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THE ARTS THEATRE
‘Long’ Haul
Delivering the goods on the 2012 FronteraFest Long Fringe
loaded up on performances and have brought back its impressions of seven of this year’s 17
shows for your edification. Dates and times for the remaining performances of each production
follow the reviews. Shows are performed at either Salvage Vanguard Theater
(2803 Manor Rd.) or the Blue Theatre (916 Springdale). Ticket prices vary. For more information
and the full schedule, visit www.hydeparktheatre.org. – Robert Faires
‘Don’t Go in the House’
Sometimes the best theatre isn’t very,
well, theatre-y. No dance numbers, no special
effects, no cast of costumed characters
invigorating a painstakingly constructed
set. Maybe nothing more than a bit of
audio-visual enhancement providing context
for a single actor speaking on a plain
stage. Problem is, the written material
that’s spoken – the script – has to be pretty
damned good to succeed in such a minimal
environment. Which is why the Dirigo
Group’s Don’t Go in the House succeeds:
not much more enjoyable writing on an
Austin stage, ever, than a series of insightful,
pop-culture-infused monologues by
Lowell Bartholomee. From the snarky comedy
of “Fear Itself,” an over-the-top homesecurity
sales pitch performed by the playwright,
to “Dawn of the Drowsy,” a look at
the job-hunting travails of an apocalypseobsessed
woman portrayed by Ellie
McBride, to the childhood-memoir-cumfilm-critique
“They’re Coming To Get
You!,” brought wonderfully to life by
Robert S. Fisher, this show packs a triple
megaton of power and cleverness into its
existence. The only thing that could make
it better, perhaps, is if the middle of the
show featured a brief, palate-cleansing
break from the Bartholomeeness – Dan
Dietz’s short and unsettling Heideman
Award-winner called “Lobster Boy,” say,
given perfect voice by the Chronicle’s own
Robert Faires. Oh, look, you lucky theatregoer:
It does. – Wayne Alan Brenner
Thursday, Feb. 2, 8:30pm, Salvage Vanguard Theater.
Running time: 1 hr., 15 min.
24 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E FEBRUARY 3, 2012 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m
Annie
La Ganga
‘Drawing a Paycheck’
Annie La Ganga always knows what I
need. I show up to review Drawing a
Paycheck without a pen and hallelujah,
Annie has carefully rubber-banded stubby
pencils to the programs, which ask silly
questions about arts & crafts and terrible
business ideas.
Drawing a Paycheck is La Ganga’s ode to
the creative, multitalented Austinites who
have hit middle age and still don’t know
how they’re going to earn a living when
they grow up. But the show is also a psychological
experiment of sorts. By fusing her
idiosyncratic improvisational storytelling
with visual art, La Ganga hopes to transform
her turbulent relationship with making
money.
The self-designated “craft hag” reflects
on two decades of a misguided “You can sell
that!” art business model, sharing her failures
and successes with characteristic exuberance.
As she talks, La Ganga draws portraits
of audience members and has us draw
one another. “I wanted to show off,” she
giggles. “I’m a real artist!” I must admit
that La Ganga’s pretty good with a pencil.
I secretly hope La Ganga never gets a real
job with a paycheck. I hope she keeps doing
what she’s doing because it is a joy to watch
an artist transfixed by the beauty in
this world. – Jillian Owens
Thursday, Feb. 2, 8:45pm, Blue Theatre. Running time:
1 hr., 30 min.
C O U R T E S Y O F L O W E L L B A R T H O L O M E E During the first week of the 2012 FronteraFest Long Fringe, the Chronicle Arts team
B R E T B R O O K S H I R E
‘Akimbo Bubble
Scuttle Ruckus’
The latest project that improv group Da
Foundry has forged is exactly what it
sounds like: a nonsensical, irrelevant hullabaloo.
In Akimbo Bubble Scuttle Ruckus,
playwright Topping Haggerty strings
together a mess of short sketches that, as
we learn in the end, are all strangely linked.
But you’ll have to see the show to learn how
Haggerty and her co-directors Susannah
Raulino and Brandon Paul Salinas connect
zombies in rehab, an equivocating evil villain,
a woman out to dinner with 47 dates,
and an American who aspires to become a
Brit, among other oddball characters.
Though the spirited ensemble had energy
to spare, some of the sketches fell flat, perhaps
a consequence of a small Sunday evening
house. Still, after the performance I
found myself standing in mental akimbo –
that is, with hands on hips – trying to make
heads or tails of the fairly uninspiring ruckus
I’d just seen.
That’s not to say that Akimbo Bubble
didn’t have its moments – there were glimmers
of hilarity, particularly a sketch in
which a horde of aggressive puppets murder
their human handlers. I think perhaps,
as David Rosenbaum crooned in the final
scene, I just wasn’t drunk enough to get it.
– J.O.
Saturday, Feb. 4, 1pm; Sunday, Feb 5, 3pm, Salvage
Vanguard Theater. Running time: 1 hr.
‘Southern Fried Chickie’
Larry the Cable Guy has met his
match in a busty, blond Tupelo,
Mississippi, princess. In her entertaining
one-woman show Southern Fried
Chickie, Christy McBrayer proves that
she’s become everything her daddy
wanted her to be: a strong, beautiful
woman who knows as much as any
man and can still drink him under the
table. She’s even got the unholy white
trash – excuse me, debris blanc – trio of
Jim Beam, PBR, and a Tab chaser
ready to go.
Transforming with ease into 10 different
Southern chickies before a delighted
audience, McBrayer narrates funny,
poignant, and sometimes unsettling
conversations with family and friends
during a rare visit to her trailer park homeland. Among the host of quirky relations are
chain-smokers, convicts, bitches, and alcoholics, women with big hearts and bigger hair
who smoke Virginia Slims Menthol Lights and sip Rosé while quoting the Bible.
Though Southern Fried Chickie might ring true for Southerners, Yanks may wrinkle their
noses at its playful treatment of domestic abuse and racism. But to lighten things up, a charming
“redneck Greek chorus” accompanies McBrayer, strumming everything from Johnny
Cash to Alison Krauss to Poison. The only thing missing is “Freebird.” – J.O.
Saturday, Feb. 4, 4:45pm, Salvage Vanguard Theater. Running time: 1 hr., 15 min.
‘Holier Than Thou’
If the Second Coming were to occur in
2012 America, how else would we determine
who he or she is than with a reality television
competition? That’s the hook of Holier
Than Thou, which features seven performers
(both onstage and via giant video talking
heads) offering an oral history of their
attempt to win the powers of the Messiah
for a week.
There are some limitations inherent to an
oral history, but director Bethany Perkins
does a fine job of building chemistry among
her actors and mitigating the fact that the
“show vs. tell” dynamic is skewed so heavily
toward the latter that the actors only look
at each other one time during the entire
play. Kacy Todd, particularly, impresses as
she carries the piece’s emotional climax via
monologue – always a challenge.
Holier Than Thou struggles when the
details of its competition get confusing – as
on any good reality show, everybody’s got
challenges to perform, but it’s not always
clear exactly what’s happening – but it’s a
play that aims high to address heady theological
and cultural themes in a script by
Bastion Carboni that also features satisfyingly
immature jokes about Jesus and ballpunching.
That makes for a lot of moving
parts for a play where most of the actors don’t
even leave their chairs, and that sort of ambition
is satisfying to watch. – Dan Solomon
Saturday, Feb. 4, 8:15pm, Blue Theatre. Running Time:
1 hr.