Her play, DOG ACT, which is now on stage at convergence-continuum, follows the apocalyptic adventures of Zetta Stone, a traveling performer, and her companion Dog, as they wander through the former northeastern United States on their way to perform in China.
The script is a combination of narration, simple songs, and some preposterous interludes.
On the surface, the play’s description sounds easy to understand. It is not! There is a theatrical doomsday overlay, accompanied by lewd and poetic language, riddled with Shakespearean resonance, Biblical and Peter Pan-like references.
This is not a script which one can analyze and figure out what the underlying purpose of the play is about and what the author is trying to teach/tell us. In fact, the only way to wend yourself through this two-act experience is to sit back and let it happen and not dig much deeper.
A review of DOG ACT stated, “The dialogue doesn't provoke the listener to struggle to make sense of the various argots and the strangeness of the words by which we communicate – or don’t.”
With that in mind, a question might be, “Why did con-con’s powers that be choose this script?”
Yes, theatre’s mission is to “produce theatre that expands human imagination and extends the conventional boundaries of language, structure, space and performance,” but does producing an abstract script, that has no apparent relevance or message accomplish that goal? Why chose a script which is loaded with unnecessary use of profanity, with no purpose other than using profanity for the sake of the use of profanity?
The issue with the production is not the direction. David L. Munnell, seems to have a clear process that he used, including assaulting the audience as they were coming in by having Coke and Bud, using “f**k” over and over, desensitizing the viewer to the excessive use of that word in the script, to making the entire process so obscure that the lack of idea clarity is expected, therefore accepted.
The performances, though sometimes uneven, are generally acceptable.
Mike Frye (Dog) has a charming and accessible quality as Dog, who as a young boy, while confined to a fortress, knowing the guard at the gate was not always alert, wandered into the outlying areas, leaving the gate opened, allowing marauders to enter and kill most of the population. As a result, Dog has been self-transformed into a non-human.
Denise Astorino (Vera), who started the evening yelling, rather than stressing ideas, seemed to settle into the role and create Zetta, the leader of the troupe, into a character obsessed in getting to China to perform. As with many of the issues in the play, we are unaware of the cause of her oriental obsession.
Andrea Belser, who we find out near the end of the script, is on a vengeful hunt to destroy Dog, as she was one of the few people to survive the attack on the community destroyed by the youth’s leaving the gate open, is inconsistent in her line interpretation and character development. At times she was realistic, at other instances, she acted the role.
Wesley Allen (Coke) and Emileo Fernandez (Bud) evilly swore themselves through their roles. Why they were forced into meaningless language, only the author knows. Their costumes, made out of coke and Budweiser cans were clever, but why was Bud wearing a Young Judea stocking cap?
Kate Smith, as Jo-Jo, a storyteller, had some humorous moments with her monotone triple-talking of meaningless tales.
The technical aspects of the show were well done.
Capsule judgment: As Bud and Coke, two characters in DOG ACT might ask, “Why in F**ckity, F**ck, did con-con choose to do this convoluted script?”
DOG ACT runs March 25 -April 16, 2022, Thu-Sat at 8 p.m. at convergence continuum’s Liminis Theater, 2438 Scranton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113 in the historic Tremont neighborhood. Fri. and Sat. tickets are $23 general admission, $18 for seniors and $18 for students. Tickets and information are available at www.convergence-continuum.org and 216- 687-0074.
