Crazy Eights, That Other Person & Baby Food : Three One-Acts by David Lindsay-Abaire
by David Lindsay-Abaire
Lindsay-Abaire’s outrageous dialogue & situations thrive with his usual cleverness and compassion for everyday nutzos. CRAZY EIGHTS: An interrogation (or courting) in what may or may not be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. THAT OTHER PERSON: A marriage-shattering secret gets put on hold when a peeping-tom shows up with secrets of her own. BABY FOOD: An off-kilter couple seeking godparents for their newborn infant.
visiontheatre.ca
June 18th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Very funny with great performances from the whole cast! Definitely worth seeing!
June 18th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
From Saturday’s The Ottawa Citizen
These three one-act plays by Pulitzer prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire drop us right smack in the middle of bizarre situations and keep us entertained while we thrash around to get our bearings.
In Crazy Eights, a love-sick parole officer pursues a convict in his charge. In That Other Person, confessions of adultery are upstaged by a mysterious stranger. Baby Food features an off-kilter couple who are seeking godparents for their newborn.
Vision Theatre’s production crackles with cleverness. The six actors do excellent work and Marsha Awwad’s deadpan delivery is a standout.
There is much here that is outrageous. An angry woman throws a cup of urine in a man’s face. A man vomits. Outrageous, but not gratuitous. There is a nutzo logic to it all.
The writing is whip-smart. “The world is just your giant Etch-a-Sketch and you shake it whenever you want to,” yells a frustrated husband.
Over the past several years, Vision Theatre has done an excellent job of finding and presenting contemporary American plays that have been overlooked by Ottawa’s larger companies. I’d like to see more of Lindsay-Abaire’s work. Crazy Eights continues at Studio Leonard-Beaulne to next Saturday.
– Catherine Lawson
June 20th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Just wanted to write a quick note to say how thrilled I was to catch your show tonight! It was packed in that theatre, and I know the door had to be held for a bit to try and accommodate the demand.
Great job actors! You made us laugh!!
VERY FUNNY shows indeed!
Good luck with the rest of the run and hope you make best of venue!
Cheers
Angie
June 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Alvina Ruprecht
CBC Radio, Ottawa Morning, Theatre Critic
HALLIE: Is there anything else fringe goers should be watching for?
ALVINA: Well if you want another kind of fringe experience, go to the production by Vision Theatre that featured Three Short plays by David Lindsay -Abaire . They all last 45 minutes. The first play, Crazy 8s, is about a parole officer who develops unusual feelings for his parolee . It’s directed by Greg Wyzinski. Then, in a play called That Other Person, we meet a family in the midst of an emotional crisis, which is interrupted by an individual who falls into their swimming pool amd sets up twists and non stop surprises so it all feels like a frantic parody of a bourgeois melodrama.. This one directed by Sam Awwad had a bit of trouble esptablishing the ironic tone of play but it still worked quite well. Finally, the third play called Baby Food, also directed by Awwad, is about a dinner party that becomes disgusting once the guests realize what is really in the Lasagna.. The comedy turns into a form of Hyper- realism that you can almost smell….
HALLIE: Why did this trilogy work for you?
ALIVINA It worked for several reasons. Author David Lindsay Abaire gives a grotesque twist to daily happenings and this produces works full of surprises and tension. . I also thought that some of the the performances were excellent : Allison Brenon moves from angry urban inner city tough girl to nervous ex-fat girl. She is a good actress. I also liked Riley Stewart as an ambivalently tatooed creature who plays and then underplays similar roles in two works,,he always has the right tone. I must say however that both Wysinski and Awwad are becoming some of our best younger directors in the city at the moment. Their work never ceases to amaze me. The Vision theatre production is on in Studio Leonard Beaulne.
June 21st, 2007 at 2:46 pm
SOLD OUT SHOW ON WEDNESDAY!
2 Shows remaining, get your tickets early to make sure you dont miss out!
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:46 am
One of the best fringe shows that I have (ever) seen. The writing was clever and very funny, and the actors were believable, charismatic and very natural. This show is not to be missed.