Comedy = Tragedy + Time

I couldn't help but think of that theatre cliche after seeing Brad Fraser's True Love Lies at Monkey Wrench Collective tonight.

It's an urbane drama in which a monkey wrench (sorry) is thrown into the lives of a seemingly normal family, wreaking all sorts of havoc and revealing "side B". Dysfunctional families have since ancient times been fodder for playwrights, and while it's the universality of the relationships that makes such stories archetypal, the best re-tellings echo the Zeitgeist, and there could hardly be one more evocative of our era than this one (though I haven't yet seen the new film The Kids are Alright which some critics are saying hits the bullseye).

As the boomers' kids come of age, they're finding out all sorts of things about the youthful indiscretions and proclivities of their parents at the same time they're discovering themselves, trying things out and making their own life decisions.

It isn't always a pretty picture.

That's the basic premise for True Love Lies (I won't spoil its many surprises by providing a plot synopsis), and it provides ample space for author Fraser to explore the extremes of family behavior when confronted with the truth--extremes that have potentially tragic consequences.

While there is no "happy ending" for these characters, by the end of the play they do achieve a kind of equilibrium, which places the story solidly in the "comedy" column, proving (I guess) my title equation.

Luckily, we don't have to wait until the end to find that out: the bitingly funny dialogue punctuates each twist and turn of plot from almost the moment the play begins. But it's character-driven humor--not appliqued punchlines--that is fresh and insightful. The audience departed from the theatre wounded and bleeding from hilarious indictments hurled (mostly) by the two young characters, whose observations about their parents, their peers and even themselves were shocking-but-true.

This, the fourth Monkey Wrench Collective production, is the most accessible and demonstrates that its founders aren't wedded to any single style or subject matter as long as it is thought-provoking. True Love Lies certainly is that, but it's also the first comedy the new Monkey Wrench has produced (albeit one containing adult language and brief nudity).

Director Dave Barton's staging is fluid, sensible and copes well with creating multiple locations within the confines of the small performance space. It's also very well-cast and acted convincingly by its five performers.

Photo by Will Blakely: Jill Cary Martin and Anthony B. Cohen

Help Wanted: America's Orchestras

Today's New York Times reported that, in the depths of America's current employment crisis, several major orchestras have a surfeit of openings for musicians:

New York Philharmonic - 12

Boston Symphony - 10

Chicago Symphony - 9

Los Angeles Philharmonic - 7

Cleveland Orchestra - 4

Philadelphia Orchestra - 3

Pittsburgh Symphony - 3

Dallas Symphony - 3

San Francsico Symphony - 3

These numbers may not sound like a lot, but in the world of classical music, it's generally rare to have so many openings.

So, tune your vuvuzelas*, everyone! (See Tim Mangan's Arts Blog post today for a hilarious classical vuvuzela video!)

*For non-World Cup fans: the ubiquitous plastic horns popular among South Africa's soccer fans.

Monkey Wrench Finding Its Groove

Or should that be finding it's gear-tooth?

Monkey Wrench Collective has wasted no time in launching its first three productions, and all have played to full houses at the performances I attended. Fullerton is working out to be a better location for them than the Artists Village in Santa Ana. Their storefront on Harbor Blvd. & Amerige places them in the heart of a district packed with restaurants, bars and art galleries, like in Santa Ana, but it also comes with convenient free parking, which they lacked at their previous venue. There's also something to be said about the charm of their tiny brick-walled space--though charm is hardly a word one associates with their brand of theater.

They've got a snazzy-looking website, but like a lot of small arts groups, find it easier to keep the buzz going on their Facebook page than in updating their website (their next production of Brad Fraser's True Love Lies makes its West Coast debut July 9 under the direction of Dave Barton, according to their Facebook page today, but it's not yet on their website.)

Any new venture has a few kinks to work out, and Monkey Wrench has had more than its share, mostly associated with keeping the City of Fullerton's building inspector happy, but it's always a big undertaking to start a theater company, particularly without a paid staff.

Of their first three productions, pool (no water) by Marc Ravenhill was the strongest by far. Each was very different from the others, a sort of coming out party for the Collective to show its range of interests and fool the pundits.

Here's what the UK's Independent said about the upcoming True Love Lies when it premiered in London in February 2009:

What comes across at first as an evening of slick jokiness, glittering with
sexually explicit dialogue, develops into a play of remarkably complex texture.

Sounds like a Monkey Wrench Collective play to me!

[Photo is of Canadian playwright Brad Fraser.]

Prokofiev & Grieg & Andre Watts

Pacific Symphony's season finale at the Segerstrom Concert Hall was a "must" for me because it featured Prokofiev's 5th Symphony, a piece I fell in love with in college and listened to over and over again.

It's a complex amalgam of melodic themes intertwined with distinctly 20th century musical idioms, a piece that echoes the folkloric roots of so much Russian music while hinting at influences from jazz and American film music (after all, this symphony was composed in 1944, so it's not farfetched to think that Prokofiev had listened to Gershwin and Copland.) Moreover, this is a work that is profoundly influenced by the experience of World War II in the Soviet Union and dictator Joseph Stalin, under whose murderous rule artists like Prokofiev were always living in fear. As such, there are ominous undertones but also triumphal fanfares subject to a variety of critical interpretations. I had never experienced this piece live, so this was a real thrill!


The other thrill of the evening was legendary pianist Andre Watts performing the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor, one of the most popular pieces of latter-day classical music. Watts seemed effortless in his performance, and why not? He probably has played the piece hundreds of times in his long career. That doesn't mean that he wasn't brilliant--he just never seemed to break a sweat!

Eclectic "Best: A Group Show" at Crussell Fine Arts

My second visit to Jeffrey Crussell's Eichler home gallery over the weekend demonstrated again why he is one of our most perceptive fine art curators of contemporary art in Orange County: there was hardly a piece I wouldn't have wanted in my own home despite the fact that the spectrum of work was enormously varied.

Natasa Prosenc's video of a woman in the desert emerging from a bubbling natural mudhole, walking across a barren landscape and eventually cleansing herself under a waterfall was mesmerizing.

I shared the experience of sitting and watching the video with a charming stranger who told me she also thought it was a remarkable work. We got to talking, and I learned that she is an artist exhibiting in the show as well. Evalynn Alu is her name, and she confided to me that she had only devoted herself to her art fully for the past few years after a long career as a teacher. When I encountered her work a little while later, a black and white and red painting on the wall in another room, it was one of those moments when you wouldn't have connected the artist with her work, which leads to all sorts of self-consciousness about how we often make assumptions about people.

I told artist Pamela Grau "I see you're working in metal, now," having just admired the patina of her brass abstract sculptural works, and I was floored by her telling me that they weren't metal at all, but rather a composite of clay and paper. Another guest asked her if she fired them in a kiln, and Pam surprised us again by saying "no," she had only baked them for 20 minutes at 350 in her kitchen oven! She's an artist with an unbridled imagination who works in various media, never failing to surprise and delight.

There is an online gallery with samples of the artists work here.

Shacking up

Wedging our way through the hundreds (no exaggeration) who attended the Laguna Art Museum's opening reception for its new exhibition, Art Shack, made it almost impossible to savor the art. But it certainly was an "event"! Iconoclastic imaginings of small abodes ranged from miniature to life-sized, and from the whimsical to the socio-political. Will definitely have to return to wander them at leisure.

Jazz in the OC

Picking up on my comments in the OCWeekly interview last week, ever-vigilant Tim Dunn of the Orange County Performing Arts Center sent over a list of every jazz artist the Center has presented since it opened in 1987.

It's quite an impressive list, and represents a veritable "Who's Who" of great jazz performers. Some of my favorites on the list are Wynton Marsalis and Dave Brubeck (both of whom I've had the pleasure of presenting myself in the past), Michael Franks, Modern Jazz Quartet, Linda Hopkins and George Benson.


The number of annual jazz presentations by the Center has varied from 5 to 10, some in the large Segerstrom Hall and others in the intimate Samueli Theater, and I've enjoyed several.


OCPAC is not the sole presenter of jazz in our community--nor should it be--but they've done a great job of helping to make sure we have access to some of the best in the genre.