REVIEW:
“The audience arrives at the Walper, and there’s a short intermission while they order drinks, visit the rest rooms and find a seat in the Rum Runner (last night it was Yuk Yuks as the Rum Runner was booked. A bartender (Nick) is busy at the bar polishing glasses. In walks Penelope. She’s a bit of a cougar, and has set her eyes on the bartender. Young. Virile. Not a mouse at all. There are two stories in this play. Her hitting on the bartender, and the constant interruptions on her cell, where she must stop to negotiate with her husband’s kidnappers. She is glib and sexy, and my friend Heather, almost keeled over with laughter last night. Explaining to the bartender…this was written as a monologue but as everything, this is as real as we can get it, so we put the bartender in, and believe me, he speaks volumes with his facial expressions and body language. The part that made my friend almost get to sobbing with laughter is worth putting down. She’s trying to justify that the kidnapping might be good for him.
See, he always complains about never having any time.
Always five hundred things going on at once.
This will give him the time he needs for self-reflection.
Sort of like a Woodstock Buddhist Retreat.
But in a concrete hut.
At gunpoint.
The weather should be nice, though.
After each line, the laughter increases, with a big crescendo after the last line.”
Paddy Gillard-Bentley, artistic director of Ashpalt Jungle Shorts
