The Garden Party

defunkt theatre
April 25 - May 31, 2008

Review by peanutduck

Characters fluent in ridiculous cliché, doublespeak language of oppressors. Remove framework, add human self-reflection, yearning, and enjoy befuddlement. While cast euphemizes trippingly, few ably activate, explore text’s dynamics and story (there is one), which is why Moore’s Falk, an engaging, fully-realized man destroyed by the bureaucratic hell-machine, is doubly refreshing.

The Communist Dracula Pageant

defunkt theatre
January 11 - February 16, 2008

Review by peanutduck

Absurd, sardonic, black comedy with on-target comic timing, tightly choreographed ensemble scenes, delightful indulgence in fanged Dracula, and, as promised, employs bad accents and teddy bear moment. Energy lost during character-driven courtroom drama; intentions behind tableaus unclear. Spare set design, smart lighting make Back Door seem spacious. Enjoy the fangs.

The Lesser Magoo

Photo: Yolanda Suarez

defunkt theatre
September 20, 2007; closes October 13, 2007

There’s out there. There’s way out there. And then there’s defunkt. The fourth and final installment in Wellman’s crowtet gets a gorgeously composed and textured production here. defunkt thrives on the non-linear, the unexpected, the downright askew. And thank goodness for that. They are unusualists. Moorman particularly magnetic, then disappears!

In Apparati

defunkt theatre
Posted by Followspot May 13, 2007; closes May 26, 2007

Uneasy spookiness rode ripples of revelation among otherwise deep, still waters of such tranquil, dozy tone that metaphors sometimes floated untethered to storyline. Elaborate ambient sound design of Jen Raynak, composition by Elias Foley. Introduction of video stimulating, but curious how such surveillance could be further integrated, less scenery substitute.

The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek

defunkt theatre
Posted by Frenchglen January 11, 2007; closes February 10, 2007

Slow, dolorous tale of teenage yearning set amidst great depression of FDR era. Despite wonderfully weird moments with two kids under a bridge, overall vaguely incoherent and off key. Visual compositions and physicality dwarf play’s bland language. Several scarcely audible speeches delivered with back-to-audience hard to follow. Strong: Naomi Mos.

Secondhand Smoke

defunkt theatre
September 15, 2006; closes October 14, 2006

Wellman’s back — huffing, puffing, more confounding than ever. There’s abstraction I get; abstraction I don’t, but enjoy; impenetrable abstraction that’s alienating — and Smoke encircles all three. Interesting is how/what value gets shared through such unexplained, un-understood experience. Time’ll tell if/when this nags my memory like first two Crowtet parts have.

Rest Room and It Goes: You Me You Me You Me You Me

Site-specific offerings at Just Add Water/West
July 22, 2006

In Many Hats’ Rest Room, movement, music and monologues drew us into a particularly public/private space, literally/figuratively, where we saw new facets of three characters (and actors). It Goes… playfully volleyed several dramatists up-and-down stairs, in-and-out doors and around corners, proving that the defunkt performers never take themselves too seriously.

What I love about site-specific work is how new constructs spur new thinking. As much as a traditional theater’s stage is a tabula rasa, it can also be the path of least resistance. Shaping plays for women’s lavatory or stairwell invites re-thinking of connection, distance, dialogue between artist and audience.

Like I Say

defunkt theatre/Theatre Vertigo
April 20, 2006; closes May 13, 2006

Oh, that more theatre would be such a tangle of imagination as this! Adored drifter script; everything puppet; unsurprisingly charming Vertifunkians who gave themselves over to such idiosyncratic sincerity. Less successful: Splendide’s difficult-to-stage languidness; initially mothy tempo; occasionally fuzzy focal points; disobliging design elements. Long; payoff comes in second act.

Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights

defunkt theatre
January 20, 2006; closes February 18, 2006

Defunkt created a seditious environment inebriated in an atmosphere of words. Excellent use of immersive space: arena provided depth to accomplish oblique script, occasionally punctuated by breaking fourth wall, though harder edge might’ve revealed more. Notable: Amaya Villazan’s convincing Marguerite-Ida-and-Helena-Annabel; Matt Marble’s disquieting sound design; Lori Sue Hoffman’s idiosyncratic costumes.

The Hyacinth Macaw

defunkt theatre
September 16, 2005; closes October 22, 2005

Occasionally ambient, largely indecipherable. More poetry than theatre. All those words and so little spoke to me, intellectually or emotionally. Wellman’s acquired taste, I know, but the only thing I felt was drowsy, even as delicate execution of Kenya DuBois’ subtle sound design creeped lithely in and out of consciousness.

Fourteen Hundred Thousand and Mud

defunkt theatre
June 4, 2005; closes June 25, 2005

What’s it mean again when ¾ of play is directed to face upstage, everyone speaking 1,400,000 speeches with little emotion or connection? Hammering hurt my head. Mud was curious, disturbing; moments of revelation, transformation; tiring scene-change schema. Bill Tripp’s excellent set floated like an orange island on a blue horizon.

Killing Game

Defunkt Theatre
February 3, 2005

Defunkt’s innate, vital immediacy carried well in small theatre space, but Ionesco’s long, monotonous orations, quasi-dialogues and dozens of deaths were delivered with only a few moments of thoughtfulness. Perhaps conveyed too real, too straight? More attention to pitch, pace and script-trimming may have helped relay the absurdity. Effective set.

A Murder of Crows

Defunkt Theatre
September 11, 2004

Intriguing, black-hearted, sometimes obtuse unraveling of the current “destructive spirit” of American values and ostracization of those who don’t fit modern political polarity—like author Mac Wellman’s people in the wrong play. Ragged, provocative and well-inhabited, with some truly exciting theatrical moments that stop abruptly short, leaving much to ponder.