Category: Critique

A Kid Like Jake

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Alex and Greg have a four-year-old son named Jake. Alex wants to get Jake into an erudite school, so we find her nervously preparing his resume: writing an essay, answering questionnaires, consulting books to improve his chances. Judy is the principal of the kindergarten that Jake currently attends. She and Alex are close friends and this has several advantages. Judy knows and loves Jake, Alex and Greg, so she can coach Alex as she applies Jake to prestigious schools. During a strategy session she essentially recommends that Alex mention Jake’s (for lack of a better term) gender-fluid worldview. This sets a series of incidents in motion.

Alex and Greg are well beyond progressive. They do not mind when Jake likes to dress as a princess, say, like Cinderella. They don’t have meltdowns when Jake identifies with female characters. Alex is a bit leery about following Judy’s advice, but she’s been assured that the current trend towards diversity will work in her favor. It’s only when Jakes wishes to go trick-or-treating in female persona that the situation begins to deteriorate. Greg and Alex do not shame him, but it’s a challenging ordeal. Suddenly Jake is acting out, defiant to authority figures, showing signs of personal crisis.

Playwright Daniel Pearle has created a subtle, sharp, even fanciful at times, exploration of the intense and pervasive impact of gender, and how best to love those dearest to us. Pearle strips away layers from Alex and Greg and their marriage, and the buried, tumultuous issues left unacknowledged. A Kid Like Jake considers how certain events are shaped by the attitudes brought to them. It examines the crucible of wrestling with the expectations and constraints of those around us. Pearle takes a loaded topic (laden with pain) and handles it with grace and precision.

Jenny Ledel (Alex) Ian Ferguson (Greg) Christie Vela (Judy) Kia Boyer (Nurse)

Second Thought Theatre presents A Kid like Jake, playing June 29th-June 23rd, 2016. Bryant Hall on the Kalita Humphreys Campus. 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd, Dallas, Texas 752193 info@secondthoughttheatre.com 1-866-811-4111.

T3’s Psycho Beach Party Crazy Fun

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Psycho Beach Party : A camp comedy by Charles Busch

Stuff and nonsense. Goofy gags. Lunacy. “Psycho Beach Party” is Charles Busch’s tribute to famous beach bum surfer and hormone-crazed teen movies of the 1960’s such as Muscle Beach Party, Beach Blanket Bingo and Gidget, with passing homages to Marilyn Monroe, Joan Crawford and Slasher Films. This is relatively tame material for Busch, whose other plays include: Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Die, Mommie, Die! but is nevertheless loopy, manic fun. The seeming effortlessness of flawless comedy comes crashing down when we see shows that lack timing, chemistry, tone and expose how depressing forced humor can be. I am thrilled to say this definitely not the case with Psycho Beach Comedy. Busch has a knack for twisting and infecting insipid pop genres and so does director Bruce Coleman and this acrobatic, fizzy cast. They know how to achieve the perfect balance and harmony of deadpan delivery.

Chicklet feels worse than a frog caught in a cyclone. Nature has not yet delivered her female “assets”, Surfer Guru Kanaka refuses to school her and her pathological mother doesn’t want her to have anything to do with boys. Best friend Berdine feels abandoned by Chicklet, and Star Cat is having romance problems with bleach blonde douche Marvel Ann. Silver screen icon Bettina Barnes is AWOL from the studio that is stifling her creativity, and must find a beach shack to evade the media. Bummer City.

One of the myriad delights of Charles Busch is his uncanny ability to transform cringeworthy burlap to comic gold lame’. [“Are you incognito? No, I’m Presbyterian.”] Busch also excels at celebrating the foolishness of cheesy film culture while exploiting it. Who hasn’t wanted to see a kid kick Joan Crawford’s ass? A tomboy channel Tallulah Bankhead? [Or was it Bette Davis?] A surfer dope go into unbelievably graphic detail about the mysteries of boinking? All this and more await you if you’ll merely surrender to the sublime, ridiculous bliss of Psycho Beach Party. Playing now at Theatre 3 through July 10th, 2016.

Theatre 3 presents Psycho Beach Party playing June 23rd-July 10th, 2013. The Quadrangle, 2800 Routh, Street, Dallas, Texas 75201. 214-871-3300. www.theatre3dallas.com