It’s been the perfect weather for Nancy Giles’ Things My Afro Taught Me, which kicks off Series A of the Festival of New American Short Plays’ “Summer Shorts 3” at 59E59. It’s been so ungodly humid that you can see the nodding, sympathetic heads as Giles takes the audience through a sampling of failed taming products. I certainly knew how she felt when she expressed her despair that the one thing that worked, something called “molding mud,” had been abruptly taken off the market (and did anyone out there know where she could find some?). But I had to wonder if only the women were going to be connecting with this; I mean, the bald men sprinkled throughout the house couldn’t have known what she was going through. Thankfully, though, Giles is one of those gifted performers who has every right to be doing a one-woman show; she’s got strength, charisma, wit and a blunt sense of humor that makes a play feel like a one-on-one conversation. And, of course, her play isn’t just about hair. It’s a joyfully meandering journey through childhood, work, and the often-superficial business of being an actor, where security in who you are is everything. It’s a lesson in accepting just that – whether you’re bestowed with unruly curls, flat wisps, or perfect locks. It’s roughly half an hour long, but I easily could have stood more.
In Death by Chocolate, by John Augustine, a woman has just lost her husband due to a freak accident – he choked on a piece of chocolate. Having lived much of her adult life taken care of by her husband, his sudden death leaves her trying to function on her own, to both settle his affairs and get a grip on her own. It’s best described as a dark comedy about saying the wrong thing – a faux pas that, as long as it’s not you is almost without fail funny. The play’s many (great) one-liners ranging in topic from Facebook to vodka to mental institutions are quick and witty, but the dialogue between them is largely clunky, and in the end, it’s hard to say what the point of the play really is. Laughs are all well and good, but they need as stronger framework than this play gives them.
It’s a tough call to choose a favorite between Giles’ piece and the perhaps most anticipated of the series, Neil LaBute’s new A Second of Pleasure. Maybe what makes it so intriguing is the absence of the typically LaBute misogyny. It’s subtler than you’d expect, much thanks to actors Margaret Colin and Victor Slezak, but still manages a perverse, somewhat sad humor. A couple in a train station is about to depart for the weekend; the monkey wrench is that they aren’t who we’re set up to think they are. It’s an affair, of course, and in their relatively short discussion, LaBute explores whether honest really is the best policy. If we’re being honest, we’re uncensored, and sometimes that leads to things that do irreparable damage. There’s a quiet desperation to watching two people’s words drive their own bond into the ground; and if I’m being honest, I liked this other side of LaBute.
Rounding out Series A is a musical, The Eternal Anniversary, by Skip Kennon and Bill Covington. A hardworking chef arrives home on his wedding anniversary to find his wife missing – she has gone to be with her sister who is in childbirth, but convinced that she was lying and actually with another man, he kills her. The time-bending musical finds the chef alone on his anniversary night many years later, grappling with his mistake and the ghost of his wife. The writers’ condensed stab at gothic opera style doesn’t really sustain itself; it’s a heavy, rather plodding story that doesn’t necessarily need to sing. It does, however, create a palpable ambiance, and the final moment is quite beautiful.
Summer Shorts 3 runs through August 28th at 59E59 Theaters. Tickets are $18, $12.60 for members, and can be purchased online at Ticket Central, or by phone at (212) 279-4200. For performance schedule and information, visit www.59e59.org.
