The Comic Book Theater Festival: Week One
Review
Comic books and theatre are like chocolate and potato chips: once together, you can never imagine them having ever been apart. God bless whatever happy accident gave birth to that perfect hybrid of salty-sweet superiority. Sure, sometimes chocolate and chips can go wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Like, if some very talented people drizzled Hershey’s syrup into a bag of Doritos. That would be wrong. That would be a waste of chocolate and chips. That would never be delicious, no matter how many millions of dollars it cost to make (cough, Spiderman, cough).
For the most part, though, the two art forms compliment each other nicely. Kill Shakespeare has been running for a year! New York’s very own Vampire Cowboys is in its ninth season! And now the Brick Theater in Brooklyn is hosting its first annual Comic Book Theatre festival. Yay, art!
I saw a few of the shows that will playing at The Brick over the next month. Here’s what I thought of them…
Five Things (A Webcomic in 3-D)
Written by Jillian Tully
Directed by Amy Overman
After a night of drinks with an off-duty drag queen (as one does), our heroine, aptly called The Girl (Sarah Eliana Bisman) meets our other heroine, a hyper-intelligent cat named Rhubarb (Jillian Tully, also the show’s creator). Over the course of a year the two struggle to cohabitate and communicate while pursuing their individual dreams. Hilarity, love, and tap dance solos ensue.
Five Things is like Calvin & Hobbes as told by Juno with Scott Pilgrim throwing in running commentary. I mean that in the best possible sense. It’s a quirky, sweet-natured show about unlikely friendship and creative courage. The main characters are ones we can empathize with and root for. They are nerdy, intelligent, and extremely likable. We want to see Rhuby create the set of opposable thumbs she longs for. We want The Girl to rock her awesome songs on the ukulele to her heart’s content (sample lyric: “Nathan Fillion, you’re killing me/We like you on Castle, we love you on Serenity”). In short, we want the heroines of Five Things to succeed because we are just like them. Their dreams are our dreams. And I want that Nathan Fillion song on my iPod.
All I Want Is One More Meanwhile
Written by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons
Directed by Ivanna Cullinan
Meanwhile, at the same theater later that evening, another show written and directed by women kicked just as much ass while covering broader subject matter.
Perfectra (Elizabeth A. Bell) was engineered to be the ideal woman (and her creator’s prom date). She escaped her Pygmalion and took up a life of crime-fighting…until unforeseen circumstances pushed Perfectra into choosing a civilian life. Twenty years later, Perfectra (now “Jane”) is yearning for the days when she could still fit into her thigh-high boots and waiting for her work-a-holic daughter, Adara (Megan McGowan) to return her calls. Meanwhile, a new super villain (Aaron Simms) and new superhero (Ryan Castro) have emerged on the scene. Who are these men? Why is one targetting Adara? How does the other always manage to save her? And why hasn’t Adara called her mother, for Christ’s sake?
One More Meanwhile could easily translate into a great comic book. The heroines are complex enough to be engaging, but their flaws do not overwhelm their characters. Jane is vain, but certainly not shallow. Adara is strong-willed without being obnoxious. Author Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons clearly has much affection for her characters as well as a keen eye for the superhero genre. She does a slick job exploring well-known superhero tropes and subverting them. Old nemeses can become comfortable friends, the athletic alpha-male might sometimes need rescuing, and even the damsel in distress love interest is not what she seems.
What I like most about this play is the sly way in which it challenges cultural concepts of modern femininity. Sometimes it seems like the whole world wants women to just be perfect, but what does that mean? What are the costs of that perfection? One More Meanwhile has the stones to ask those questions and I freaking love it for that.
And now for something completely different…
Funnybook/Tragicbook
Written by Adam McGovern
Directed by Ian W. Hill
If you like laughing your ass off and then having your mind screwed, Funnybook/Tragicbook is the ideal evening for you.
This double bill features two vastly different stories written by indie comic author Adam McGovern. In the Funnybook section, an earnest ensemble of student actors perform a “reader’s theatre” staging of the ludicrously awesome (and sadly nonexistent) epic “Norrga The Thunderer.” The second half, “Underworld” is the dark, surreal tale of a psychoanalyst facing off with one of history’s greatest monsters. Both features make the most out of an incredibly talented cast and gorgeous retro-style artwork by Stefano Pavan, Mirko Benotto, and Giuseppe Palumbo.
“Norrga” is a hoot. Anyone familiar with the Silver Age of comics will cackle knowingly. The cast tears into the insane plot (a thinly-veiled parody of Thor) with gusto, and their sincerity makes it all the more hilarious. If you are the kind of person who finds Viking helmets alone hysterical, you will get a kick out of “Norrga”.
I also want to point out that the character of comic book creator Stu Riley is nothing like Stan Lee. You see, Stan says “Excelsior!” while Stu says “Avanti!” You see? Totally different.
The second tale, “Underworld” is a sharp left turn in tone. Black-and-white illustrations fill up the stage while an unseen actor (Ian W. Hill) unspools a haunting narration. “Underworld” deserves your full attention, something I struggled with after a full day of play-viewing. Even so, it is an impressive piece of theatre.
If you’re in the New York area, check out these and other shows. The festival runs through July 1st, and you can find a full schedule and ticket information on The Brick’s website. Enjoy some theatre, unfalse devotees! Avanti!
Amanda LaPergola tweets @LaPergs.
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