Philadelphia Inquirer
Friday, July 14, 2006

Mini-plays tend to be short on merit

By Toby Zinman For The Inquirer

It's festival season, so excess is the name of the game. In the spirit of can-you-top-this, the Spark Showcase Festival offers 10 plays in one evening - to be followed by 10 more next week. Each one is 10 minutes long; each is staged with admirable simplicity and speedy scene changes, and the evening zips along.

Here's the lineup:
The Cruel Sister. John Rea's adaptation of an old ghost story features more than 20 young people with weird makeup and flashlights singing about two sisters, one sweet, one mean. MacGuffin Theater & Film Company's production is like a very good summer camp show - it helps to be related to the performers.
Kitchen Drama. The Brick Playhouse does G.O.T. - guaranteed overnight theatre, shows created in 24 hours. (What's the rush?) In this one, written by Steve Lippe, a couple in Brooklyn argues, about what I couldn't tell you, and an adorable baby steals the show.

3x3+1. As if 10 plays in an evening weren't enough, B. Someday Productions offers three plays in its 10-minute slot, with time left over for an introduction. These are parodies of Macbeth, Moby-Dick, and A Streetcar Named Desire, a la The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged), but without the wit or skill.

Catastrophe. The Samuel Beckett play, presented by the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, seems incongruous in a program of silly pieces.

Squisho-Ball in Heaven. Angela S. Zuck's piece, presented by Simpatico Theatre Project, is a tedious exchange between a brother and an obsessively worrying sister about her son.

Killer Pussy. Tapestry Theatre, a feminist collective, works with a noun provided by the audience - cat, the night I attended; two talented actors improvised a funny story, which eventually lost both its plot and its momentum.

Naked Lunch. Theatre Exile presents a play by well-known local playwright Michael Hollinger (a man not frequently confused with William Burroughs, who wrote the original Naked Lunch). A meat-eating guy with serious control issues discovers that his ex-girlfriend has turned vegetarian, and the reconciliation meal turns creepy.

Heavy Metal Dance Fag Part 2. Tribe of Fools presents Terry Brennan's piece. It has real possibilities and some funny moments as a dancing hoodlum simultaneously woos and rejects his tough girlfriend. The audience knew when it was over and applauded - but then the show continued. (Take a hint, guys.)
Carnality. Mark Lowenstern's work is yet another not very interesting steak-and-reconciliation meal, this one presented by EgoPo Productions. What's up with this throwback theme to the caveman carnivore?
Therapy Session. John Stanton uses the psychiatry cliche of the doctor's being crazier than the patient. Presented by Madhouse Theatre Company.

The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia has organized this festival to give audiences a sampling of small theater companies they might want to follow in the season to come. But because the pieces are so short, everyone has to try too hard for effect, and the result is generally disappointing. Brevity, it turns out, is not always the soul of wit.

Week one of the Spark Showcase Festival runs through Sunday; week two will be Tuesday through July 23. At Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St. Tickets: $10~$25. Information: 215-413-7150 or www.theatrealliance.org.

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