Theater in Focus
Ice Factory 2005 Festival
by Soho Think Tank
Ohio Theater
Soho Think Tank presents their annual summer festival of new work by emerging and established downtown companies, as well as international groups. This year’s productions include Fathom by Sabooge Theatre, The Medead by Fiona Templeton, the Riot Group’s Switch Triptych by Adriano Shaplin, Psyche by Favored Nations Theatre, directed by SITI founder Leon Ingulrud, and Major Bang by the Foundry Theater. The festival concludes with an expressionistic production of Racine’s Andromaque, dubbed In a Hall in the Palace of Pyrrhus by Witness Relocation Company. STT prides itself on the aesthetic diversity of the work presented, and a standard of intelligent, imaginative theater.
Lennon
by Don Scardino
Broadhurst Theater
Director-book writer Don Scardino tells the story of John Lennon’s life using the man’s own words and 27 of his songs. An ensemble of nine performers and a ten-piece onstage band guide the audience through the eras Lennon and the Beatles helped to shape. Out of the nearly 200 songs to choose from, the musical includes ‘Imagine,’ ‘Instant Karma,’ ‘Give Peace a Chance,’ ‘(Just Like) Starting Over,’ and ‘Whatever Gets You Through the Night,’ among others. Using slide and film projections, Lennon is a visually stunning search for the real John Lennon.
The Gut Girls
by Sarah Daniels
The Chocolate Factory
The “gut girls” of England, circa 1900, are rowdy, boisterous, have mouths like sailors and are as strong as the oxen they gut. In the evenings they are their own women, financially independent to a degree rare for young working-class women in Edwardian England. Enter Lady Helena, an aristocrat on a mission to teach the girls some manners. The result is a total surrender of their independence, spirit and way of life. Presented by Flying Fig Theater, who through non-traditional casting and unconventional performance spaces produce compelling stories about social conventions surrounding women’s lives.
Pulling Teeth
by Brandon Koebernick
American Place Theatre
Pulling Teeth is a dark comedy in which Seth and Katie love God, oatmeal cookies, and each other. The only blight on their model Christian lifestyle is when Seth brings his work home. After Bible study, Katie cooks Seth’s dinner while Seth removes the identifiable body parts of his latest “job.” When a botched job comes back to haunt him, Seth and Katie have to decide what, if anything, can make them directly participate in something they know is very, very wrong.
Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls
by Naomi Iizuka
Victory Hall
Tattoos, grass skirts, beer — what more do you need? Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls takes a wildly imaginative look at how people enter and leave each other’s lives. Crossing paths and sometimes colliding, a cast of waylaid strangers and friends struggle to evolve into grown-up versions of themselves. This Management Company production is a fantastical picaresque featuring a komodo dragon, hula dancer, Incan mummy, many piñatas, and one wild dog.
