name for this play would have been Maizy: A Fairy Tale. After all, it is a tale about fairies.

Maizy (played by Julie Civiello) lives with her grandmother in their mushroom house in the Valley, but dreams of the magical land known as “Hollywoods” where she can spread her wings (literally) and fly through the sky like Tinkerbell, the most famous fairy of all. So she packs up her belongings, says goodbye to her family and friends and travels down the 101 with only a few petals to her name.

At first, flying gigs aren’t so easy to come by for the wide-eyed, fresh-faced fairy from the sticks, but, true to the genre, at the end of her rope, Maizy gets her big break, not only meeting Tinkerbell – who turns out to be an obnoxious, egocentric booze-hound hopped up on pixie dust – but soon taking her place as the next big thing. Alas, celebrity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, as we witness Maizy starting down the road in her idol’s footsteps.

The script by Ben Lewis is often quite clever, commenting on modern society through a fairy’s perspective. And the cast, particularly Civiello, does a fine job. However, the production as a whole had the feel of a well-done high school production. Perhaps it succeeds as light-hearted fare, but don’t expect great art or profundity.

Maizy: A Fable plays June 18 and 21 at 8:00 p.m., June 23 and 24 at 10 p.m., and June 25 at 2 p.m.

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The Crooked Rooks in Rock, Paper, Loneliness at The Lounge Theatre

by Marcus Kaye~

Returning after the success of their first show, Wet Cookies, at last year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, comedians Drew Hunter, Mallie McCown, Mike McNeal & Adam Sass are back, under the newly minted troupe name “The Crooked Rooks,” in the hilariously absurd comedy show: Rock, Paper Loneliness.

The structural ingenuity of the show breaks up a long sketch about plotting the perfect proposal with a series of smaller sketches. The result is watching the love child of a Friends-esque sitcom and a Saturday Night Live style sketch show.

Hunter, McCown, McNeal & Sass employ a variety of characters, fully committing to, and realizing each one. From Sass’s Russian butcher to McNeal’s overzealous game show host; from Hunter’s friendly kidnapper, to McCown’s insensitive performance artist, the comedians lose themselves in their characters with hysterical results.

Direction by Riaz Patel is top notch, keeping the pace brisk, the show flowing, and The Crooked Rooks employing, not only their comedy chops but also, their physical comedy skills.

Rock, Paper, Loneliness is an original, polished, and (most importantly) funny sketch show that left Thursday’s preview audience demanding a second curtain call with their applause.

Rock, Paper, Loneliness plays at The Lounge Theatre June 16 at 8PM, June 23 at 10PM and June 26 at 2PM.

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Eavesdropper 2012 at the Complex Theatres

by Freddy Puza~

If you combined a reality show, the movies Kids and Go, and a Greek tragedy, you would get Eavesdropper 2012, a play that feeds the voyeuristic human desire to know other’s secrets. Set in an apartment in Silverlake, the play follows an uninvited guest who eavesdrops on a party’s many guests who share their secrets and unleash their primal desires in a bathroom.

The play moves at a frantic pace as the night descends into a symphony of chaos, lack of authentic communication, sexual conquests, humiliating and lewd acts, and, ultimately, violent destruction. It’s raw and visceral, almost disgusting, and it doesn’t apologize for it.

The script was well-written, building on other works of literature from Freud to the Wizard of Oz and Shakespeare. And it’s a worthy attempt at trying to create a theatrical space inclusive of multiple races, both sexes and the spectrum of sexualities. That being said, some of the situations and the language are violent. Be prepared.

Eavesdropper 2012 runs June 18, 25 at 11:45 p.m. and June 26 at 4:30 p.m.

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The Normal Child at The Open Fist

by Erin Scott ~

It’s always interesting when an audience walks in a sees a set piece that makes it obvious that there will be limited movement or staging for a show. To be fair, the playwright calls for this set piece (designed by Jan Muroe). It dominates the stage and it is an amazing image that one walks into as the house opens with Clare (Amanda Weir) sitting in a precarious position on the stage. Be that as it may, the play then starts to an amazing monologue and back story as told by Clare’s brother, Terrance (Rob Nagle), revealing the secrets of a family tormented with death, mental illness, and issues of masculinity. Many outside the South shy away from stories with this theme but The Normal Child humorously and beautifully plays with language in this one act that shouldn’t be missed.

The sound design by Peter Carlstedt was interesting, bringing in layers of underwater sounds as ambiance. It was an unfortunate distraction that the off stage voices sounded recorded and less placed compared to other sound cues later in the play that brought the audience back into the story. The sound design, like the rest of the show successfully walks the ridgepole between reality and fantasy.

The Normal Child plays Saturday June 18 at 2 pm, Saturday June 25 at 12 pm and Sunday June 26 at 1 pm