SPEECH AND DEBATE examines contemporary teen angst at congruence-continuum

 

It is entirely appropriate that convergence-continuum, with its tendency of challenging conventional notions by choosing plays because they contain controversial topics, stage Stephen Karam’s SPEECH AND DEBATE, which examines teenage angst as it relates to love, self-acceptance and what happens when three teens are forced to confront the real world in which they live.
 
The teenage misfits, Solomon, Diwata and Howie, who go to the same school, have different gripes with life, but soon realize that three voices are stronger than one. 
 
Meet the dynamic trio:
 
There is Solomon, a nerdy kid with ambitions of being a journalist.  As his/their latest cause-celeb, he/they wants to investigate homophobic closeted men in positions of power.  He/they gets a chance when the conservative Republican mayor of Salem, Oregon, is caught in a sex scandal involving underage boys.  Solomon writes the story.  It, along with an essay on abortion, are rejected for publication by the school’s newspaper advisor because of her fear that there will be community backlash.
 
Then there is Howie, an out, gay high school senior, who has transferred from a liberal Portland school. He is disgusted by the Puritan culture of Salem, in which he can’t get a Gay-Straight Alliance sponsored at school, but can make a gay “sex” date on-line with a school faculty member.
 
The trio also contains Diwata, a black female diva, who has a grudge against the school’s drama teacher because he refuses to cast her in a major part and won’t stage her musical version of Arthur Miller’s THE CRUCIBLE, a play about witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.  She goes into the boy’s bathroom, one day, because the girl’s facility is over-crowded.  While seated in a stall, she witnesses what she thinks is an illicit encounter between a student and the drama teacher. 
 
When the three students realize that they each have a piece of the same scandalous puzzle, secrets are bartered, and ultimately, and in spite of their differences, an alliance is formed. 
 
They realize that since their school has no speech and debate squad, if they form one, and present their “evidence,” maybe this is their chance to be heard at last—by the school and even the world. 
 
The play has been bannered as, “A triumph…hilarious, cliché-free, and immensely entertaining, “…[A] savvy comedy…bristling with vitality, wicked humor, terrific dialogue and a direct pipeline into the zeitgeist of contemporary youth.”  Other reviewers stated, “Karam has a keen ear for how teens talk, move and think, how they view each other and the adult world … and uses both the advantages and perils of cyberspace to make amusing, original point,” and “This play is a f–ing blast.”
 
Con-con’s staging, thanks to solid directing by Léo Fex, in spite of some over tinkering with the various set pieces, which slowed down the production, was effective, holding the attention throughout.  
 
 In most productions of the script, the role of Solomon is played by a male.  Fex, who identifies as “they,” decided to have Keniel Kenney, who also identifies as “they,” play the role.  They are dressed in a shirt whose buttons follow the male buttoning configuration and has a “boyish” haircut.  This interpretation gives a gender/sex fluid, non-differentiated identity, to Solomon.  Whether intentional or not, this casting changes the meaning of some of the author’s lines.  
 
Keeney is “geek” strong in the role.
 
Zoë Frager is drama queen perfect as the obsessed actress/playwright-wanna be.
 
Brandon Alexander Smith nails the role of Howie.
 
Carolyn Demanelis handles both the role of teacher and reporter effectively.
 
Though the program does not give credit for whomever is responsible for the design and execution of the electronic graphics, it should be noted that they strongly enhance the show.
 
Capsule judgment:  SPEECH AND DEBATE is a well-conceived and written play that gets a very creditable production at con-con.
 
For tickets for the show, which runs through August 24 go to www.convergence-continuum.org

Next up at con-con:  THE PITCHFORKS (October 4-October 26).

Con—con’s THE GROWN-UP, a thought-provoking, life-awareness, fantasy!

 
THE GROWN-UP, Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison’s play, which is now on stage at convergence-continuum, in its Ohio premiere, uses fantasy to explore how quickly life changes and, therefore, that life is too short to miss any moment of it.  
 
The play asks the fundamental questions of life, such as whether it is possible to balance our earlier innocence with adult experiences? 
 
The script, which was premiered at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville in March, 2014 as a part of the Humana Festival, centers on ten-year old Kai, who is given a “magical” crystal door-knob by his grandfather that enables him to open “doors” that allow him to travel through space and time to see future events in his life. 
 
As he goes from experience to experience, including meeting a pirate, writing award winning scripts, discovering his gay sexuality, becoming disabled, reconnecting with his sister, the less he feels like he's seeing into his future, but more that he is living life as most people do, much too quickly. 
 
While the story is not linear in its development, it’s not difficult to follow.  The clear staging and pace, as well as being up-close in con-cons intimate space of about 25 seats, with no-one more than three rows from the runway stage, aids in being involved in the intimacy of the action.
 
The six-person cast, who change characters, age and sex, requires the audience use their imaginations to accept the premise of Harrison’s writing.
 
Mike Frye who plays Kai at every stage in life, must not only be a child, but a jaded author of stories, an adventurer, an ill and later dying man.  
 
Logan Andrews plays the cabin boy who brought the crystal to Kai’s grandparents’ house as well as Kai’s boyfriend in a scene in which his feelings for his lover change from bemusement to exasperation and fear. 
 
 Natalie Lambo plays the same character at two very different stages in her life. She’s a little girl at the start of the play and an old lady at the conclusion.
 
The show is effectively staged by Amy Bistok.
 
Clyde Simon’s projections aid in creating clear images of the set for many scenes,
 
Each member of the non-professional cast, Mike Frye, Natalie Lambo, Logan Andrews, Katelyn Cornelius, David l. Munnell and Jack Matuszewski are believable in their many roles, developing clear characters.
 
Capsule judgment:  THE GROWN-UP, while fulfilling con-con’s purpose of expanding human imagination and extending the conventional boundaries of language, structure, space and performance, continues the pattern of presenting challenging plays that fits the likes of their core audience.  As with most the theatre’s offerings, this play is both challenging and thought-provoking.  It is a quick and interesting experience.
 

THE GROWN-UP by Jordan Harrison, about 90-minutes long , is staged without intermission, runs Saturday Oct 14, 2023 through Saturday Nov 4, 2023 at convergence-continuum, 2438 Scranton Road in Tremont.  For tickets go to www.convergencetoninuum.org.  

 

WALKING TO BUCHENWALD gets better production than script deserves at Con-Con   Roy Berko (American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)   At the start of the opening night of BUCHENWALD, it appeared that no matter the quality of the script the audience was in for a rough night.  Lighting guffaws, a confusing scene with actors speaking directly to the audience, but talking to other actors seemingly miles apart, with no visual means of the messages being conveyed.  Not a healthy beginning.   Once they pulled out phones, and got into the swing of things, and the lighting-tech got their act together, the five-person cast did themselves proud, getting numerous laughs, while trying to convey Jacobson’s disjointed tale.   ​We meet lesbian lovers, Schiller and Arjay.  The duo decides to take Schiller’s parents on a trip to Europe.  The parents are uptight about travel, uptight about doing anything out of their comfort zone, are uptight about leaving their Oklahoma ways.  But, interestingly enough, they are, by self-admission, probably the only two liberal Democrats in the Okie state.   Schiller's dad, Roger, is eventually willing.  Arjay succeeds in convincing Mildred to join the three of them.  Once in London, then Paris, then Germany, near the site of the Buchenwald concentration camp, the foursome is confronted with comments about the incompetency of the U.S. political system, U.S. versus European food habits, the role of museums and other sociological issues. Sounds like this could expose very delightful, quirkier, and ridiculous situations and dialogue.  And, if Jacobson knew precisely what he was trying to accomplish, it probably could have been.   The writer and theatre try to pawn this script off as an intellectual approach to examine “cultural, national and gender identity, politics, marriage, death, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, life and death, all within an examination of if God exists.”  Is also probes “what it means to be a parent, a spouse, a child; what it feels like to be in a relationship with a partner who is your temperamental opposite; to be a liberal in a Red State; an American in a Trump-like western world; someone dying in a world obsessed with hollow positivity; and what it means to be a European shackled to an America teeming with reemerging nativism.  Jacobson doesn’t seek to determine who is to blame for anything. None of us is to blame. All of us are to blame. Blame God.”   Yep, all that “stuff” in a two-act-play.  With intermission.  Intermission is needed to give you time and breath while trying to crawl out from the avalanche of ideas the author is throwing at us.   As one review said, “BUCHENWALD lingers long after the final curtain, its puzzles working their way into your dreams.” (No, thank you!)   The positive are the performances!   John J. Polk and Nanna Ingvarsson seamlessly portray Schiller's parents Mildred and Roger and their respective character metamorphoses.  Ingvarsson begins as a complaining, former grade school teacher set in her ways.  But once in Europe, she blossoms into a vibrant purveyor of life, even while complaining that she isn’t given time in England to do genealogical research.  (Oh yeah, genealogical connections are another topic the writer loads into the script.  And, no, no-one finds they had relatives killed in Buchenwald, though that might have been a great plot twist, one that could be a possibility based on the title.) As a former theatre director, Polk spouts out Jacobson's most meta lines on the theatre scene. As the one with German ancestry, Roger transparently reveals his very mixed feelings on actually visiting the Buchenwald concentration camp. Emmy Cohen is right on target as Schiller, a somewhat obsessive young lady who thinks that having a comprehensive itinerary is the only way to have a good time and tour.  Arjay, as interpreted by the very competent Carolyn Todd, is the peacemaker between her girlfriend and herself as well as between Shiller and her parents.   John Peters plays a number of integral supporting roles trying valiantly to differentiate them all with different foreign accents and distinct body language.  Characters include a British tourist at the Darwin Centre, a French waiter upset over the ugly Americans not liking the food, a scary German truck driver, and a talking corpse in the Body Worlds Exhibition.  (Don’t even ask why that is included in the script. Capsule judgment:  Every once in a while a director and actors shine, while the script they are working with doesn’t really deserve to garner the quality.  This is the case of WALKING TO BUCHENWALD, the Tom Jacobson play now on stage at convergence-continuum.   WALKING TO BUCKENWALD runs Thursday-Saturday at 8PM, June 2-24, 2023​ at convergence-continuum, 2438 Scranton Road.  For tickets go to www.convergence-continuum.org.   Next up at con-con:  MOONRISE AFTER THE MOUNTAINS FALL, June 29-July 1, followed by EXIT PURSUED BY A BEAR from August 11-September 2.

THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD will offend some, delight others at con-con

 

A stage manager indicates the opening light and sound cues, calls places for the actors, and we are off on a lesson of Biblical history.  That is, comedy writer Paul Rudnick’s version of Biblical history.  
 
There is God or god or G-d, or no God.  
 
He, she, or it created gay Adam and Steve and Jane and Mabel.
 
In this version of the great book, homosexuality was normal before heterosexuality.  
 
Adam and Steve navigate the centuries together, with a few kinky side-trips. They encounter odd characters, including gay animals on Noah's ark, a crippled lesbian rabbi, and a flamboyant pharaoh. There is birth, marriage and attacks on traditional marriage. There is a celebration of Christmas, with or without virgin birth, and Hannukah getting in the way of Xmas festivities.  And, on and on it goes!
 
Hey, this is the writing of Paul Rudnick, who has been described as “line by line, may be the funniest writer for the stage in the United States today..."   
 
There have been protests when the show has been scheduled in various venues. 
 
At a production at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Jerry Falwell and members of the Westboro Baptist Church, condemmed the production, making such comments as “This fiasco at UC Santa Cruz is just one more symptom of the deadly disease encompassing this land.” And, “they have institutionalized sin and we're going to face the consequences.’”  An Oklahoma state representative claimed it was a "direct frontal attack" to Christians. In Dallas, America Needs Fatima protested another production. America Needs Fatima also protested a production in Atlanta.
 
Worry not, there was no protest at con-con, only laughter and extended applause at the conclusion of the show.
 
Just to be clear.  The script is no great work of literature.  The authors of ANGELS IN AMERICA, BENT, BOYS IN THE BAND, THE NORMAL HEART, TOURCH SONG TRILOGY, JEFFREY, LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!, and GROSS INDECENCY:  THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE, need fear not about being replaced on the list of best gay-centric plays by THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD.
 
With a good production, the overly long and somewhat trite script can be entertaining.  And, at con-con what they get is exactly that. 
 
For those open to the biblical onslaught and possessing the right attitude, an audience member can cackle, roll-their eyes and think of all the Evangelicals who would be upset and uncomfortable being exposed to this “smut.”  
 
Director Denise Astorino keeps the action moving right along.  She has inserted some creativity into the staging.  Along with costumer Kate Smith, she has handled the nudity issue, maybe to the disappointment of some con-con regulars, with green jockstraps and vines, and Neil Sudhakaran’s projections adds in interesting set changes and visual Biblical references.
 
Alex Strzemilowski (Adam) and Noah Pigza (Steve) are geeky charming as Adam and Steve.  Lucy Turner is Dyke-correct as Mabel and Grace Mitri (Jane) makes for a perfect lipstick Lesbian.  David L. Munnell, proves again that he is the king of “fey.”  The rest of the cast, Haley Johnson, Rick Quintana, Amanda Rowe Van Allen, and Katelyn Cornelius are fine in playing multiple roles. 
 
Capsule judgment:  THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD will delight con-con regulars and intentionally upset the religious up-tight.  But, as Rudnick stated about detractors, "tell them I spoke to God personally and he said they're wrong."
 
THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD runs at con-con through December 17, 2022.

INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY

 

INSURRECTION:  HOLDING HISTORY less than it should be at Con-Con Roy Berko (Cleveland Critics Circle, American Theatre Critics Association) Is it true that in order to understand your present, you must understand your past?  If you understand the past, and could insert yourself into the events happening, could you change your present?  Could you actually change the course of history?  Those and other esoteric questions are at the base of Robert O’Hara’s INSURRECION:  HOLDING HISTORY, now on stage at convergence-continuum. The plot centers on Ron, a gay, black student, who attends a family reunion to celebrate his great-great-grandfather T.J.’s 189th birthday.  Despite the fact that T.J. can’t move, hear, or speak, T.J., given voice by a spirit of a relative, long dead, convinces Ron to take him back to his old home in Virginia.  Fracturing the space-time continuum, they arrive on the eve of Nat Turner’s doomed 1831 uprising.  Encouraged by the facts of the historical rebellion, the desperation of the slaves that encouraged them to face certain death with little chance of success, and the historical pattern of being gay, Ron gains a grasp of his past.  This leads him to an understanding of his present, and that how the authenticity of history unfolds depends on the perception of the storyteller.  He realizes that his frustration with his thesis is based on the concept that his writing will only make sense when he accepts that he is the product of his history. Jeannine Gaskin, the director of the play, did not seem to grasp the concept of the satire in the script, and staged the show as a realistic drama.  This was unfortunate as that approach eliminated the whimsy and creative writing that was described by one critic of a previous staging as “remarkably exciting, deeply provocative, [and] comically profound.” There was no humor in the cc production, thus fracturing much of O’Hara’s writing and seemingly confounding the audience, thus making for a long sit. The cast, which featured Andrew Pope, Chelsea Anderson, Isaiah Betts, Kadijah Wing, Laprise Johnson, Matthew Raybeam, Mike Frye, Sydney Smith, and Wesley Allen, put out full effort. Capsule judgment: Insurrection, will confound many, satisfy some, gets a less than effective production at con-con.   Insurrection: Holding History opened Friday, October 14 and runs Thu-Sat at 8 p.m. through November 5, at convergence-continuum’s Liminis Theater, 2438 Scranton Rd., Cleveland. Tickets and information are available at www.convergence-continuum.org and 216-687-0074.

Lead-up to unexpected ending makes ANGRY FAGS worth seeing at con-con

A catalog description of ANGRY FAGS, the Topher Payne play, now on stage at convergence- continuum, cautions that the script contains “alcohol, gunshots, intense adult themes, strong language, nudity/partial nudity and smoking.”  What it doesn’t alert you to is the unexpected and shocking ending!

Payne explained of his writing, "If you can make someone laugh, they listen. And they lean in and they want to hear more. And once you have that level of engagement, then you can start layering in a message that you want them to take away.”
 
ANGRY FAGS originally premiered at 7 Stages in Atlanta, GA in February.  A revised version of the work was developed.  It is this version that is on stage at con-con.

A review of an earlier production of ANGRY FAGS bannered the show as an “uncompromising Oscar Wilde-meets-Fight Club fantasia."  Another stated, "A gay gentleman's guide to love and murder [...] Filled with tension but laced with moments of black humor and rigged with unexpected twists and turns."  Still another writer indicated, “Vicious, deliciously subversive, brutal and breathtakingly funny, this dystopian revenge tragedy pushes every button.”
​
So, what’s the show about?  
 
“An out lesbian state senator is up for re-election. Her female opponent is an [African American] moderate conservative who’s aligned herself with right-wing extremists. They’re locked in a tight race in which each side dog-whistles to its base and any event can become instantaneously politicized.
 
When a gay man is bashed with a baseball bat and left to die, his ex-boyfriend, a campaign aide for the incumbent senator, is enraged. But it’s the unwillingness of his boss to label it a hate-crime that tips him over the edge. Teaming up with his best friend, the two men embark on a vendetta of sabotage and assassinations, reasoning that if gays aren’t respected enough to win equal justice and rights, fear will achieve what good intentions and politics cannot.”
 
The con-con production, under the direction of Scott Zolkowski, is compelling at times, missing its humor, pace and dynamics at others.  Greatly missing is the author’s promise of the “moments of black humor. “
 
The story line is nicely developed and effectively sneaks up on its surprising, even shocking ending.   
 
The cast is uneven in their talents and abilities to develop clear and consistent characters.  Some of this is the lack of theatrical experience of some of the performers, some due to the director’s inability to get the actors to project and understand the motivation behind their actions.
 
Handsome, sensual Adam Harry swings from calm to hysterical, from clothed to unclothed, with scary ease.  His Cooper Harlow effectively shows tendencies of a drama queen, while also being a dedicated, if unhinged, friend.
 
His “partner in crime,” slight David Lenahan, as the easily manipulated Bennett Riggs, has some difficulty walking a consistent line between showing the character’s desires and his actions.  
 
Valerie Young, as she has proven in the past, does a creditable job of developing the role of Dierdre Preston, an on-air newscaster.
 
Joan Jankowski (Senator Allison Haines) and Amanda Rowe-Van Allen (Kimberly Phillips, Senator Haines’ Assistant) are believable in their role developments.
 
Jack Matuszewsk (Adam Lowell, Senator Haines’ Campaign Director, Bennett’s lover and XXX...can’t reveal this or it blows the plot open) makes the character’s swing of personas with surprising ease, though some of his lines sound read rather than spoken.
 
Natalya Duncan puts out full effort, but never makes a real person of Peggy Musgrove, the Republican senatorial candidate.
 
Neil Sudhakaran’s projections aid to clarify the multiple settings needed to flesh out the show.
 
The floor design, bannering the issues of the day, were creatively conceived and executed by Cory Molner and Scott Zolkowski.
 
Don’t get all worked up by the fact that the program lists an Intimacy Director as part of the production staff. Yes, there are some male-male kisses, and Adam Harry flounces around in nothing but a pair of black bikini-briefs, and two of the guys appear in towels wrapped only around the lower parts of their nude bods, but sex is not on the docket.
 
Capsule judgement:  Con-cons cult audience will be pleased by the presence of lots of male partial nudity, a non-traditional story, and the gay theme.  Others will be intrigued by the author’s ability to lead down one path and throw a curve ball into the action and then surprise with a startling ending.  All in all, even with some of the weak performances, this is a production worth seeing.
 
The show runs from July 8-30 at Cleveland’s up-close and OUT there Theatre.  For tickets go to www.convergence-continuum.org
 
Up next:  NEIGHBORHOOD 3:  REQUISION OF DOOM by Jennifer Haley from August 26-September 17.  “Haley’s suspenseful play displays cautionary messages about inattentive parents of teenagers addicted to online video games.”

Convergence Continuum’s DOG ACT is full of "whys?"!

Liz Duffy Adams is an American playwright who is noted for her liberal use of “flavored” language, expanded wit, and characters who possess animated personas.  Rather than writing in a sequential mode, she tends to write on a random style which often follows no logical cause-effect.    
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.

Convergence-Continuum exposes gay entrapment in THE 20TH CENTURY

 

Convergence-Continuum exposes gay entrapment in THE 20TH CENTURY WAY

 

Roy Berko

(Cleveland Critics Circle & American Theater Critics Association)

 

California is noted as the home of liberal beliefs and a relaxed attitude toward sex.  That wasn’t always the case. 

 

In 1914, men were arrested during a raid of the 606 Club and the 96 Club, two gay spaces that had been on the police force’s radar for some time. The bust was huge, and one of the first entrapment schemes that garnered wide press. 

 

The Los Angeles Times and oth­er sen­sa­tion­al­ist news­pa­pers prin­ted the names of the ar­res­ted men.  The results of the arrests and trials were devastating.  Many lives were ruined and at least one life was lost.  John Lamb, a prom­in­ent Long Beach banker and Epis­copal Church of­ficer, killed him­self soon after he was ar­res­ted.

 

The scandal, among other things, led to an ordinance against “oral sodomy” in California.  That law was followed by similar laws in other states.

That tale of entrapment, and how it came about, is the basis for Tom Jacobson’s THE 20^TH CENTURY WAY, now on stage at convergence-continuum, Cleveland’s “we don’t do plays that any other local theater stages.” 

 

Yes, the artistic director of con-con, as it is referred to by its followers, prides himself on shocking his audience with his play choices. And, this play is definitely shocking.

 

The script tells the tale of how two out-of-work actors hired themselves out to the Long Beach Police Department.  Their goal was to entrap “social vagrants” (homosexuals) in public restrooms. Their motivation?  They got a fee for every “pervert” they exposed, as well as being able to play “real” policemen.

Jacobson uses a play within a play format in which the two characters are portraying trying out the entrapment roles they are to play as well as how the entrapments will take place. 

The author approaches the exposition using a Pirandello type concept in which each of the characters walks the fine line between “reality, sanity and identity.” 

In the script, Jacobson challenges the meaning of morality, explores sexual identity, and if it is possible to be honest and true to oneself.

The performers are required to quickly switch from being the actors who are going to do the entrapments, to being the many men who are being entrapped.  Their only devices are a few costume parts, vocal changes, non-verbal alterations and lighting changes. 

To make the play work requires the actors to seamlessly slip in and out of the characters.  They must be totally believable and the staging must be meticulous, leaving no doubt of the realness of these men.

Con-con’s production, unfortunately, proves to be too much of a stretch for both the actors and the director. 

The many line flubs broke the character development and did havoc on a lighting device that was intended to separate reality from role play.   Costume changes were often awkward.  The improvisational techniques, a requirement for this script, were seemingly not part of the tool chest of the cast.

Previous productions of the script have called the stagings “intriguing,” “fast-paced,” “a display of sexual tension,” “fun” and “a piece that makes us think.”  

Con-con’s staging lacked in being both intriguing and fast-paced.  The ninety minutes dragged into what seemed like hours.  Fun?  There wasn’t an audible laugh heard from the attenders.  There was no sexual tension between the performers.   The script did make one think.

CAPSULE JUDGMENT:  The topic of THE 20^TH CENTURY WAY, if, not the play’s production, should please con-con regulars.  The theme is intriguing and spotlights an important moment in US history that led to many bad laws being passed, gay men being persecuted and prosecuted, and great angst.  It took a late 20^th century Supreme Court decision to undue the horror.

THE 20TH CENTURY WAY plays through December 18, 2021.  For tickets go to www.convergence-contnuum.org

Next up at con-con:  The Cleveland premiere of DOG ACT by Liz Duffy-Adams (March 25-April 16).

Compelling, superbly acted and staged “CONSTELLATIONS” at convergence continuum

On a blackboard, center-stage, a message is written.  The words state, “You are one decision away from a completely different life.”

Ah, yes, think back to the climax points of your life.  Did you say “yes” or “no” to a proposal, an opportunity, a vital decision that would have changed your very path of existence? 

This “what difference did that decision make?” is at the heart of British playwright Nic Payne’s thought-provoking two-person script, “CONSTELLATIONS,” now closing the 2019 season of convergence-continuum.

Artistic director Clyde Simon looks for uncovered gems that “challenges the imagination and extends the conventional boundaries of language, structure, space and performance” that insights his loyal groupies. Sometimes he misses, but with “CONSTELLATIONS” he has hit the proverbial “home run.”  

This is a quality script that gets an imaginative and proficient production under the focused eye of director Geoffrey Hoffman.  

The performances of Max Elinsky and Laurel Hoffman are top quality.   Each inhabits their role with clarity of purpose.  They don’t’ act.  They live their roles with complete authenticity. 

The duo is aided by the multi-talented Bobby Williams live musical sound effects and underscoring music.

“In the beginning Marianne [a cosmologist] and Roland [a beekeeper] meet at a party. They go for a drink, or perhaps they don't. They fall madly in love and start dating, but eventually they break up [or maybe they don’t]. After a chance encounter in a supermarket they get back together, or maybe they run into each other and Marianne reveals that she's now engaged to someone else and that's that. Or perhaps Roland is engaged. Maybe they get married, or maybe their time together will be tragically short.” 

“Marianne often waxes poetic about cosmology, quantum mechanics, string theory and the belief that there are multiple universes that pull people's lives in various directions. This is reflected in the play's structure as brief scenes are repeated, often with different outcomes.”  It is the basis for the play’s title and the molecule/bee hive set decorations.

Sound confusing?  It’s not. Hoffman has clearly chosen to present the series of non-connected scenes in such a way that we know this is not a linear story.  Every major event is clued by light changes (kudos to Eva Nel Brettrager’s light designs), and sounds that alert us to “pay attention.”  The actors seamlessly go back and forth, repeating lines, inventing connections that, while sometimes confounding, meld into a logical tale.

Though the presentation appears to be razzle-dazzle and abstraction, it never gives a feeling of leading the audience on through tricky writing and staging.  There is gentle humor, enough pathos and irony to grab and hold the attention.

The play’s 2012 London debut was met with strong positive reviews.

The subsequent limited-run Broadway production starred film-star Jake Gyllenhaal in his Broadway debut and Ruth Wilson, who won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.

Capsule Judgment: “CONSTELLATIONS” is one of con-con’s best stagings.  It combines a well-conceived script, superb acting and well-focused directing.  It’s a must-see experience!

“CONSTELLATIONS” runs through December 21, 2019 at 8 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at convergence-continuum’s artistic home, The Liminis, at 2438 Scranton Rd. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.  For information and reservations call 216-687-0074 or go to http://www.convergence-continuum.org/

“Homos, or Everyone in America” fulfills the theater’s mission at convergence continuum

Convergence-continuum’s mission states that the theater intends to “produce plays and experiences that challenge the conventional notions of what theatre is.”  

Clyde Simon, the Artistic Director, continues to select plays that other area venues won’t produce.  His selections usually have controversial social themes. Much to the delight of his loyal niche audience, for the purpose of fostering LGBT voices, he often picks gay-centric scripts which you wouldn’t see if con-con didn’t stage them.  

Jordan Seavey’s “Homos, or Everyone in America,” now on the con-con stage, is such a play.

Seavey’s script had its world premiere in November, 2016, in a critically praised off-Broadway limited run.

That production starred Robin DeJusus, the two-time Tony nominee for “In the Heights” and “La Cage Aux Folles” and Michael Urie of televison’s “Ugly Betty” and “Younger” and Broadway’s “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” 

The production was selected by New York Magazine as one of the 10 Best Theater Events of the year, with Urie winning the OBIE Award for best performance.

The script asks such questions as: What does it mean to be in a gay committed relationship? Is there a role for monogamy in that relationship? How does one resolve conflict between a couple with different views of life?  How does one deal with a vicious hate-crime?  

Presented in a non-linear format, with flash-forwards and flash-backs, we act as eaves-droppers, in the intimate Liminis staging space, on the birth, death, and reestablishment of the connected lives of two Brooklyn gay guys. 

We are on-lookers as The Writer (Nate Homolka) and The Academic (Kieron Cindric), up-tight nebbish-boy-meets-manic-pixie-dream-girl, get together on a cyber-arranged wine bar date.  

The duo not only has difficulty selecting between white and red wine, but argue about poppers, the drawbacks of marriage equality, and monogamy/non-monogamy as a part of gay life.  In spite of that, “love blooms.”  

As their lives blend together, they negotiate professional anxiety, cohabitation, religious and spiritual differences, and the presence of Dan, a raven-haired cutie who becomes a distracting part of their co-existence.

As a review of the Big Apple production states, “the men are free-spirited and repressed in their own special ways, making their relationship feel very real. Like many over-educated New Yorkers, their banal arguments are fueled by academic buzzwords and the sex advice of Dan Savage.”

The con-con production is nicely directed by Clyde Simon.  The pace is crisp, the staging enveloping, the multi-platformed set works well, the characters are nicely etched, and the story telling is clear.

Both Nate Homolka and Kieron Condric develop consistent and well-textured personages.  Though often given overly affected and ultra-dramatic lines, the duo keeps it mainly real.   

Corey East as Dan, and Rocky Encalada as compassionate salesperson, Laila, develop their roles effectively.

If there is a problem with the script, it is Seavey’s over-use of gay stereotypes to develop the plot.  With a little less “swish” and hysteria, and a little more working toward developing a more mature look at gay relationships, the play would have more social impact and more realistically examine “everyone in America.”   

Capsule Judgment: “Homos, or Everyone in America” gets a good production at con-con.  While some of the stereotypes could have been pulled back by the author, there is enough empathy developed to hold the audience’s attention.

“Homos, or Everyone in America” runs through November 9, 2019 at 8 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at convergence-continuum’s artistic home, The Liminis, at 2438 Scranton Rd. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.  For information and reservations call 216-687-0074 or go to http://www.convergence-continuum.org/

Next up at con-con:  Nick Payne’s “Constellations” from December 6-21, 2019.  “In the beginning Marianne and Roland meet at a party. They go for a drink, or perhaps they don't. They fall madly in love and start dating, but eventually they break up. After a chance encounter in a supermarket they get back together, or maybe they run into each other and Marianne reveals that she's now engaged to someone else and that's that. Or perhaps Roland is engaged. Maybe they get married, or maybe their time together will be tragically short.” Hmmm…

“Shakespeare’s R&J” is bard light at convergence continuum

In its off-Broadway production, “Shakespeare's R & J,” which is now on stage at convergence continuum, ran for a year, making it the longest running version of “Romeo and Juliet” in New York history. 

The piece was described as “Hot-blooded ... Wrenching ... pulsates with an adolescent abandon and electricity of which Romeo himself might approve.” It was recognized as being “an off-kilter tale, contains homosexual content, and is filled with sexual innuendoes.”

The story centers on “four prep school students, tired of going through the usual drill of conjugating Latin and other tedious school routines, who decide to vary their very governed lives.

After school, one breaks out a copy of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” and they all take turns reading the play aloud. The Bard’s words and the story itself are thrilling to the boys, and they become swept away, enmeshed in the emotion.”

As they become emotionally excited, underlying sexual desires emerge, with a romantic attachment becoming reality, as the youths playing Romeo and Juliet kiss and then have a sexual liaison. 

As written, this is a play about discovery.   Calarco states that this is no "sweet romance... the lovers are nuts.... when Romeo says, 'Come death, and welcome, Juliet wills it so,' that's insane... This is not Hamlet- there's no reflection; it's all blind action, blind passion."

Oh, if the con-con production could have reached those high levels of compelling audience involvement and high quality of performance.  But, though they try valiantly, expending full emotional physicality, the cast and director are simply not able to hit the lofty goals of the playwright.

To perform or direct a Shakespearean play takes a special level of training, education and experience.  It is not by accident that those who appear in the Bard’s plays spend years and years in learning their craft.  This is not just performing, it’s having a knowledge of Shakespeare’s writing, his rhythm and rhyming schemes, his language, as well as awareness of Elizabethan England. 

The con-con actors (Zach Palumbo, Michael Emery Fox, Joe Soriano, John P. Cox) may be very capable of developing contemporary characters, but unfortunately, they just don’t have the acting chops and training to pull of the R&J beings.  There is much feigning of emotions, the fight scenes are automatically performed.  There is a lot of slamming things down and stomping. The youth are acting, not being. They are doing “let’s do a play” rather than “let’s tell a real story.”

The show is performed in a mock proscenium format.  The set is well designed, with a large mosaic window center stage.

Capsule Judgment:  Though the cast puts out full effort, con-con’s “Shakespeare’s Romeo & J” is Bard-light, leaving a lot on the page.

“Shakespeare’s R &J” runs through September 21, 2019, at 8 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at convergence-continuum’s artistic home, The Liminis, at 2438 Scranton Rd. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.  For information and reservations call 216-687-0074 or go to http://www.convergence-continuum.org/

Next up at con-con: “Homos, or Everyone in America” Jordan Seavey’s comic, heart-on-its-sleeve examination of the moments that can bring two people together–or pull them apart.

-->

“Tom at the Farm,” now on stage at convergence continuum, unfolds with blurred boundaries between lust and brutality, truth and fiction.  It blends psychological-thriller elements as it moves toward an unsettling plunge into a nightmare of fear, intolerance and fantasy.

Written by Michel Marc Bouchard, a Canadian playwright, the 2011 script was adapted into film in 2013.
 
The tale centers on Tom.  Following the death of Guillame, his lover, who was killed in an accident, Tom goes from Montreal to the Quebec countryside for the funeral.  He knows little of the family, and they know nothing of him.

The late boyfriend’s mother thought Guillame had a girlfriend in the big city.  When happening upon Tom, who lets himself into their house, she’s displeased that it is not the “girlfriend” who is there to go to the funeral.
 

The mother is unaware of Guillame’s homosexuality, but it is not a secret to his older brother, who killed his sibling’s high school lover rather than let the word get out about their relationship.  Word, that, in this small religious town, would have been scandalous.

Francis, the brother, taunts and tortures Tom, while showing sexual interest.  The arrival of Guillame’s “girl-friend,” in an unexplainable plot twist, adds to the obtuseness of the story line.  The ending, which is out of right-field, adds yet another level of both intrigue and preposterousness to the tale.
   
The con con production is strong. The directing by Tom Kondilas fulfills the writer’s desires.  The acting is of high quality. 

Kudos to Mike Frye (Tom), Daniel McElhaney (Francis) and Madelyn Voltz (Sara) for nicely texturing their performances.  Laura Starnik is exceptional as Agatha, Guillame’s mother.

Be aware that the set, which consists of three different acting spaces, spreads the entire length of the acting space, making clear-seeing difficult for anyone except those who sit in the center section facing the stage. 

Capsule Judgment: “Tom at the Farm” fulfills the theatre’s mission of “expanding human imagination and extends the conventional boundaries of language, structure, space and performance.”  This is the kind of play with sexual overtones and the bizarre that turns on the typical con-con loyalist.  Overall, in spite of strong production, the play leaves us wanting since we don’t develop strong feelings of connection with any of the characters and the contrived nature of the plot.
 
“Tom at the Farm” runs through August 3, 2019, at 8 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at convergence-continuum’s artistic home, The Liminis, at 2438 Scranton Rd. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.  For information and reservations call 216-687-0074 or go to http://www.convergence-continuum.org/

Next up at con-con: Two by Pinter: “A Slight Ache” and “Landscape” (August 8-10) followed by “Shakespeare’s R&J,” a play set in a boys boarding school.  Four students discover a forbidden text of a Shakespeare play and secretly enact the script in a deluge of adolescent agitation, terror, and fierce desires that parallel their own lives.  (August 30-September 21, 2019)

Relevant topic probed in STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY ACT at convergence continuum

Apartheid was a political and social system in South Africa that existed from 1948 and until 1994, when a new constitution was ratified which abolished segregation.  Apartheid was used to deny many basic rights to non-White people, mainly Blacks.

The law allowed white people to be in most areas of the country.  Black people, on the other hand, had to carry special passes or have permission to travel outside their designated region. Laws outlawed interracial marriage, use of public facilities such as libraries, as well as forbidding of socializing of Blacks and whites.

Many works of literature and drama have been written about this period in South African history.  Probably no dramatist was more noted for his stand against apartheid than white South African Harold Athol Fugard. 

His writing followed the form of Bertolt Brecht who not only wrote about social situations, but encouraged audiences to act rather than merely watch the play.

Fugard became an international spokesperson by writing works which were penetrating and pessimistic of South African society.  His “Blood Knot” dealt with brothers who fall on opposite sides of the racial color line.  Other noted award winning works were “Boesman and Lena,” “Master Herold and the Boys,” “My Life,” and “The Coat.”

“Statements After An Arrest Under the Immorality Act,” which is now in production at convergence-continuum, under the direction of Terrence Spivey, is noted as a lessor of the author’s writings, and follows the form of “derived imaginative in a shapeless drama,” which does not follow a chronological format.

On the surface, ”Statements,” is the tale of a forbidden sexual relations between a white female librarian and a black man. 

He comes to the library, from which he cannot take out or use the books he needs for his educational research.  They develop a relationship as she finds material for him.  The connection blossoms into an intimate affair.  

The lovers (white Freida and Black Philanderer) are discovered, arrested, and tried.  Her testimony, plus pictures of the affair, tell the tale.

The understanding of the depth of the story depends on the audience being able to read into the actions and spoken lines the implications of both apartheid and human feelings. Feelings which go beyond skin color.

The talky script is not well-written.  The lines tend to be speeches and rants, rather than narrative conversations.  Repetition permeates. 

The clarity of what drives Philanderer to contemplate leaving his wife and child is not made clear, especially considering that there is no place for the white-black duo to exist in the South African system of regulations.

The lonely, seemingly friendless Frieda’s need for some type of relationship is much easier to pinpoint.

Con-con’s production ranges from static to frantic.  Part of this is a writing issue, the rest is the director’s staging, pacing and line-interpretation decisions.

Both Freida Joubert (Jill Kenderes) and Errol Philanderer (Corin Self) proficiently develop their characters and seem confident performing most of the play while nude. 

On the other hand, Soren Russell screams and over-acts as Policeman-Detective Seargent.  His is an over-blown characterization, not the creation of a believable person.  This is out of context as it adds a farcical component to a horrific realistic situation.

Errant lighting issues on opening night caused problems, but these should work out as the crew becomes more familiar with the cues.

Capsule Judgment:  With the recent election of a new President of South Africa, resulting in a probe of the economic and social status of blacks in that country, con-con’s play choice is relevant.  Informing of the horrors of apartheid, which seem to parallel the desires of some of present-day US citizens, also makes the topic germane.   Unfortunately, the quality of the script and some of the directorial decisions leave the audience wanting.

“Statements After An Arrest Under the Immorality Act” runs through June 15, 2019 at 8 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at convergence-continuum’s artistic home, The Liminis, at 2438 Scranton Rd. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood.  For information and reservations call 216-687-0074 or go to http://www.convergence-continuum.org/
http://www.convergence-continuum.org

Next up at con-con: “Tom at the Farm” (July 12-August 3, 2019) -- After the sudden death of his lover, Tom travels to a remote farm community for the funeral, and finds a religious family who knows nothing of his existence. Tom is threatened by the deceased’s brother and is drawn into a brutal, sexually-charged game.