Review: Hella Fresh Fish
Hella Fresh Fish, the short-play festival co-sponsored by B. Someday Productions and Hella Fresh Theatre, has its ups and downs, but, says Jim Rutter, the ups give "hope for the future of American drama."
By Jim Rutter
For the Inquirer
The explosive growth of Philadelphia's theater scene has coincided with a rise in local new play development. Internationally produced playwrights Michael Hollinger and Bruce Graham and InterAct's participation in the National New Play Network only represent our city's more-publicized contributions to the genre's future.
Since 2009, B. Someday Productions and Hella Fresh Theatre have brought new voices to the local scene with Hella Fresh Fish, an annual festival of short plays. This year's lineup consists of 12 works selected from 500 submissions; Walking Fish Theatre's program featured eight of these 10-to-15 minute shorts.
Two of the pieces proved that even snippets of dialogue can enable smart performances. The three actresses in Kristen Scatton's "Porn for Women" transformed tired themes about obsessive weight loss into an amusing hors d'oeuvre. Mark Cornell's "The Rental Company" showed Kenneth McGregor barking and bum-rushing his way to laughter as a shady rental agent in a scenario practically plagiarized from David Mamet (and set, no less, in 1975 Chicago).
Of course, not every new voice bears listening to. The sound of an emptying toilet ruins an eco-warrior's post-coital bliss in Alex Broun's "Flushed." Her partner's crime: threatening an ocean's worth of fish by flushing a used condom; even Judd Apatow would have tossed this creepy, unfunny idea.
Despite Gina Martino's interesting portrayal of an unbalanced young woman, John Culver's "Crummy" failed to establish a coherent premise. Three actors struggle through Robin Rodriguez' "A Door or Not a Door," which exceeds its title in pretentiousness by depicting "quality lunatics" debating fate on a bus ride; one is actually a philosophy-PhD snooze!
However, the remaining pieces gave hope for the future of American drama. The mad genius in Seth Simons' riotous "Myth of Syphilis" signed a Faustian bargain with a genie who promised a life of creative success if he contracts the titular STD suffered by Van Gogh, Schubert and Nietzsche. Simons builds on this non sequitur through flashbacks rendered humorous and searching by Stan Heleva.
Simons' "Karman Line" and Miyoko Conley's "The Joke" portrayed sci-fi scenarios. The former mocks and considers the contemporary energy crisis with a pair of scientists who decide humanity has become too dependent on the sun and must extinguish it to move forward. Conley's work reflects on the humanity of a robot and chimera to give a fascinating look at problems that a trans-human future will no doubt face. In both, the exceptional pacing and dialogue made a brisk 15 minutes feel like an engrossing 45 and offered a richness the city's other new-play development series should encourage in full length works.
Hella Fresh Fish B. Someday Productions and Walking Fish Theatre in association with Hella Fresh Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave. through Oct. 23; at Papermill Theatre, 2825 Ormes St., Oct 22-23. Tickets $10-$25 Information: 215-427-9255 or bsomeday.org