Wow. So this is still going on, and I’d just like to say: I want some of what he’s smoking.

That is all.

UPDATE, 11:45 p.m. – So just to revisit: I’m not going to write a full review, because I’m not sure quite where to start.  

This was one of the most out-there things I’ve seen yet at Fringe; can’t say it was good, not sure I want to say it was bad, exactly. (It had the distinct whiff of the Radical Faerie about it, and everybody needs a little Faerie dust once in a while.) So let’s leave it at mad — and perhaps spectacularly ill-advised, in a town as buttoned-up as this one. 

Of the 18 audience members who came, 12 of us survived until the end. Which was convenient, because it meant no one was left out when lead performer Huilo Marvavilla produced a dozen yellow roses and went about bestowing them upon the patrons.

The projections were intriguingly psychedelic, the soundscape much the same; the puppets, whether smallish or enormous, were wonderfully well-crafted.

But the puppetry itself was amateurish and unfocused, the dancing likewise, and the whole thing thoroughly incoherent. Act 2, an improvised and largely undecipherable puppet conversation titled “Tea With Duality,” was possibly the single most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever seen on a stage.

Finally, if I were called upon to offer one technical suggestion, it would be this: If you know that, during the course of your trippy hourlong multimedia paean to peace, you will be donning a giant papier-mache puppet-head and dancing about the darkened performance space, you might think twice about building a spider-web of purple yarn throughout said space before the puppet-head dance.

That way, there will be less stumbling.

Life is a Dream
Long View Gallery (1302 9th St. NW)

Remaining Performances:
Friday, July 18 @ 8 PM; Saturday, July 19 @ 2 PM & 8 PM

They say: “Segismundo has spent his whole life imprisoned in a rocky tower until he wakes one morning the crown prince of Poland. Is this a dream? What dark secret has kept Segismundo locked away? This 17th century blockbuster forces us to examine how our actions can create the enemies we fear.”

Brian’s take: Ok, so what did I learn from this production? Life is a Dream is perhaps one of the most resilient plays in the western canon. That Calderón de la Barca’s masterpiece withstands the hack job given it by the ladies (this is an all-female affair) of Uncut Pages Theater Company is a testament to the piece’s timelessness.

Charlotte Rahn-Lee, who doubles as Clarin, a Sancho Panza-type sidekick, and Astolfo, the egotistical Muscovite prince, is the only competent actress on the stage. None of the others have any idea what to do with themselves: they hold their hands stiffly at their sides, they bob their heads around, they shuffle their feet, they walk backwards. (It doesn’t help that the staging is a shambles.) In order to convince us that Segismundo has spent his life chained in a tower, Becky Fullan resorts to clenching her teeth for 2 hours and 5 minutes (yes, the 100 minute claim in the program is a lie) and panting heavily. I would’ve offered her a retainer and/or an inhaler had I not been severely frightened of her.

I love this play, and it saddens me to see it desecrated so. But still, whether or not they understood the emotion or the meaning or the fact that people had actually paid $15 to see this malarky, the performers did manage to speak Calderón’s words with a certain amount of articulation. And it was in these words–the wit and pathos and poetry and sage koans of one of the finest plays ever penned–that I took my solace.

(That, and in the cool Edward Weston-inspired pepper paintings lining the wall of the art gallery-turned-theater.)

See it if: You’ve been meaning to read or re-read this play and just haven’t gotten around to it.

Skip it if: Yeah, you’ll probably skip it. I don’t blame you.

Yearning to Itch What Waitresses Will Do For Tips
Warehouse Arts – Beyond

Remaining Performances:
Saturday, July 12 @ 1:00 PM (Warehouse Beyond)
Sunday, July 13 @ 6:00 PM (Warehouse Beyond)
Thursday, July 17 @ 9:30 PM (Warehouse Beyond)
Saturday, July 19 @ 5:00 PM (Warehouse Beyond)
Sunday, July 26 @ 7:00 PM (Warehouse Beyond)

They say: “It’s about unrequited lust and inappropriate behavior. Death, love and lucid dreaming. About trying to seduce the wrong people in the wrong way for the right and wrong reasons. It’s about customer service, nightmares and the present moment. 4 women, 1 man.”

Brian’s take: There I was, sitting innocently in my second row seat, jotting down a note or two in my steno pad, when all of a sudden one of the waitresses in Yearning to Itch… hurled a Twinkie at me for no apparent reason at all.

Well, maybe there was a reason.  Maybe she could tell that the notes I was jotting were unflattering.  Maybe she could intuit that I was copying down the lines she was speaking with very large and confused question marks scribbled next to them.  Maybe she was pissed at me about the fact that I just didn’t get it.

Which would make sense–if a reviewer writes negative things about you, why not throw a spongy, cream-filled delicacy at him?  That would be a motivated action, which would make that Twinkie moment the most coherent in this entire play–a (luckily) 35-minute dream sequence in the style of post-inferno Strindberg if Strindberg lacked any kind of style.  The characters insert the word “lucid” before dream, but there is very little lucidity to be found amidst the platitudes, awkward gestures, and downright nonsense that riddle this piece.  Sure, there are a few funny moments and lines here or there–maybe 5 or so.  Otherwise, I just left confused, befuddled, perplexed, and covered in bits of Twinkie dust.

See it if: You find yourself captivated by one-line musings about the very play you are watching.

Skip it if: You’re near a couch and have the chance to take a 35 minute catnap–your own dream will probably be more rewarding and less expensive.