There's blood on my program from the show I saw last Friday night, and I'm not sure whose it is. You see, there were four zombies in the show, and I chatted afterward with all of them, so it could be any one.
The show I saw was called Hilarity/Belly Laughs and Snorts and it was an evening of short comedies produced by the newly formed 'Something Witty Productions,' headed by Alicia Rachel Becker and Dana Hunter (who recently appeared together in the wildly funny Happy Hour at the 45th Street Theatre).
Among the many performances in the nine absurdist comedies presented, many of them were admirable, but there were a few stand-outs. The absolute stand-out of the evening was Donna Brookbanks performance in Anne Breslaw's "Middle School Dance," directed by Alicia Rachel Becker. The piece seemed to be more guided than scripted as Ms. Brookbanks went through the motions of trying to find a dance partner among those in attendance (only to wind up dancing with a married man... eek!) and reminding us of all the awkwardness we'd like to pretend we didn't actually go through when we were pre-teens.
Phoebe Halkowich's performance in David Alex Andrejko's "Edgewise" was another stand-out, a tour-de-force performance as a self-centered, babbling Manhattanite. She should win a prize for memorization alone.
Also notable was Sarah King's wonderful performance in Joe Tracz's less than wonderful play "Death Comes for a Wedding," as an old woman who's ready to make a choice for herself for once. The quality of that play was especially disappointing given how wonderfully stylized his other play, "American Werewolf in Equus," was (both gracefully directed by Katherine Carter).
Both of the Artistic Directors got a chance to strut their stuff, as well. First, opening the second half of the show, Alicia Rachel Becker (under the direction of Maggie Levin) played a bi-polar new wife to husband Anthony Lobrasco in Brett Hursey's play "Scrambled." The play dealt with the question of fidelity when a man buys his co-worker a box of tampons. Though, for Ms. Becker, there seemed to be no question. As she scrambled the eggs, and with them her mind, she seemed certain that her time had run out when another woman's time had come.
Brett Hursey's other play, "The Stand-In," featured Dana Hunter as a desperate actress auditioning opposite a sock puppet. The key, it seems, to the comedy in this piece is the honesty and sincerity with which Ms. Hunter gave her all in this audition opposite the absurdity of Kyle Wood's performance as a manic director and Matthew Groff's performance as Xocko.
The evening came to a close with a play by Dusty Wilson called "Fortnight of the Living Dead." Danny Tenzer lead Adam Schneider and Brandon Waters in a fight against the--you guessed it--zombies that had overtaken their city. The plan, however, is foiled when the talented and attractive Allison Tebbano seduces each one of the party one by one, ending in a blood-lust orgy. Take that, Megan Fox. Tom Bonner's direction of the piece kept it in a healthy reality that the audience could both recognize and dread. Truth be told, I'd probably let Allison Tebbano eat my brains, too.
The producers kept their word with this one. There was certainly hilarity, there were certainly belly laughs, and I definitely heard a couple of snorts from the woman behind me.
