LaBute New Theater Festival 2019

C+

This year’s edition of the festival, once again presented by St. Louis Actors’ Studio, differs from previous years in that all the plays —a  two-hander sandwiched by two monologues — are premieres by LaBute himself. In the first play, “The Fourth Reich,” Karl (Eric Dean White), a mild-mannered middle-aged man laments that Hitler gets a bad rap because some of his mistakes have been allowed to erase his accomplishments. His prized possession is a watercolor by Hitler in which he sees the promise of a bright future. If LaBute intended to provoke, his circumspect treatment has undermined that intent. In a sense, Karl’s polite demeanor and failure to raise his voice makes his words more chilling, but it doesn’t make for lively theater. In the second play, “Great Negro Works of Art,” we meet Jerri (Brenda Meaney; Indian Ink, Incognito) a thirty-something white woman, and Tom (Keilyn Durrel Jones; SummerShorts), a light-skinned black man, in a museum on their first date after connecting on an online dating site. Their attempts at light banter repeatedly trip over political correctness and racial sensitivities, revealing that LaBute’s knack for dialogue that is both amusing and revealing is still intact. The final and, in my opinion, least successful work is “Unlikely Japan.” While half-watching the news, Katie (Gia Crovatin; The Money Shot) learns that an old boyfriend was one of the victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting. Rather than feeling sad, she feels bad and that makes her sad. Got that? She relates the story of their high-school romance including the really cruel way she ended it and wonders whether a change in her behavior then might have produced a different outcome now. There did not seem to be a clear point to the story. As is often the case with LaBute, the women do not come off well; one is a bit dim and the other lacks compassion. I don’t see how it unites the plays, but a quotation from John — “the truth shall make you free” — is used in each. In all three plays, LaBute seems to be holding back and showing a muted, less confrontational side. The actors in all three plays were first-rate. The first two plays were directed by frequent collaborator John Pierson and the third, by the playwright. The bare-bones set is by Patrick Huber and the costumes, by Megan Harshaw. Before the play, I had a conversation with LaBute, who was most accessible and congenial. I learned from him that the Davenport Theater will close after this production. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

NOTE: The first play had a particular resonance for me. At the Ufffizi Gallery, I once wandered into an exhibit of attractive watercolors. Apparently, i had inadvertently entered through the exit, so it was not until I reached the far end of the gallery that I discovered that the watercolors were by Hitler. It was an upsetting moment that raised the difficult question of whether we can or should distinguish between a creation and its creator.

LaBute New Theater Festival (2018)

D

In 2016 the St. Louis Actors’ Studio brought six one-act plays to 59E59 Theaters for the LaBute New Theater Festival. Last year the number was down to four and this year there are only three. Unfortunately, not only has the number of plays diminished, but the quality has gone down as well. Not one of this year’s plays could be called a success, at least not by me. 

Neil LaBute’s entry, “Hate Crime,” opens the program. Perhaps to show that he is au courant on the topic of same-sex marriage, LaBute gives us a gay gloss on “Double Indemnity.” We meet two lovers, Man 1 (Chauncy Thomas) and Man 2 (Spencer Sickmann) in a hotel room where they are going over the details of their planned murder of Man 2’s older husband-to-be immediately after their upcoming wedding. Man 1, who constantly bullies Man 2, relishes the details of the brutal murder, which will be disguised as a gay-bashing.

In “Winter Break” by James Haigney, we meet three members of an Episcopalian family. Daughter Johanna (Kelly Schaschl), who has recently converted to Islam and renamed herself Aisha, is about to leave for Turkey where she plans to spend 2 1/2 weeks studying with a Sufi mystic. Her mother Kitty (Autumn Dornfeld) tries to respect her daughter’s choices, but is fearful enough to beg her not to go. Her gay older brother Bailey (Sickmann) is an Islamophobe who, fearing that she is a prime recruitment target for jihadist groups, questions whether she really intends to return from Turkey. The situation is believable, but the arguments are a bit circular. Nevertheless, I found this the best of the three.

“Percentage America” by Carter W. Lewis is the most ambitious play, but unfortunately trips over its attempts at satire. Andrew (Thomas) and Arial (Dornfeld), having met through an online dating site, are having their first date at Arial’s Washington, D.C. apartment. (That a woman would make her home the location for a blind date seemed unlikely to me.) After confessing to several liberties in their online profiles, they become intoxicated with the power of truth. At Arial’s suggestion, they decide to play a game whereby they “decipher” a news story by comparing how it is presented by various media, finding the most likely version and stripping away loaded adjectives to get to the verifiable truth. Somehow this game has an aphrodisiac effect on them. The story they decide to investigate involves an encounter between the president and a teenage girl (Schaschl) in the Rose Garden. The way it is treated by various media outlets of course reflects their biases. What the couple think they discover alarms them and raises questions about the cost of pursuing the truth. The concept is promising, but the treatment is clumsy and the play is twice as long as it should be. 

It is disheartening to think that these are the three best plays they could find for this year’s festival. The acting could best be described as competent. I was surprised that the male actors had to do double duty as stagehands between plays. The set design by Patrick Huber is simple and the costumes by Carla Landis Evans are unremarkable. John Pierson directed. Running time: one hour 40 minutes including intermission.

LaBute New Theater Festival **

St. Louis Actors’ Studio has produced this festival of one-act plays for the last three years with Neil LaBute serving on the selection jury and contributing one play each year. 59E59 Theater has brought six plays from the festival to New York. As with any such collection I have attended, the results are mixed. Of the six plays, only one and a half made a strong impression on me. 

“Stand up for Yourself” by British playwright Lexi Wolfe introduces us to the free-spirited 26-year-old Lila (Alicia Smith) who flirts with Lucas (Mark Ryan Anderson), a rather somber 42-year-old professor with a cane, at a London party. It’s a pity that the actors were saddled with less than successful British accents rather than just relocating the play to our shores. 

“Present Tense” by Peter Grandbois and Nancy Bell follows the difficult face-to-face encounter of an adulterous couple Debra (Jenny Smith) and Martin (Justin Ivan Brown) whose previous intimate relations have been via their laptops and cellphones. It is basically a sketch that wears out its welcome rapidly.

“Two Irishmen Are Digging a Ditch” by G.D. Kimble is awkwardly divided into two scenes. The first is an unnerving overheated monologue by the naked and battered Doyle (a powerful Anderson), an apparent victim of the Northern Irish troubles confronting his unseen captors. I wish the play had ended there. The second scene presents Hagerty (Brown) digging a ditch under the supervision of Evans (Neil Magnuson), a man in a lawn chair. Their connection and the relationship of the scene with the previous one ultimately become clear. For me, at least, it diminished rather than enhanced the force of the first half.

in “The Comeback Special” by JJ Strong, Bonnie (Alicia Smith) and Jesse (Michael Hogan) are a young couple visiting Graceland who slip into the master bedroom where they encounter none other than Elvis himself (Magnuson), who is trapped in a purgatory of sorts by the ignominious nature of his demise and requests the couple’s assistance to make his departure. It’s pretty slim.

“Coffee House, Greenwich Village” by John Doble is the setting for a blind date by Jack (Anderson) and Pamela (Jenny Smith), readers of the personals column in The New York Review of Books. Their attempts to find something in common lead off into the realm of fantasy and a rather drastic comeuppance for their annoying waiter (Brown). Nichols and May might have made something more entertaining out of this.

Last and best is LaBute’s contribution “Kandahar.” An unnamed soldier (Hogan) recently back from Afghanistan is sitting at a table facing us explaining the reasons for the violent crime he has just committed. In contrast to the emotional outburst in the monologue in Kimble’s play, LaBute’s character remains chillingly calm, which makes the situation all the more disturbing. Hogan is brilliant. I hope we will see more of him.

The production values are rather basic. Patrick Huber’s set design is simple in the extreme. The set changes between plays are a bit awkward, but are accompanied by musical selections that comment, sometimes amusingly, on the previous play. The costumes by Carla Evans are very good. Hogan and Anderson are standouts among the cast. Of the five new playwrights, I thought that G.D. Kimble showed the most promise. Directors Milton Zoth and John Pierson are unobtrusively effective. The evening had its moments, but they were relatively few. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission.