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 Your evening at the intimate 6th @ Penn Theatre
begins with a little mood music, How Do You Like Your Love, Disco
Inferno, Donna Summer hits, and dizzying lights from a revolving disco
ball, all transporting you back into the Disco-era Seventies and the sexual
revolution. The spin on this particular revolution is that the Fritz Theatre
has crossed the genders so that the two male roles are played by two female
actresses and vice versa. Thus we have Déja Bleu Ginsberg as all-talk playboy Bernard
talking up her latest crazy sexual escapade with a very young coed, while her
“male” buddy Leslie Gurule, as Dan, tries to sound impressed and
surprised (although you get the feeling he’s heard all this a few times
before).
David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago, set in 1976, is a one-act play about two male roommates – the aforementioned all-talk playboy Bernard who claims to have an unbelievable sex life, and the quieter and more modest Dan who actually ends up having a sex life. When Dan and his new girlfriend Deborah (Landon Vaughn) move in with one another, both Bernard and Deborah’s roommate (Christopher White as Joan) get incensed, and perhaps a little jealous at their roommate’s good fortune, so they proceed to try to break them up. Although it doesn’t seem they need push very hard, as Deborah inexplicably gets moody right after the move-in. The four actors do a fine job of crossing genders, which occasionally results in some fun twist to the humor, although not much new is revealed about the characters by this ploy as they just simply aren’t very complex to begin with. Overall the play is probably more amusing the normal way, but it’s worth a try. And since it still sold out virtually every night of its initial run, they must be doing something right! As it is, there are definitely plenty of laughs that make it worth the hour, especially during the first half as Déja Bleu Ginsberg describes his exploits and does some girl watching in the disco. But the humor begins to dry up during the last third, and the story is not intriguing enough to exist without it.
Rob Hopper ~ Cast of Sexual Perversity in Chicago ~
Bernard Litko: Deja Bleu Ginsberg Dan Shapiro: Leslie Gurule Deborah Soloman: Landon Vaughn Joan Webber: Christopher White Director: Duane Daniels ~ Cast of State of the Art ~
Fran: Robin Christ Jack: Ken Oberlander Sue: Jessica John Playwright: Craig Abernethy Director: Robert May |
This is followed by 6th @ Penn’s State of the
Art, a new work written by local playwright Craig Abernethy that
proves to be captivating from beginning to end, helped by a charismatic trio
who go about the process of creating a play. No, they are not playwrights. They
might decide to use a playwright if they want their play to eventually be
written and put on stage with some name attached to it, but they are undecided
as to how important that is. The most important thing is to create the play.
“That’s what they do.” But what to create a play about? How about – creating a
play about themselves creating this very play, brainstorming for ideas,
philosophizing about each particular moment, debating whether art has a
purpose, the role of the audience, the role of those darn actors who will be
interpreting their work…