I\u2019m not usually a fan of absurdism or magical realism, but \u201cCREVICE\u201d by Lauren Yee is chock full of humor and enough info to keep you guessing at what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cCREVICE\u201d– now at IMPACT THEATRE at La Val\u2019s on Euclid off Hearst in Berkeley\u2014is a co-production with the esteemed PLAYGROUND. It is a wry, expressionistic look at the miasma in which the Millennial generation finds itself.<\/p>\n
Upon entering the theatre, we see our heroine Liz in lying on the couch in her working class house, surrounded by used tissues and the detritus of either influenza or depression.<\/p>\n
Recent Princeton grad Liz (Marissa Keltie) is unemployed, jilted, depressed, on medication, and sleeping on her mom\u2019s sofa. Her actor brother (Timothy Redmond) on whom she relies is abandoning her to do Shakespeare on a cruise ship. Her best male friend (Reggie T. White) brings her supplies because she is unable to dislodge herself from the sofa. Her mom (Laura Jane Bailey*) is having an affair with a fellow (Jordan Winer) whose last name she doesn\u2019t know, and the reverberations from the bedroom are most disquieting.<\/p>\n
Reality vastly alters every time mom\u2019s orgasmic rumblings shake the foundation. Whether out of a wish-fulfillment dream or the effects of the off-market \u201cdepression pills,\u201d the rumblings open up a fissure\u2014The Crevice\u2014which opens into an underworld of \u201cLife As It Should Be.\u201d Like happy dreams with a foreboding periphery, soon everything turns to shit, often with LOL effects.<\/p>\n
Desdemona Chang directs six performers of the same level of high talent. The staging is superb and uses every inch of the challenging La Val\u2019s tiny stage. Ms. Chang skillfully solves the problem of the short scenes and the music and antics of the changes are funny and sustain the energy.<\/p>\n
The set design by Alex Friedman with wallpaper and wainscoting and orange carpet immediately and convincingly takes you into the single-parent apartment of mom with talented and smart 20-somethings still living at home. The sound design by Colin Trevor sustains the humor and the tension as if it is another member of the ensemble.<\/p>\n
A highlight of the show is a lurking Ninja played with extreme kung-fu grace and comedic touches by Kaitlin Muse.<\/p>\n
This is the second premiere of Lauren Yee\u2019s work by Impact\u2014a few seasons ago, her \u201cChing Chong Chinaman\u201d got superlative reviews.<\/p>\n
Playground, helmed by Jim Kleinmann, has taken off like gang-busters lately, and we hope to see more co-productions with Impact whose talent and audience is apt for the hot, new Bay Area playwrights and the new generation of theatre-goers to which Impact speaks.<\/p>\n