{"id":6025,"date":"2013-05-14T15:47:26","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T22:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=6025"},"modified":"2013-05-15T12:43:28","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T19:43:28","slug":"best-of-playground-17-at-the-thick-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/best-of-playground-17-at-the-thick-house\/","title":{"rendered":"BEST OF PLAYGROUND 17 at the Thick House"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>BEST OF PLAYGROUND 17, featuring a fully-produced evening-length program of the best short plays by the Bay Area\u2019s best new playwrights. Thick House, 1695 18th street, San Francisco. For more information, visit http:\/\/playground-sf.org\/bestof.shtml<\/a>. May 9-26, 2013<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s annual celebration of short plays by San Francisco Bay Area playwrights features: The Spherical Loneliness of Beverly Onion<\/em> by Katie May<\/strong>, directed by Rebecca Ennals; Simple and Elegant<\/em> by Evelyn Jean Pine<\/strong>, directed by Tracy Ward; Value Over Replacement<\/em> by Ruben Grijalva<\/strong>, directed by Katja Rivera; Significant People <\/em>by Amy Sass<\/strong>, directed by Steven Anthony Jones; My Better Half<\/em> by Jonathan Spector<\/strong>, directed by Michael French; Symmetrical Smack-Down<\/em> by William Bivins<\/strong>, directed by Jim Kleinmann.<\/p>\n

Ensemble: Will Dao, Anne Darragh*, Dodds Delzell*, Carla Pantoja*, Rebecca Pingree, Jomar Tagatac*; June Palladino*, Stage Manager.<\/p>\n

The plays for this year\u2019s outing is a tight 85 minute without intermission with the eight member ensemble playing all 23 roles doubling as stage hands for minimal scenery changes with nary a hitch. They begin with the bitter-sweet The Spherical Loneliness of Beverly Onion<\/em> a fanciful modern version of the ancient concept that our lives are controlled by higher Beings. Beverly Onion\u2019s ( Carla Pantoja)life as a single lonely mortician\u2019s assistant is being debated Fate (Jomar Tagatac) Luck (Anne Darragh). The theological\/philosophical debate by Fate and Luck about life as a sphere leads to Beverly being introduced to a series of males (Will Dao). As \u2018luck\u2019 would have it the consequences are not what Beverly likes and she rebels against the forces\/intrusion of Fate and Luck returning to the humdrum existence of her choice.<\/p>\n

Simple and Elegant<\/em> has a mystical flair that races to a ending, but not a conclusion, in a short 7 minutes.\u00a0 Fisherman (Dodds Delzell) has two daughters\u00a0 Simple (Rebecca Pingre) and Elegant (Carla Pantoja). The sister\u2019s catch a magical fish and discovery a gold coin in its innards. Greed invades the scene leading to a death. Everyone knows that wealth\/greed cannot \u2018buy\u2019 happiness. Repentance prevails and our mystical fish returns to the sea.<\/p>\n

Value Over Replacement <\/em>brings us back to reality and controversy of the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports. It is a tightly written script that has a surprise ending with semi-justification for their use. Jomar Tagatac as \u201cChip\u201d Fuller who has succumbed to the temptation of their use gives a stirring semi-justification for doing so.<\/p>\n

Significant People <\/em>is a two hander with overtones of the battle of the sexes. A male (Dodds Delzell) and female ((Anne Darragh) Docent take us on a tour of the home of a deceased \u2018significant person\u2019 that is now a tourist attraction. Bickering takes place with each insinuating the male and female interpretation into the patter. One wonders \u201cFor what purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final two offerings allow the evening to end with a hoot and a holler. Consider the macabrely charming concept that there are organizations that specialize in resolving male vs. female partnership issues including fulfilling a contract for murder. That is the premise of My Better Half<\/em> . So it is with Anne (Rebecca Pingree) who wishes to \u2018do in\u2019 her significant other Dave ((Will Dao). Charles (Jomar Tagatac)\u00a0 cons her into giving more time to consoling.\u00a0 That brings in counselor Marilyn (Anne Darragh) who has her own agenda and poor Anna gets shafted.\u00a0 Beware of what you wish for??<\/p>\n

Symmetrical Smack-Down<\/em> wins the brass ring and is ready for a trip to the Ten-Minute play writing contest offered by the Humana New American Play Festival in Louisville. Everyone knows that professional wrestling is theatre and make-believe. What happens if it becomes real? Take that question and add a Lesbian couple who play the \u2018what-if-make-believe game\u2019 about breaking up and the women are daughters of the wrestlers. Of course the wrestlers take sides. William Bevins is extremely clever in his use of dialog and director Jim Kleinmann moves the characters around the ring adroitly. Did I mention that all the action takes place inside a wrestling ring? It does and costumes for wrestler Napalm (Jomar Tagatac) and El Chupacabro (Dodds Delzell) are hilarious.<\/p>\n

The audience filed out of the intimate Thick House Theatre with satisfied chuckles.<\/p>\n

Kedar K. Adour, MD<\/p>\n

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetrmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEST OF PLAYGROUND 17, featuring a fully-produced evening-length program of the best short plays by the Bay Area\u2019s best new playwrights. Thick House, 1695 18th street, San Francisco. For more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-kedar-k-adour"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"