Showing posts with label Angel Eaters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angel Eaters. Show all posts
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7 NYIT Award Nominations for Flux

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 3 comments

It was great night!

We were nominated for 7 awards - 6 for Angel Eaters, and 1 for 8 Little Antichrists:

Outstanding Full Length Script: Johnna Adams
Outstanding Actor In A Lead Role: August Schulenburg
Outstanding Original Music: Gerard Keenan
Outstanding Costume Design: Emily Morgan DeAngelis
Outstanding Lighting Design: Jennifer Rathbone
Outstanding Sound Design: Asa Wember
Outstanding Set Design: Caleb Levengood

Also exciting were the 17 nominations for our friends at terraNova Collective, the love for the amazing production of Universal Robots, nominations for our friends at Piper MacKenzie for The Granduncle Quadrilogy, for the New York Neo-Futurists, and for APAC.

It was also a chance to learn about exciting new (to me) companies like Babel Theatre Project and Zootopia Theatre Company, both of whom were shown much love; and to see long time institutions like the Gallery Players, La Mama, Manhattan Theatre Source and HERE get nods for work they produced or presented.

So much thanks from all of us at Flux to Shay, Jason, Nick, Founder's Ward winner Akia and all of the staff and volunteers who so warmly made the event a night to remember!

(A grace note: part of any awards ceremony is recognizing the amazing work that somehow slipped through the cracks. From outside Flux, any list that doesn't feature Patrick Shearer's performance in A Colorful World or Rebecca Lingafelter's in Artifacts of Consequence missed out; and from within Flux, Richard Watson in Rattlers gave a performance I literally watched every night because it was so disturbing, moving and funny.)

Thanks again! Read the full story

 

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Congrats to Marnie for 24 Hour Musicals

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1 comments


Michael Nagle for The New York Times From left, Marnie Schulenburg, Rachel Dratch, Mandy Gonzalez and Tracie Thoms in “Rachel Said Sorry” at the Gramercy Theater on Monday night.

Marnie Schulenburg, our Joann from Angel Eaters and our upcoming Allegra in Pretty Theft, was asked to participate in the 24 Hours Musicals, a star-bangled benefit for the Orchard Project. The New York Times blogged about it, and you can read about it here.

Go Marnie! Read the full story

 

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Zack Calhoon's Visible Soul on Angel Eaters

Monday, November 17, 2008 0 comments

Talented playwright and actor (and recent Flux Sunday recipient) Zack Calhoon gave the first play in the trilogy a really nice shout out on his blog, Visible Soul - you can check it out here or read on below!

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(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Cotton Wright)

Angel Eaters
by Zack Calhoon
As evidenced by my last post, I had the great honor of seeing one of the most dynamic new theatrical voices of the 1990's: Sarah Kane. I thought it would be pretty hard to top an experience like that for some time, but tonight I saw one of the most exciting young playwright's writing in New York right now: Johnna Adams. It was the perfect compliment to a wonderful weekend of theatregoing. Rarely has a play kept the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end for entire 90 minutes. I'm absolutely dying to see the second and third installments of the Angel Eaters Trilogy being presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble through Thursday.

I'm actually at a loss to describe how deeply Ms. Adams's soulful poetry affected me. I was especially struck by the desperation that permeates this theatrical feast. I was especially moved by a young little powerhouse actress named Marnie Schulenberg and the spine tingling stage presence of Cotton Wright. Ms. Schulenberg's riveting performance as the "simple-minded" and spiritually gifted Joann moved me to tears on more than one occasion. Although every single character was imbued with deep desperation and wonderful humor. I absolutely loved this show. She made me want to go home and write!

I never thought I'd say this twice in one day, but:

Run, don't walk, to see these shows!

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Tiffany Clementi, Gregory Waller)
Read the full story

 

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Theatre Knights' Toby Thelin on the Trilogy

A really lovely write-up from theatre renaissance man Toby Thelin on his blog, Theatre Knights. It feels like we've turned the corner with the Trilogy, and Toby's review, along with the energy at this Saturday's marathon, reminded us why we took on such a daunting project in the first place. Only one week left - check it out!

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(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Cotton Wright)
These plays make me happy. Let me say that again, in case it's not clear: The three plays by Johnna Adams making up The Angel Eaters Trilogy (Angel Eaters, Rattlers, and 8 Little Antichrists), currently running at The Wings Theater and produced by Flux Theatre Ensemble, make me extremely happy. I'll say it again before this review is over, but I walked out of each of these shows feeling so friggin' happy I didn't know what to do with myself. Seldom has a theater experience left me feeling so fulfilled, and in such a downright pleasant and generally, no, specifically, good mood, and when questing for the reason, I had to ask myself why?
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Gregory Waller, Tiffany Clementi)
Which is not to say these plays were perfect, by any means. Yes, this was truly one of the most uplifting and satisfying theater experiences of my life. Yes, I feel like a giddy adolescent fanboy geek about to launch into a discourse on the timelessness of the original Star Wars trilogy. Yes, I want everybody I've ever met, known, or had any contact with to drop what they are doing and rush out to see these shows NOW!!! But why?
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Rebecca McHugh)
I'll start, as I usually do, with the scripts. While comprising a set of linked stories, each play stands on it's own. However, the full experience is so satisfying, I have to encourage you to see all three shows, preferably in chronological order, but see them however you can (although the third play does include numerous references to the previous two pieces that make it highly amusing). Johnna Adams' writing is crystalline; she is a real pro, exhibiting a mastery of craft that is refreshing in it's familiarity. Everything feels like something I've seen, but it's not; watching these shows lulled me into comfortability, then snatched me by the throat and dragged me into a completely unexpected place. The styles of each piece were different, sometimes completely so, but the world created was linked in such a seamless manner that it just felt right. Yes, Angel Eaters, being set in Oklahoma in the era of the Great Depression, did conjure fleeting reminisences of Steinbeck and The Rainmaker, while Rattlers 70's era characters sometimes evoked those films that inspired Quentin Tarantino at his best, and 8 Little Antichrists slightly futuristic end-of-daysing had enough pop culture references to make my head nearly spin like Linda Blair's (I particularly was amused by a scene riffing on the sci-fi brilliance of Ridley Scott); the beauty of the scripts are that they work entirely on their own with no referencing to what has come before (except you really should know about the Empire of Disney for some of the jokes in the third play to land successfully). Adams has managed to take an ages old tale of good vs. evil and make it refreshingly her own. And dammit, these plays would make a kick-ass mini-series on the Sci Fi Network, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Scott Drummond, Jason Paradine)
Before continuing to rave on and on, and repeating over and over that I am still so freaking happy about these shows, I should do my duty as a critic and theater artist and get my complaints out of the way so I can move on to the good stuff. Since I raved about the scripts, I should point out that there were some places I wasn't as happy with, and it may have been due to the writing, or the acting, or even the staging, though I tend to think it was probably a combination of elements. While I found most of the second play, Rattlers, hilarious, there were a couple of characters and scenes that felt a little unnecessary. As much as I rail against needless exposition, in these case I would have preferred those characters to be cut completely, and the necessary info to have been inserted via the dreaded exposition, because the play kind of stalled when veering away from the relationships I cared about (more on that later). In general, the acting was at a particularly good level with few exceptions, and I tend to be forgiving towards actors who seem a little out of place (they are being given the opportunity to learn from those around them; yes, I was an acting teacher too at one point). Each of these shows has performances that are a little rough around the edges, especially compared to the polish of some of the better performers. At the same time, there are some actors that are downright surprising in their ability to start off seeming to be one thing, and transforming into something completely and delightfully other. The third play, 8 Little Antichrists, suffered the most in its ambition, with sequences that are very difficult to evoke using the magic of stagecraft; what worked, worked well, what didn't thankfully didn't detract from the rest of the show, and was more than made up for by goddam cheerfulness of whole proposition. Never has the apocalypse been orchestrated in such an obtuse way, but such a delightful ringmaster.
(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Joe Mathers, Jake Alexander, Rebecca McHugh)
Alright, I'm starting to rave again, and I was talking about what I didn't like. On to what I did: the set, designed by Caleb Levengood, was wonderful, and transformed beautifully from show to show. The lights and costumes did their jobs, but the sound design sort of punched me in the face, and it was such a good pain. Usually I want to not notice design elements, I want them unobtrusive, I don't want to be sitting there thinking "that was a beautiful light transition", but in these plays the sound design was so important and necessary, and Asa Wembler did a remarkable job, not only with the supporting sounds and ambience, but with the selection of music, which can sometimes make or break a show (my apologies if someone else picked the music, but it was darn good, whoever chose it).
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Isaiah Tanenbaum)
Finally, the acting: there were so many excellent performances, but I want to mention a few specifically. In Angel Eaters, Gregory Waller nearly ran away with the show with his nuanced performance of Fortune Clay; Marnie Schulenburg was sometimes innocent, sometimes creepy, in the best possessed way; and Cotton Wright's appearances as Azazyel made me wish that she could have appeared in all the shows, a stunning combination of presence, showmanship, and make-up that left me wanting more. The Rattlers cast was full of brilliance, but the chemistry ignited between Matthew Crosby's Ted and Richard B. Watson's Everett was electrifying, the sorts of performance that can lead to an actor having to start memorizing speeches about who they'd like to thank; every line, every expression, was a pearl, and the audience was so mesmerized by these two characters that applause spontaneously erupted at the end of their first scene (they also managed to pull audience members out of their seats for a standing ovation at the end, a testament to their remarkable performances and the amazing relationship between these men crafted by Ms. Adams' words). In the final show, 8 Little Antichrists, Candice Holdorf had the lion's share of the work, playing six different characters, three of which end up in a Matrix-esque battle with each other in one of the most entertaining scenes I can ever remember in a theater. Jake Alexander and Joe Mathers were very much fun to watch as the convicts Thump & Fibber, and Zack Robidas was one of those very pleasant surprises, delivering a quite literally transformative performance as Jeremy. But the gem of the evening was August Schulenburg as the mysterious(?) Ezekiel; yes, he may have been channelling a little Mike Myers & Jim Carey, and more than a little Pee-Wee Herman (sorry, I meant Paul Reubens), but that certainly didn't take away from the fact that he was frikkin' HI-larious. His performance, his timing, his delivery were so spot-on I was shivering with anticipation for the next amazing thing that would happen while he was on stage.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured:Richard Watson, Matthew Crosby)
Alright, so, all in all, one of the best theatre experiences... ever! You must see these shows! They are more than entertaining, they are Entertainments with a capital E! Congratulations Flux and Johnna!

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Candice Holdorf)
For schedule & ticket info, visit www.fluxtheatre.org. The Angel Eaters Trilogy continues thru November 22 at The Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher Street Read the full story

 

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Bilerico's Jason Tseng on the Trilogy

Friday, November 14, 2008 0 comments

A nice review from Jason Tseng at Bilerico, a cool LGBTQ group blog. Highlights with pics below!
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Johnna Adams' epic three-part work The Angel Eaters Trilogy follows the heartbreaking, complex, and chilling story of a family bloodline, cursed with the ability to raise the dead, with horrific consequences. While at face value, the synopsis of The Angel Eaters Trilogy, which is comprised of The Angel Eaters, Rattlers, and 8 Little Anti-Christs, is reminiscent of pulp horror films that provided years of kitschy bloody delight for a generation of film-goers, Adams' work gives a nod towards the horror genre, but moves beyond the form's limitations and provides a body of work that is mythic, complex and inquisitive.

Flux Theatre Ensemble, ever the ambitious indie-theatre group, has remarkably launched a veritable festival of theatre, performing all three of Adams' plays in rep on a rotating schedule everyday for nearly a month (each saturday offers a marathon-style line-up allowing you to catch all three plays in one day). Performances are at Wings Theatre (154 Christopher Street New York, NY). More information, including ticket sales at fluxtheatre.org. Check out the review after the jump.

Angel Eaters

Johnna Adams opens with Angel Eaters, the eponymous play of her trilogy. Set in the desolate landscape of Oklahoma's dustbowl during the Great Depression, Adams stitches together a tale that is both fantastical and bone-chillingly present. Angel Eaters establishes much of the lore and context for the subsequent plays in the trilogy. She dips into the Judeo-Christian mythos that surrounds the angelic mysticism that lives deep within the Christian faith, and in many ways precedes it. By tapping into this well-spring of transformational and mysterious energy, Adams comments on the very fabric of faith itself, and raises questions on other parallel stories and the external forces that shape our very souls.

In Angel Eaters we are introduced to Joanne (Marnie Shulenburg), a sweet but slow girl ("simple-minded" as they say in the play). With the recent death of Joanne's father, her sister Nola (Tiffany Clementi) trying to induce an abortion by ingesting turpentine, and her mother (Catherine Michele Porter) hiring some Carnival con men to resurrect her husband, Joanne's family life has been thrown into chaos. Joanne turns to conversing with angels through birdsong, convinced it is the tongue of angels. While the idea of idly conversing with an ominous voice in your head that whispers a secret history of sacred horns might seems disturbing, it seems like a natural response for a young girl with mental problems dealing with familial strife. Adams writes Joanne exceptionally well, capturing her innocence and naivety as well as her dangerous and seductive zealousness. While it might have been easy to write-off Joanne as your typical "disturbed girl" caricature, I was drawn into her selflessness and tragic fate.

When Joanne's mother, a pragmatic and axe-wielding enforcer chains up one of the carnies dubbed "Resurrection Boy" to the porch as collateral for the successful resurrection of her husband, the plot begins to thicken as it is revealed that Fred "Fortune" Clay, the brains behind the resurrection scam is the former lover and father of Nola's unborn child. Fortune plots with Nola to free his partner, Enoch, and make away with Nola's mother, Myrtle's money. Meanwhile, Joanne works as a laundress for the pawing but gentle-hearted Doc O'Malley who, as an avid birdwatcher, teaches Joanne the different birdcalls and what they mean. Doc's lessons are interspersed with strangely loving sexual abuse, getting Nola to play "games" like "Bird in the Bush." Despite being disgusted by the Doc's actions, his affection for Joanne seems sincere.

As the play quickens, it becomes painfully clear that Enoch will be unable to raise Joanne's father. It is revealed however, that Joanne herself is able to resurrect small animals, and has been doing so for some time under the guidance from the Angels she converses with. After terrifying Enoch with a display of her powers, reanimating a dead chicken, the inevitability of her using her abilities on her father becomes apparent. But as Joanne careens towards her inevitable tragic fate, the angel (Cotton Wright) informs her that in order to raise her father she must eat off his body and in doing so, consume his goodness, and fight god back to bring her father back. Joanne's choice to appease her mother's obsession with resurrecting her husband pits her blind faith against the security of her family. Against the backdrop of the Oklahoman dustbowl, it becomes evident that her choice was one of desperation.

Angel Eaters plays out like a well constructed modern Greek tragedy. From the onset of the play, we know where its going. We know that Joanne will be presented with a profound moral choice and everything along the way reinforces the palpable sense of anticipation when we finally see Joanne grow her horns. I have to say that the final action in the play was so intense, I cringed... in that deeply satisfying scary movie kind of cringe. You know you've seen something good when you feel that chill creep up your spine.

Rattlers

Adams finds a grittier and more twisted perspective on humanity in Rattlers, which picks up almost 40 years later with Joanne's (Angel Eaters) nephew, Osley Clay. EverettGivesTedASmoke.jpegOsley's high school girlfriend, Ernelle comes out of his past with aptly-named rattle-snake wrangling boyfriend, Snake. They kidnap Osley to convince him to raise Ernelle's recently deceased sister, who was bludgeoned to death on the side of the road. Osley, who has forgone the dark ways of his twin brother, Rooster, and become a Preacher refuses to participate in the ritual, insisting that Ernelle's sister will come back wrong and evil. Ernelle, the sassy yet dark diva that she is, insists on Osley's cooperation, threatening his daughter's life with one of Snake's pet rattlers.

Meanwhile at the funeral home where Ernelle's sister Katherine is having her viewing. Ted, a childhood friend of Katherine's and the undertaker, and Everett, her husband, two men who knew and loved Katherine reminisce about the woman they both knew. Both men share in their heartache with strangely quotidian conversation. As each reveals more about himself to the other, the more clear it is that a murderer lies among them.

And finally, to complete the triptych of Adams' play, Mattie, Katherine's mother, searches for revenge with the very young and attractive Shane, Ted's younger brother and desperate suitor of Mattie's affection. While Mattie fends off Shane's relentless desire, she digs deeper into the mystery of her daughter's death and closer to the vengeance she intends to exact on its perpetrator. An eye for an eye, indeed.

Rattlers succeeds where Angel Eaters fails in that this play is not tethered down with the need to establish lore or provide lengthy exposition. We jump straight into the action. Again, we get a great build up of anticipation as each storyline operates, for the most part, independently, towards a tragic end. Adams writing and Ruiz's direction of the action takes on a filmic quality as it cuts back and forth between the three plots. Adams toys with dualities in this play. Lover turns to murderer, good becomes evil, and death becomes life. Like a fish to a hook, Adams lures your affections for the unrequited lover, the mourning mother; and flips the circumstances around with stunning and terrible outcomes. And oddly enough, the only truly selfless act comes from the one with the horns. Bravo.

8 Little Anti-Christs

Set in a dystopian corporate future where Disney runs large state prisons, and Sony is mass-producing cloned workers, we find ourselves bumped two generations later and twenty years in our future. Jeremy and Melanie Gable are the latest inheritors of the Angel Eater curse and engaged in an epic misadventure to defeat the devil and destroy the eight anti-Christs that Jeremy is forced to resurrect...


...Adams' writing is bold and quite remarkable in its ability to disarm and within a turn of a phrase, horrify. She is not afraid to ponder and explore the darker outskirts of our communal human imagintion. The dreary crevices we only ever tentatively tip-toe towards, Adams rips open and thoroughly explores until fully satisfied.

All in all, I enthusiastically recommend the Angel Eater's Trilogy as a foray into a great work by Flux Theatre Ensemble and on the part of the playwright herself. Take advantage of the three-play discount as well as $14 tickets (a steal for New York theater).

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nytheatre.com's Micheal Mraz on the Trilogy

Thursday, November 13, 2008 0 comments

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Satanachia)
A review of all 3 plays from actor Michael Mraz, writing for nytheatre.com:

nytheatre.com review

Michael Mraz · November 8, 2008

Johnna Adams started writing her Angel Eaters Trilogy and Flux Theatre Ensemble was so taken by the initial work that they decided to take on the entire three-part saga before she had even finished the last two and produce them in rep; quite an ambitious task for a young indie theatre company, but one that ends up paying dividends for Flux. Adams's Angel Eaters Trilogy, which follows three generations of a family with a rather unusual gift (or curse), provides for a strong, disturbing, affecting night of theater (or rather 3 nights, unless you're ambitious and would like to try your hand at all 3-on Saturdays only).

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: August Schulenburg, Zack Robidas, Rebecca McHugh)

Angel Eaters

Angel Eaters, the first play of the trilogy, introduces us to the Hollister family, trapped in the economic woes of 1930s Oklahoma. The man of the family, Herbert, is recently deceased (murder is suspected) and his wife, Myrtle, and daughters, Joann and Nola (who's pregnant out of wedlock), miss him desperately. So desperately that Myrtle has decided to hire two carnies, Fortune and Enoch, who claim to have the power to raise the dead.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Isaiah Tanenbaum, Gregory Waller.)

The carnies, of course, have no such power and skip from town to town, swindling grieving families out of their money. However, it seems that the younger daughter, Joann, an innocent but slightly slow-witted girl, does have such an ability. She claims to be able to speak to angels with bird calls and has stumbled upon the "gift" of being able to raise deceased animals on the farm from the dead.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Isaiah Tanenbaum, Cotton Wright, Marnie Schulenburg)

However, there is something a bit off about her talent. Every time she reanimates something, it comes back with a terrible bloodlust. Even odder, the angel that speaks to her (played by a superbly demonic, creepy Cotton Wright) talks about God's ego and laziness and tells stories of the beginning of time, when all humans had horns. Joanna is an Angel Eater, a shamanic curse that has run through her family's history. She finds she can raise the dead (by eating off their body) but at a price: when she revives something she eats its goodness; leaving only a crazed, bloodthirsty shell. As the innocent Joanna grows to realize her power is anything but holy, she comes to a point where she must make a decision: leave her father dead and watch her family slowly tear itself apart, or raise him, effectively killing the good in him.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Gregory Waller, Isaiah Tanenbaum)

The performances in Angel Eaters are superb across the board. Marnie Schulenburg's Joanna is so heartbreakingly pure that it kills you to think that she's been made the vessel of a demonic plot. Tiffany Clementi's Nola is Yin to Joanna's Yang, wildly rebellious and desperate to escape her mother's clutches. Isaiah Tanenbaum and Gregory Waller are suitably slimy as the two carnie hustlers and you can see them pass their plans to each other with just the wordless connection of their eyes. Catherine Michele Porter (as Myrtle) provides the crux of the show's message with her strong performance, conveying with every line her frantic need to keep her husband at her side—at any cost.

Just as superb, if not more so, than the writing and performances of Angel Eaters is the design work. Caleb Levengood's set is a ridiculously detailed labyrinth in the small Wings Theatre. Emily DeAngelis's costumes are picture perfect for 1930s Oklahoma. The show would not hold the same gravitas without the layered and at many times bone-chilling soundscape created by Asa Wembler. And Jennifer Rathbone's use of color and shadow defines the beautiful stage pictures of the show. Angel Eaters is extremely, consistently technically detailed (one has to give credit to dramaturg Kay Mitchell for some extensive, well-utilized research). With these aspects unified and complimented by the superb direction of Jessi D. Hill, they couldn't have done a better job, even with a Broadway budget.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Tiffany Clementi, Gregory Waller)

Angel Eaters questions every side of human intention, revealing the shadow behind every bit of brightness; the gloom in every ounce of hope. It begs the supreme question about loss and loneliness: what would you sacrifice to bring the person you loved back? And every character has a different answer. It is an experience that you leave feeling more than a bit uneasy in the deepest pit of your stomach, and I think that's how theatre should leave you: questioning some aspect of your world. Angel Eaters is a brilliant first chapter in a trilogy that does just that.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Isaiah Tanenbaum, Marnie Schulenburg, Tiffany Clementi, Catherine Porter)

Rattlers

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Tumbleweed)

Rattlers, the second installment in Johnna Adams's Angel Eaters Trilogy, adopts a very different pace and style from the superb opening chapter of the play cycle, Angel Eaters. However, though more a character study, tightly weaving three different simultaneous stories, it still shares the dark heart and uneasy tone set by Part One. With Rattlers, Adams and Flux Theatre Ensemble delve into what six people are driven to do to deal with the death of one person that connects them all.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Matthew Crosby)

Set in 1975, Rattlers opens with a character we have met briefly before in Angel Eaters: one of the twin boys of Nola Hollister (the pregnant, rebellious daughter of the Hollister family), Osley. We quickly find out that the family's dreaded "gift," the ability to raise the dead while simultaneously killing all of the good in the soul of the once-deceased, has been passed on to the twins. Osley's brother Rooster embraced the gift, grew horns, and gave himself to the devil, while Osley has spent his life trying to embrace the path of God. But his ex-girlfriend, Ernelle, and her slimy, rattlesnake-charming man (aptly named "Snake") have other plans. Ernelle's beloved sister Kate has just been brutally murdered; she knows of Osley's talent and will stop at nothing to get him to bring her sister back.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Scott Drummond, Jason Paradine, Amy Lynn Stewart)

Focus then shifts to Kate's funeral, where we get a look at an intimate conversation between two men who loved Kate at different times in her life: a boy from her hometown, Ted, who's now the undertaker at the funeral home and has held an unrequited love for Kate since childhood, and her husband Everett. As their conversation about Kate unfolds, revealing deep, dark secrets about each, we find that not only were they the two who may have loved her most in the world but they are also the prime suspects in her murder.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Matthew Crosby, Richard Watson.)

Finally, we get a portrait of Kate's mother, hell-bent on using a young boy who harbors a desire for her to avenge her daughter's death. The script moves among each of the stories with a quickening pace until the play's disturbing climax. In the end, Rattlers focuses on love and both the tender moments and unspeakable evils each character is willing to perform for the thing they love most in the world. Once again, the trilogy submerges the audience in the fine lines between darkness and light; no one is quite innocent and yet you can't really hate them for what they do.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Jane Taylor, David Jackson)

The performances are once again stellar, most notably those of Jason Paradine and Richard B. Watson, as Osley and Everett, respectively. Paradine makes you feel every ounce of his conflict as he struggles with an impossible choice of staying on God's path or protecting his family by literally sacrificing his soul.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Jason Paradine, Scott Drummond, Amy Lynn Stewart)

Watson infuses every word and movement with a violent, tense menace, but balances this with moments of great tenderness toward Ted and his late wife, constantly keeping the watcher on his toes.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Richard Watson, Matthew Crosby)

However each performance benefits greatly from their scene partners. Amy Lynn Stewart walks a fine line between making Ernelle completely despicable, but absolutely sympathetic, while Matthew Crosby's sweetness and longing (as Ted) for the girl he could have only in death is heart-wrenching. Jerry Ruiz's tight direction pulls every moment of tension, love, and horror out other Adams's words (though, if there were only one small complaint, it would be that Caleb Levengood's superb, wraparound set is not utilized fully by the staging, but that's minor nitpicking).

The overall design of Rattlers continues the splendid consistency of Flux's production team. Jennifer Rathbone once again creates wonderful stage pictures with her use of light and shadow (and is skillfully utilized by the actors). Asa Wember's sound does the best job of connecting the pieces of the trilogy with the blending of sound effects used in Angel Eaters with newly created ones, reminding me a bit of a skillful composer building a musical soundscape throughout a good movie series. And hats off to Emily DeAngelis for making it look like Matthew Crosby's Ted was brought to the show via time-machine from 1975 (complete with a '70s mustache and shaggy hair).

Rattlers builds on the strong start of Adams's Angel Eaters, swimming in some of the same themes but daring to skillfully ask new questions about life, death, God, and love. It stands on its own as a very strong character study of seven people, and would be an enjoyable, disturbing, thought-provoking piece of theatre independent of the trilogy. However, seeing Rattlers as part of the whole brings an added level of suspense and impact to the piece; and an already affecting night of theatre is made that much more significant.

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Becky Kelly)

8 Little Antichrists

8 Little Antichrists, the final installment of Johnna Adams's Angel Eaters Trilogy, jumps ahead 40 more years to 2028. Taking place in a futuristic Los Angeles (appropriately the City of Angels) in what feels a bit like a Blade Runner-esque setting, the play introduces us to a world in which women are hooked up to huge birthing beds and continually produce and sell sets of octuplets, McDonald's and Disney have become prisons of the future, and the Hollister bloodline is still surviving with its terrible power—and being closely pursued by Satan's agents to be used as instruments to fulfill the prophecy of his return.

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Candice Holdorf)

This third and final piece to the puzzle takes yet another stylistic shift. 8 Little Antichrists veers away from the stark, darkly realistic feel of Angel Eaters and Rattlers and is told as a cartoonish, futuristic film noir detective story. Claudia, a triplet born in the mass-production birthing chambers, is a private eye who is investigating the mysterious death of her triplet sister. She stumbles onto a pair of siblings, Melanie and Jeremy, who are on the run from two demon angels, dispatched by Ezekiel, Satan's apparent manifestation on earth. Satan's minions have discovered that Melanie and Jeremy have the power to raise the dead and want to use that power to re-raise eight genetically-engineered babies who will become the spawn of Satan. If they succeed these "8 little antichrists" will open the door to Satan's reign over earth.

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Felicia Hudson, Elise Link)

However, the major shift of genres, perhaps the major shift in time, and the grandeur of the plot details makes 8 Little Antichrists seem sorely out of place with respect to the dark, disturbing focus of the first two parts of the trilogy and leaves the viewer a bit disoriented. The script relies a lot more on goofy humor (i.e., the 8 little antichrists are represented by puppets and there is a large sequence of Claudia, the triplet, and her identical sisters rotating on and off the stage—all played by the same actress) and never really discovers its dark heart under the light jokes and comic relief. The strongest moments of the show are the times that it veers back to the evil that Angel Eaters and Rattlers delve into so effectively, but as a whole the show seems a bit alien to the trilogy it completes.

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Zack Robidas)

If considered as a separate piece of theatre, there are some hilarious moments. Joe Mathers and Jake Alexander, two criminals imprisoned in the "Disneyland prison" who receive violent electric shocks any time their language exceeds a G-rating or insults Disney, are a hilarious and creepy comic duo.

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Jake Alexander, Joe Mathers)

August Schulenburg as Ezekiel finds an amusing balance between insanity and a kind of pathetic evil, as the demon spawn hell-bent on testing his own immortality. His scene of cooing and calming the misbehaving 8 baby antichrists is hilarious. In the end, though, the overall hilarity of the piece ends up feeling jolting within the realm of the trilogy.

(Photo: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Satanachia, Mephistopheles)

The show is full of talented people and designers, but the script of 8 Little Antichrists struggles to find its place within the overall story and its ultimate message, which is the major strength of the trilogy thus far. Though some of the closing moments of the show go a long way toward tying it back to its predecessors, 8 Little Antichrists suffers from trying to be a grand conclusion to a trilogy that begins and thrives on great intimacy with its characters and audiences.

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Backstage's Mark Peikert on the Trilogy

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 1 comments

(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Becky Kelly)
Backstage's Mark Peikert was our second reviewer to take on all three plays, and his review just went up on Backstage. Before sharing the highlights and more great pics with you, I'd like to take a moment to praise Backstage for their support of Indie theatre. They don't ever seem to get the recognition they deserve for their unstinting coverage of theatre big and small. The only organizations I know of that cover as much theatre are nytheatre.com and the folks at Show Showdown. Whatever your feelings about criticism and coverage of theatre, Backstage is undeniably putting lots of boots (pens?) on the ground.
And without further ado, the highlights!

THE ANGEL EATERS TRILOGY
by Mark Peikert
 One of the pleasures derived from attending lots of Off-Off-Broadway plays is the chance to discover new talent, and Johnna Adams' wildly ambitious and mostly successful new trilogy is currently offering a bumper crop of it.
(Photo by: Johnna Adams. Pictured: Candice Holdorf, Rebecca McHugh, Zack Robidas)
The first installment, Angel Eaters, finds a family barely scraping by in Depression-era Oklahoma. But their limited funds don't prevent mother Myrtle (Catherine Michele Porter) from giving two traveling carnie workers $50 to resurrect her recently deceased husband. Of course they can't do it — but Myrtle's youngest daughter, Joann (Marnie Schulenburg), can. At a brisk 90 minutes, director Jessi D. Hill keeps the pace tight...Schulenburg comes close to being terrific as the girl who happily brings dead things to terrifying life...Gregory Waller is superb as con man Fortune.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Johnna Adams, Marnie Schulenburg).
Rattlers is the strongest of the three plays, both in terms of the performances and the writing, and (director Jerry) Ruiz does especially well when switching back and forth from the three plots during a tense climax. As Ernelle and her boyfriend Snake, Stewart and Scott Drummond are creepily riveting as they plot together to return Ernelle's sister to life.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. pictured: Amy Lynn Stewart, Scott Drummond)
And as new widower Everett, Richard B. Watson manages to spit out his tough-guy dialogue while keeping an omnipresent cigarette clenched between his lips.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Richard Watson)
Don't forget the $14 ticket specials!
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Aaron Riccio on The Angel Eaters Trilogy

Monday, November 10, 2008 0 comments

(Photo: Justin Hoch.)

Aaron Riccio was our first intrepid reviewer to brave all three shows in the trilogy, and his insightful reviews are posted on his own website, That Sounds Cool, and at New Theatre Corps. He connected most deeply with Rattlers, but has insight into all three productions, some of which I've included below, alongside some new production photographs. Hope to see you at the theatre!

Rattlers
Aaron Riccio
Being dragged over to a wooden box filled with rattlesnakes while you're bound and gagged is never a good way to start your day, but it's a great way to start a play, and in Rattlers, Johnna Adams finds her bite, sinking her teeth in quicker than the eye can follow, and never letting up.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Scott Drummond, Jason Paradine, Amy Lynn Stewart)
The unfortunate victim here is Osley (Jason Paradine), and he's been kidnapped by his ex-girlfriend Ernelle (Amy Lynn Stewart) and her hyperactive boyfriend Snake (Scott Drummond); they expect him to resurrect Ernelle's murdered sister, regardless of the cost. Meanwhile, at the funeral home, Ernelle's brother-in-law, the rascal Everett (Richard B. Watson), is having a casual conversation with the creepy undertaker, Ted (Matthew Crosby), in which it seems more and more likely that one of them is the murderer.
(Photo: Justin Huch. Pictured: Matthew Crosby, Richard Watson)
And in yet another connected but distant scene, Ernelle's mother, Mattie (Jane Lincoln Taylor) is looking for vengeance, although Shane (David Jackson) is hoping she'll just accept his devoted love instead.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Jane Taylor, David Jackson).
By splitting the action (Jerry Ruiz's direction helps it hop along), Adams is able to do her entire trilogy on a micro level, from the comic horrors that the Bonnie and Clyde-like Snake and Ernelle are cooking up to the morbid romance between Shane and Mattie, and the True Blood-like subtexts in the easygoing twangs between Everett and Ted. It also gives her a chance to really focus on more than exposition--there's less plot and more character development, and that's a gift given the outstanding actors, every last one of them, in this production. Things amble along, instead of rushing to conclusions, and part of the fun in Rattlers is trying to guess what these tight-lipped characters will do next (or, with Snake, what he won't do).
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Jason Paradine, Amy Lynn Stewart, Scott Drummond)
Adams has a terrific voice, and her stories actually work on multiple levels. For instance, Ted's tale about sleeping next to the corpse of his obsession is rooted in the subtext in Everett's face as he listens--after all, he was married to her.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Matthew Crosby, Richard Watson)
The same goes for the look of resignation in Shane's eyes when he realizes that the woman he loves has drugged him, or the way Ernelle's good humor evaporates when she realizes that threatening to hurt Osley's daughter won't help--that she'll have to kill one girl to bring back another.
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: David Jackson, Jane Taylor)
This last bit captures the full effect of the trilogy, too: what price won't we pay to get back the ones we love?
(Photo: Justin Hoch. Pictured: Jason Paradine)

Angel Eaters
Aaron Riccio
If you liked Carnivale and prefer plot to character, Johnna Adams's mystical Angel Eaters is the play for you: con men, weird girls, and angry mothers kicking up a storm in the Dust Bowl era. Stay for Marnie Schulenburg's performance as a touched young girl, and for Jessi D. Hill's atmospheric direction: creepy, yet satisfying.
8 Little Antichrists
Aaron Riccio
After seeing all three parts of Johnna Adams's ambitious, generation-spanning Angel Eaters Trilogy, I can't shake the image of the playwright as a smarter version of the evil "Mama" who shows up in Part Three. She sits in a giant vat, but rather than absorbing nutrients, she takes in the pop culture of the last thirty years, and instead of churning out clones and selling them for organs, she fires out plays. Her distinct voice shines through this batch of trips: comic exposition often well-hidden by clever circumstances...Each play succeeds (and fails) on its own, which means there's something for everyone, especially fans of Flux Theatre Ensemble, who will spend twenty days straight being just as ambitious as Adams.
The hero this time around is a Philip K. Dick-brand detective, Claudia (Candice Holdorf), who is investigating the death of her clone sister, Sara Jane, only to find that there may be more to the murder than she suspects. Along the way, she falls for one of the suspects, Jeremy (Zack Robidas), but not before he is kidnapped by fallen angels Sem and Zaz (Felicia Hudson and Elise Link, channeling a fashionably authoritative Mod Squad vibe) and forced to resurrect the octuplet antichrists, cloned from the Dahmers and Gengis Khans of the world. To make things more convoluted, the clone mother is Claudia's Mama (Nora Hummel), a self-obsessed nag who lives in a nutrient-pumping vat and dreams of the day when she'll have sold enough of her offspring to upgrade. Oh, and Jeremy's paranoid sister, Melanie (Rebecca McHugh) has actually found the vessel of God in a happy meal--if only she can pry it away from the Clockwork Orange-like drizz-heads, Thump and Fibber (Jake Alexander and Joe Mathers, high-octane comic relief). Cue the over-the-top action.

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