Front Row Reviewers had the opportunity to catch the last day of
ThreePenny Theatre Company’s 2023 opener – Power Plays performed at the Sorenson Unity Center, located in Salt Lake City’s Glendale neighborhood.
According to Oxford, the definition of “mature” is either: 1) fully developed physically, mentally, or emotionally or 2) having reached the most advanced stage in a process. Given this, I submit that a work of art’s being deemed for “mature audiences” sells its audience short. The creator, surely, hopes for an impact on audience members, and does not want only those in their own “advanced stage.” Nonetheless, the warning is appreciated.
Paywrights Elaine May and Alan Arkin, Salt Lake’s ThreePenny Theatre Production Company, and our host for the Saturday matinee performance of Power Plays are right to stress the show’s being written for mature audiences. It’s mature in a few ways. First, it certainly deals with sexual content and liberally offers up spicy language. But more importantly, second, it strikes squarely at the second – the “advanced stage” concept. It is an appropriate double entendre. The show is designed for audiences who have been around the block a few times.
Being “mature” myself, in both ways, I found myself, hours after watching my Saturday matinee, thinking about some of the exchanges and stories in this blend of three different one-act playlets.
“The play captures the bizarre zeitgeist and political turmoil of the 1990’s in a way that’s still just fun and accessible” is how 3Penny describes the unique show. (The familiar echo of the transitional music from the television show Seinfeld as part of Power Plays pay off this point of view.)
Power Plays is a trio of one-act comedies. The first and third “playlets” are May’s; the second Arkin’s. Power Plays itself is a Gen-X of sorts, having emerged 25 years ago. To understand the play, it is helpful to understand the authors and their unique association. May and Arkin are veterans of SCTV – Second-City Television. A Canadian comedy program, SCTV ran from 1976-1984. May and Arkin were right at home with other soon-to-become-household-names like John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Rick Moranis, Harold Ramis, and others.
The Way of All Fish is the opening comedy. Meighan Page is quite believable (and enjoyable) as the overly articulated and scheduled-to-the-minute power exec Ms. Asquith. She shares the stage with her seemingly subservient employee – either a “secretary” according to Asquith or an “administrative assistant,” according to Ms. Riverton (Hannah Orr). Riverton endures her boss’s vanity and childish disappointments about not having an A-list Friday night booking with amusement. It is not until the tables are turned – just before their Japanese takeout is delivered – and Riverton assumes a spicy and surprising narrative that the audience realizes Riverton is not standard subservient material and has a dark agenda in mind. The playlet enjoys a fast pace, with true dialogue between the two players, versus simple line reading. Page demonstrates true Hamptons-esque affectation, from overly articulated speech to nervous body agitation at times and to self-indulgent enjoying of wine. Orr piques the audience’s interest, obscuring her character’s dark motives and enduring her boss’s self-indulgence. Asquith may, indeed, rue the moment she previously uttered to guide Riverton’s conduct – “Tonight’s a social occasion – All rules are off!”
“All rules are off!” The phrase applies to all three of the Power Plays comedies. The show’s co-author Arkin once likened the show’s being a blend of David Mamet and Eugene Ionesco. Arkin is clearly describing his contribution to the comedic trio – Virtual Reality. This playlet is performed with virtually no physical props (only imaginary ones), a stark set, and two rapid-fire male actors – one “Lefty” and the other “de Recha” or “right” in Spanish – interfacing within the realms of Arkin’s curious script. To me, the jacket worn by one of the actors is fully reminiscent of the1970s-style leather jacket formerly worn by mafia tough Rocco DiMeo which Richie Aprille gives to Tony Soprano in season two, episode eight (2000) of the classic cable series, The Sopranos. That costuming placed the intentionally vague dialogue between the two actors as a sinister nature. Veteran actors William Davies as De Recha and Austinn Jensen as Lefty run the gamut of emotions from nervousness to toughness and character tells from stuttering to East Coast accents and use extensive pantomime with objects and changing physical circumstances to transport the audience to their shared reality.
In and Out of the Light rounds out the show. May’s playlet is easily the most accessible of the trio, with lots of easy laughs and quick-delivered character development. A sex-crazed dentist lies to not only his wife but son, whilst wooing a dental assistant. There is plenty of double entendre surrounding “implants” and characters seemingly drawn from the 1990s (Page, this time as the push-up-bra’d dental assistant Sue seems the spitting image of Victoria Jackson’s numerous characters from 1986-1992 SNL to 1990s comedies. Davies, this time as the character-flawed dentist Larry, expresses anger by literally, believably, shaking an entire desk. He seemingly draws inspiration from another 1990s trope – South Park (née 1998) – when he does a Cartman-esque interpretation of bullies. (Incidentally, after the show, Davies spoke of the show’s “very physical” nature.) Jensen’s Harry is the comic relief when he opens his virtual kimono to his father, revealing much about what drives the would-be dentist in terms of the workday and the after-party of life.
At press time, Front Row Reviewers could not confirm what reviewer and 3Penny suspect: That this production may be the first time this show has been performed in Utah. “We’re all about doing new and interesting shows,” ThreePenny Theatre Company Director of Education Cody O’Hare expressed to FRR. “We try to put on shows people have never heard of before, and give people new outlooks as opposed to a lot of the popular theater, which tells a lot of the same safe stories. It also was a lighter piece that fit in nicely with our ‘Season of Fractures’ that are all about the ways in which we succeed and fail to communicate with and reach out to others.”
In addition to Power Plays, the company’s “Season of Fractures” includes these upcoming shows: A Shayna Meidel, The Duchess of Malfi, and Night Mother. The company describes its unconventional season as “four shows, with the classic 3Penny flair for bizarre and heartfelt.
Established locally for its “pay-as-you-can” commitment to making theater available for all, the company is casting its next show this upcoming Sunday. For more information, follow ThreePenny Theatre Company on Facebook, sign up for updates, or just click here.
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