Attack of a Playwright - a 1950s Spoof

The following was written by Michael Buss on his blog Stage Critter at
http://stage-critter.blogspot.com/


21st Aug, 2009. Stages Theatre, Fullerton, opens the revival of this campy 1975 spoof of Hollywood exploitation moves.

Set in the Women’s House of Detention in Greenwich Village we follow the lives of a varied assembly of kooky characters, over several years, under the masochistic supervision of the outrageous matron and her sidekick Louise.

The audience gets seated to the whirling banner of an Apple iDVD movie. Enter a diminutive young man awkwardly carrying a letter-sized pad of paper, to which he frequently refers in order nervously to tell us to turn off noisemakers, eat food at the intermission and read the program. He is, we find out later, David Campos – the director. Come on David, step up. It’s not much to learn off by heart!!

The inmates range in their crimes from prostitution to manslaughter. Enter new inmate, Mary Eleanor, very well played by Elizabeth Serra, who is immediately sodomized with a broomstick by the other inmates, and later raped by the matron, whom, we should mention, is played by Jeffrey Rockey in an outrageous drag role. His larger than oversized portrayal is brash and irrepressible. But wait for surprises.

Mary becomes pregnant – somehow. Now comes the first real oddity. The girls, if we can call them that, are playing basketball, and in one of the many very fast scene shifts that mark the passing of time, the ball is suddenly under Mary’s t-shirt and we now have to believe this is a baby. But as the play proceeds, it is so obviously a basketball under her shirt that the baby belief cannot be sustained. Eventually Mary gives birth, on stage, and the actors grope and struggle under a sheet not only to deliver a baby, but also to remove the basketball! It’s actually very silly. There have to be better solutions.

The eight prisoners range from the whimsical, dreamy Blanche (Autumn Browne, the writer's wife!) who lives in the permanent delusion that she is Blanche Dubois, to the maniacal Ada (Neda Armstrong) who suddenly believes she can fly, and sets off to do so. Jacqueline Bustamante plays a vivacious, fast-talking Puerto Rican, Guadalupe, who is eventually taken away to The Chair. On the opening night we heard her screaming out to her dead chicken AFTER the electrical surge, which we find highly improbably. Better if she yells her line only to be cut off by the shock. But what should have been the poignancy and drama of that moment in the play is sadly lost.

Another odd moment where the direction seems to have fallen asleep is the point where the guards come take Guadalupe away. They seize her. Then she struggles a little and they let her go. But why? She then walks the stage before another half-hearted attempt to take her. Finally she walks to her doom of her own volition. But the role of the guards lacks all motivation and the scene completely falls apart.

The play is violent, but the smacks never connect and it seems nobody has learnt the stage combat tricks for making slap noises or aligning at the right angle to the audience to make the blows look realistic. Pathetic would be a better word. That said, lots of other staging tricks work pretty well: the fight between Blanche and Cheri is very strong, as is the rape scene in the office, and the cutting of hair . . . No - go see for yourself.

Bridgette Casales' dyke portrayal is strong and laced with hard-bitten cynicism. Nikki Frohling as prostitute Cheri looks great though she slightly underplays her part. Sherri Askew is Jo-Jo but her character get rather lost among the other stronger characterizations. Lois McKinney as the old Granny is often very funny in her religious outbursts, but she had a severe case of first night jitters and towards the end of the play was groping for her lines.

The guards were a little too laid back (Adam Poynter and Wendell Good) and effectively doubled in other cameo roles.

If the story revolves around Mary Eleanor, it is the rip-roaring Matron and her almost equally zany sidekick, Louise (Andrea Evans) who constantly stir the pot and introduce one provocation after another.

I suppose this presented the director with yet another challenge. The Matron is SO over the top, extremely campy, that the best the other characters can do is look pale by comparison. I think it might have help the cohesion of the play if Matron’s energy was picked up and reflected by the other characters at various times, even if only in flashes of mockery behind her back or mimicry to her face. If the play is meant to be campy, it is not played uniformly campy. And although the musical underscoring is too intrusive for the most part the action rattles along at a good pace with attractive blocking, excellent interplay and clear, audible dialogue from all characters.

The play is certainly worth the outing. It’s very funny, outrageous, deliciously offensive and raw. It was challenging to stage and the designers did very well in the small space available. The show has started well and will only get better.

by Michael Buss


Since I doubt Mr. Buss will publish my response, I have decided to publish it here on one of my own blogs...

The following is my response:

Michael~

While I can appreciate your love of theater, your ability to properly criticize or write a review comes sadly into question. Your breakdown of the show, "Women Behind Bars" that has already opened to published rave review is in stern contradiction of itself.

Interesting that you break it down, or rather tear it down, piece by piece only to, in the end, encourage the reader to step foot in the theater and partake of the latest brilliant production at STAGEStheatre (stageoc.org)

Having directed many shows myself and dabbled a bit in writing, I found the production delightful and completely in line with its intent - a campy spoof of the 1950s exploitation movies.

Actually, I am a little surprised that someone like you, "a writer," could not see and appreciate the numerous and obvious devices used to move this fun send-up along. Example: the basketball pregnancy. It was obviously a basketball, that was the point of the joke's vehicle - were you not present when said baby was later thrown through the air - like a "basketball"?

Additionally, the "slaps" were intentionally bad, just like the movie slaps of the portrayed era. The wanton looks, the dramatic pauses, the music, the lighting, the stop-action depictions, the back and forth between scenes --> all part of the represented genre.

The best part of your review:
"...for the most part the action rattles along at a good pace with attractive blocking, excellent interplay and clear, audible dialogue from all characters.

The play is certainly worth the outing. It’s very funny, outrageous, deliciously offensive and raw. It was challenging to stage and the designers did very well in the small space available. The show has started well and will only get better." -- at least with this, I concur...

Michael, Please keep us posted when your next show is produced. I keep a blog too.

Regards,

Rayanne Thorn