REVIEW FROM BITTER LEMONS

The 7th Annual One-Man Show World Championships

“Local stage vet Jim Hanna (writer) and Fringe Fest traveler Caitlin Rucker (director) have united to issue forth a scathing but deliciously comical send-up of the one-person show genre—embedded with a plethora of achingly familiar clichés, also inventing a slew of new ones. Guised as the ultimate monologue smackdown, the action is overseen by drippingly fawning emcee Danny Westbrook, pitting Narcissus-incarnate six-time world champ Trent “The Soul Mirror” Isaacs (Darin Toonder) against regional champs: Barbie-as-degenerate Ally Capri (Tamara Lynn Davis), ragingly vegan Shelby Atkinson (Sarah Chaney) and nice-guy neophyte Gary Tweeden (Hanna).

Scripter Hanna leaves nothing to chance as emcee Danny reminds contestants of the rules, mandating that each performance must include revelations of religious darkness, sexual perversity, physical abuse, drug addiction, etc, as well as the presence of a kindly elderly African American mentor. Helmer Rucker (who also stage manages, designs lights and sound and takes pictures) admirably keeps her folks on point while allowing them to seemingly bounce off the walls as they regale the audience with their thoroughly improper lives.

Toonder’s Trent—thanks to Hanna’s thematic design and Toonder’s own transcendent energy—dominates the proceedings. After opening the show with a recreation of his previous year’s winning performance—head-to-toe encasement in a butterfly costume while raging against his mother—Trent offers a fluidly jaundiced account of a family reunion in Norway, aptly titled “Stumbling Toward Valhalla.” Toonder offers pinpoint characterizations of a number of colorful folk, including Trent’s hyper-sophisticate mom—combining Dorothy Parker-esque wit with the instincts of a praying mantis.

Though given less stage time, Davis and Chaney are equally adept at immersing themselves within their onstage personas. Davis manages to be relentlessly perky while celebrating the dubious rewards of growing into womanhood, acknowledging having unprotected sex with any man she meets—not bothered at all by acquiring eight forms of gonorrhea along the way. Chaney’s Atkinson makes the startling announcement that she is ditching her previously announced Sharon Tate tale, “I Am Not Mrs. Polanski,” deciding to delve deeper into the womb of Tate’s story. Unfortunately for Atkinson, her misanthropic inability to get along with almost anybody—especially the tech director—leads to a performance breakdown.

Hanna’s near woebegone Gary makes no effort to compete with his over-the-top competitors. Staring apologetically out at the audience, Gary simply takes all the contest’s required dysfunctions and strings them out in a near-unending list of life impediments, including every childhood illness known to science and curvature of the spine, as well as being forced to have unsolicited sex with nearly every human that comes his way—including his dead mother who returns as an angel.

Despite wallowing in a near mind-numbing over-abundance of life’s depravities and deprivations, this is an impressive scripting outing for Hanna, a longtime member of LA-based The Production Company, which is co-producing this show, along with Fringe newcomers RAH Productions. Hanna has certainly acquired an empathetic ally in Caitlin Rucker, who maybe should pass up the next Fringe Fest on the worldwide tour and stick around town for awhile."

—Julio Martinez