Artsvegas.com Review of Atrocious Traditions

By JMDF
Photo by Richard Brusky

If you’re looking for a real fright, Brave Theatrics’ Fearophilia is probably not for you. Aside from a five second sample of Hamburger Lady played during pre-show (perhaps inadvertently) there’s nothing here that would satisfy anyone with truly creepy tastes. But it’s an entertaining hit-or-miss evening of six short plays with macabre themes relying a lot more on the funny bone than on the fear factor.

That Atrocious Tradition, an extremely well-rounded comedic dissertation on the disparities between mushroom stamps, is one more reason to love playwright Erica Griffin. In this piece she tackles religion, mental illness and cultic practice without managing to offend either common sense or common decency. Her impressive talent for delivering the unexpected is rare and well crafted. She’s safe, but not too safe, and quite possibly on the verge of some major breakthroughs. Troy Heard’s direction is tight, efficient and invisible while actors Gus Langley, Rosalie Miletich and Jason Nino jump into the skins of Erica’s characters and have a blast.

Dave Surratt’s It’s Okay, featuring Tony Blosser, Drew Yonemori and Thomas Chratska, is clever and well conceived. In this sketch, two scientists try to describe something inexpressible to their boss. Whether they’re actually talking about the reality-defying properties of quantum particles, the discovery of alien life-forms, or a virus which has learned to brainwash humans, the disjointed, halting, and unsteady style of their language is hilarious and original. Surratt’s upcoming full-length Listen, to be produced by RagTag Entertainment in November, might be worth checking out.

What stands out most clearly in Michael Manley’s Unclaimed Baggage is the surprising level of maturity in Breon Jenay and Dave Surratt’s acting approach. Unfortunately, they only share the stage for a very brief time. More could be done with this piece, but probably not without borrowing too many ideas from David Lynch’s Lost Highway.

Ernie Curcio’s Lucy’s Invite threatens to shock and horrify, but it would take a different type of actress to stitch a spine onto this screed. Austi Martines is poorly cast. She’s simply not jaded enough to invent the kind of self-indulgence this monologue requires. Her youth, charm and good looks only add to her undoing. Director Ruth Palileo has not provided any shortcuts, or even much direction, it seems. The psychologically-charged props littering the stage floor might even provide some help if they weren’t invisible to 90% of the audience. Might as well just throw dirty laundry up there.

A Tortured Chorus by Laura Neubauer is a little hard to make out. Maybe it’s a play about Sweeney Todd’s Eastern European cousin who’s into voodoo. Maybe it’s a strained metaphor about the dangers of conformity. Whatever it is, it could probably use some more fleshing out and refocusing.

If it were possible for Saturday Night Live to be even more irrelevant, the typical sketch might look something like Paul McComas’ The Most Terrifying Three-Word Dystopian / Dark-Fantasy / Horror Story Ever Written. Hopefully he earned a pat on the head for actually bothering.

Theater owners and operators are always afraid of not being able to attract young audience members. All they have to do is figure out how fledgling production company Brave Theatrics packed the house with them at Theater7. Old farts should know better but they usually don’t. They shouldn’t worry about young people abandoning theater. They won’t abandon theater. They’ll just abandon old farts. Some day they’ll just start running the whole operation on their own and stage productions which will make all of us old farts roll over in our graves. At least in a perfect world they will. Happy Halloween, Las Vegas.

 October 28, 7 pm -29, 10:30 p.m.; $10
Theater 7 is at 1406 South 3rd St