New One-Acts hit and miss

The Barnstormers' Freshmen One-Acts are an annual delight for theater groupies and News-Letter critics because they represent the first opportunity to scope out new talent at Hopkins. Featuring an entirely freshmen cast starring in six short plays, the One-Acts are often a reliable predictor of the quality that can be expected from the rest of the Barnstormers' productions for the year.

While last weekend's One-Acts produced a few diamonds in the rough, they left this critic a bit nervous about the season to come. To be fair, many of the possible complaints have more to do with the particular plays selected rather with the actors.

The show opened with the first of three plays by David Ives, a perennial Barnstormers favorite. Herein lies the first problem. While Ives' witty banter and quirky sensibilities are probably a blast to read, and while one of his short plays is usually entertaining, three performances in one night becomes horribly tedious. Although his plots vary wildly, the dialogue always bears his unmistakable signature-simple, punctuated and rapid conversations in which the characters speak at each other rather than to each other.

Thankfully, the first piece by Ives still managed to simulate natural conversation by including some well-timed pauses and wonderful physical acting. The first, Sure Thing, directed by Ishai Mooreville, was particularly clever. This boy-meets-girl play unfolds like a choose-your-own-adventure novel - Bill (Adar Eisenbruch) and Betty (Rebecca Messner) demonstrate the many false paths on the road to true love with the help of a bell that alerts them of any wrong turns. It's a comical look at just how much we're willing to change to impress that special someone.

Kudos to Eisenbruch and Messner for memorizing such a fast-paced and repetitive script. This particular play reflected the strength of its director, as the actors found the perfect facial expressions and intonations to capture the dialogue. The pacing was also right on target. While the female role was relatively small, Eisenbruch was able to showcase his considerable talent, especially after he relaxed a couple of minutes into the show.

The night's highlight was a shortened adaptation of David Mamet's The Duck Variations, directed by Ben Kingsland. Mamet, a formidably talented playwright of both comedy and drama (including Oleanna, captured impressively by the Barnstormers in 2003). This plotless play, which blends philosophy and banter as two old men shoot the breeze on a park bench, requires two gifted actors to maintain its momentum. Aaron Martel and Ned McCague were more than up for the challenge - they played off of each other beautifully and elicited nonstop laughter from the audience. McCague's hilarious facial expressions and curmudgeonly mannerisms stole the show; he is my pick to watch in the coming season.

The second Ives piece of the evening, Soap Opera, was over the top and obnoxious, replete with corny one-liners. It chronicles the life of the "Maypol" repairman (Patrick Connell), who is infatuated with his pristine, perfect washing machine (Justine Wiesinger). Directors Josh Chaffee and Julia Tracey must have encouraged their actors to be as melodramatic as possible, leading to a lot of unimpressive overacting. It would be interesting to see Connell in a more subtle role in the future. Also, Mitch Frank, who played a few smaller roles, showed some promise. For the most part, however, this was, as Ives might say, a "washed out" performance.

After intermission, the fourth one act had great potential. Written by Garrison Keillor, The Midlife Crisis of Dionysus is based on a winning premise: the god of wine and debauchery, son of a god and a mortal, deals with the frustrations of turning fifty. Under the direction of hilarious duo Ted Esborn and Leigh Leiberman, it should have been a hit. Instead, it was for the most part mediocre, enlivened primarily by an unintentional gaffe in the Saturday evening performance - let's just say that one actor got a little more exposure than he'd expected.

Mediocre took a turn for the worse in the third and final play by Ives, Arabian Nights, directed by Kate Heffernan and Amy Hellman. It's a short piece in which an interpreter (Will Chang) serves as a crafty middleman in a conversation between Flora (Jasmine Serlemitsos) and Norman (Raffy Wartanian). It seemed as though the actors never stopped to breathe, sacrificing physical expression, intonation and nuanced pauses in favor of a mad dash sprint through the dialogue. Most of the audience had a hard time keeping up the pace, and a lot of the humor was consequently lost in translation.

By the final play of the evening, I was beginning to wish I had left after intermission. Luckily, Tom Stoppard's 15 Minute Hamlet was worth staying for. In this case, the title is self-explanatory, which means that at least a basic familiarity with Hamlet was essential to the humor. For those who got the joke, though, it was hilarious. Director Dave Fishman and his high-energy cast (Janice Hayward, Liz Eldridge, Julie Sihilling, Michelle Brown and Sung-Hwan Chung) made sure the one acts ended on a high note. Especially impressive were Eldridge, a talented physical actress with a strong stage presence, and Sihilling, whose low raspy voice is absolutely bewitching in iambic pentameter. I hope she'll return for some real Shakespeare in the Spring Fair studio show.

The Barnstormers next production will be the fall mainstage, Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, which will be play Oct. 29-31 and Nov. 5-7 at the Swirnow.