Family Symmetry

Family Symmetry has a promising premise, but a predictable plot.

Reviewed by Nicole C. Lee

Family Symmetry focuses on Allen, a man who was once hospitalized for his obsessive compulsive disorder and is now learning to readjust to life with his wife. Leo Goodman delivers a standout performance: his obsessive mannerisms and deliberate, repetitive behavior feel real and natural. The show, however, does not.

The plot is incredibly predictable and the connection between characters is feigned. Sometimes, it’s even pushed to the point of awkwardness. For example, Allen’s wife, Suzie, tells him that she believes his condition is worsening. Tension builds as Allen vehemently denies switching two picture frames, and he soon screams at her, uttering profanities and flailing his arms as if to strangle her. But moments later, the two are embracing in what is clearly a staged hug. Abrupt transitions like these destroy the show’s emotional logic.

The choppy writing only makes things worse. Suzie’s best friend, Linda (Lisa Pettersson), shows up to complain about being single, and after a few stares, Linda passionately kisses her. The moment’s predictable not because it’s logical, but because the actors telegraph their anticipation for one another’s lines and actions. The scenes may be short, but these awkward moments and poor transitions make Family Symmetry a drag.

Even the play’s big twist is pretty obvious, given all of Suzie’s blatant moments of foreshadowing. She goes from being fully in love to being totally suspicious, and after an “accident” occurs, it’s not hard to guess where Suzie’s choice to “hide” her pregnancy from Allen is going to lead. It’s still a stretch, though, and the boring conclusion shows little understanding of the subject matter: families coping with OCD.

It doesn’t help that Adam Samtur is both playwright and director: the actors are left with few choices (and so deliver poor performances), and the unimaginative blackouts between scenes leave the audience with little other to focus on beyond the plot. (Not to mention the numerous pointless costume changes, many of which occur on stage, delaying dialogue and movement between scenes.)

Overall, Family Symmetry is by no means a bad show, but it lacks the coherence and strong performances necessary to make a sloppily written show look good.


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Family Symmetry (80 minutes, no intermission), part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival
Jewel Box Theater (312 W 36th Street, 4th floor)
Tickets (http://ovationtix.com): $18
Performances: concluded August 1

EXPOSED! The Curious Case of Shiloh and Zahara

Kate Gersten confronts America’s obsession with the lives of celebrities in “EXPOSED! The Curious Case of Shiloh and Zahara.”



Reviewed by Nicole C. Lee


Did you know that German scientists are conducting experiments to determine what fills the heart of the average American? At least, they are in Kate Gersten’s comedy, EXPOSED! The Curious Case of Shiloh and Zahara. By setting the play in 2029, she’s able to take fair shots at Shiloh and Zahara—the biological and adoptive daughters, respectively, of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. She’s also really able to slam pop culture, much to our grin.

The play opens with Shiloh (Gersten) hiding out in her and Zahara’s LA apartment. After being vilified for fighting with Suri Cruise (you know, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), she’s stayed off everyone’s radar. For three years, she’s been practicing yoga with an automated yoga-bot and providing stock-market tips to delivery boys. Meanwhile, Zahara (Kelly McCreary) has been coping with an identity crisis, experimenting with various activities and participating in group therapy. She used to be a heroin addict, experienced a “Whoopi Goldberg” phase, and currently participates in social protests, believing she is destined to be a strong black leader.

You’ll be laughing, but surprisingly not always at the two main characters. Shiloh is depicted as a carefree, bubbly airhead, but we understand that she has suffered from years of living under the media’s microscope. We equally empathize with Zahara, who is trying to establish herself as someone other than the adoptive African daughter of her famous parents. And while the comical moments in the show are often ridiculous—the end culminates in a Mortal Kombat-like battle—the show maintains a serious undertone about the future of celebrity children.

At one point, EXPOSED! is outright profound: Shiloh stands center stage during a dream sequence and confronts the audience about its obsession with her and other celebrities’ lives. “What’s wrong with you people?” she asks, “Why do you care so much about people you don’t know?” As simple as the question is, it forces us to reflect on the nature of celebrity and our fixation with it. Perhaps we enjoy musing over the goings-on of people like Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, and Paris Hilton because they lead more fascinating lives than we do. Or perhaps it is because—as one of the crazy “fans” in the show states—it brings us comfort to know that their lives are worse than ours.

Gersten takes creative liberties with a wide variety of pop culture, but earns those laughs: Tom Cruise, famous for his membership in the Church of Scientology, is a Devil’s Ambassador with super powers; Blanket Jackson, son of the late and often reclusive Michael Jackson, visits Shiloh; and Lindsay Lohan has died twice. Overall, EXPOSED! is an entertaining and hilarious show, even if the greater socio-cultural implications are ignored.



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EXPOSED! The Curious Case of Shiloh and Zahara (90 minutes, no intermission), part of Midtown International Theatre Festival
Mainstage Theater (312 West 36th Street, 4th floor)
Tickets (http://ovationtix.com): $18
Performances: concluded July 30

FaceSpace

Talia Gonzalez and Bisanne Masoud confront society’s growing reliance and obsession with social networking websites in FaceSpace. This clever and comedic play posits the question: what if the conniving creator of your social networking website could give you bad advice?



Reviewed by Nicole C. Lee

When the Internet first became available to the average Jane and Joe, the “it” thing was to get an email address. Soon people began claiming their own websites and web pages, filling it with personal content. Now, anyone who is anyone has a MySpace or Facebook account, just two of the many social networking websites occupying our time. For those unfamiliar with this phenomenon, the concept is simple: Facebook and MySpace accounts link you to your friends. The numerous features and applications attached to these websites however, is what make them popular and, therefore, addictive. Talia Gonazalez and Bisanne Masoud confront this latest tech fad’s popularity in FaceSpace. The play follows Simon (Mike Carlsen) and Anne (Lindsay Ryan), two everyday people who are avid users of FaceSpace (the play’s fictional social networking website). The creator of FaceSpace is Tom, who begins the show by addressing the audience and introducing us to Simon and Anne’s FaceSpace profiles.

Tom (Jon Levenson) is the personification of FaceSpace. Visible only to the audience and main characters, he advises – or more accurately taunts, teases, and criticizes – Simon and Anne. He advises Simon to hook up with various girls whose relationship statuses suddenly change to ‘single’. He whines when Anne fails to log in to her account daily, or as often as he would like. Tom also advises Anne, who’s profile is bare, to lie and fabricate details of her life to attract Simon. In an Iago-like fashion, Tom successfully persuades Simon and Anne to make unwise decisions that inevitably lead to complications in their lives. Once this happens, Simon and Anne decide to ignore Tom’s guidance and delete their FaceSpace profiles, leaving Tom feeling lost without them.

The production requires minimal props and is simple in set design; a white screen covers the back wall of the stage on which the characters’ FaceSpace profiles are projected. The lighting design by Jana Mattioli assists in separating Simon’s storyline from Anne’s. Jon Levenson is chameleonic as Tom, presenting himself as a macho, sexist persona to Simon and then as a bubbly, carefree airhead to Anne.

Though FaceSpace is wonderfully comedic, quick-paced and contemporary, it also possesses a more serious undertone: the ever-changing and ever-growing power of technology in our lives. The breaking of the fourth wall by Tom at the beginning of the play essentially involves the audience in the story, and the story is not as far-fetched as one might think. As of yet, social networking websites do not rule our lives by providing horrible life and dating advice. For those who spend countless hours logged into their account however, is this scenario that far off? To what extent moreover, do such technological inventions go from enhancing our lives to ruling them? The bottom line with FaceSpace: don’t just sit at the computer posting things about your life, go live them!

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FaceSpace (90 minutes, no intermission), part of Midtown International Theatre Festival
MainStage Theater (312 West 36th Street, 4th floor)
Tickets (http://ovationtix.com): $18
Performances: through August 1

MITF: Interning

Summer interns scrap and snarl in this reality-show farce.

BY ELLEN WERNECKE

There’s no question that reality TV has perverted the traditional sense of what it means to be an intern. It may surprise regular viewers that interns don’t typically get sent to Paris, and they usually aren’t forced to play camp games with their fellow free laborers to test their teamwork skills. So the scenario envisioned by the new play “Interning” is hardly outlandish: Why wouldn’t a 21st-century intern suspect that an indentured summer assembling gift bags and brainstorming for a PR giant is secretly being filmed and thus her entrée to stardom in our time?

That’s Alisha (Jenna Pace), a former Miss New Jersey and one of four summer interns working for the slimy Ron Olden (Ryan Andes). Joining her is a wannabe actress (Kristen Howard), the gayest straight man around (Anderson Lim) and London everygirl Marta (Nadia Owusu, who also wrote the play), who lounge around in their holding room waiting for their boss to page them a la “Charlie’s Angels.” But Alisha’s conviction that there’s a hidden camera causes her to act in ways that would be perfectly acceptable on reality TV and absurdly improper in life. Even the calming influence of Carl Bella Carmichael (Michael Galyon), Ron’s assistant and an acting legacy in his own right who claims not to use his family connections at all, can’t constrain her desperation to win.

Owusu’s script takes too long to unwind, but once it gets going the comedic performances prove capable of holding it aloft. The blocking helps: Director Rye Mullis uses a pen of chairs to strand the interns on center stage for most of the show, making their own tension contagious. Lim’s play on stereotype as a man who's gay and doesn't know it is pretty tired, but Andes’ take on the creepy boss is surprisingly original in the sneering way he presides over his clueless underlings. And Galyon’s monologues paired with a thousand-yard stare steal the show.


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“Interning,” part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival, runs through August 3 at Where Eagles Dare (347 W.36th St.). For more information, visit Midtownfestival.org