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Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Orange Lemon Egg Canary
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Don’t I deserve a kind of treat to make up for the fact that life is boring and painful?
.—Great, as he prepares a sadistic treat for his female assistant
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Brett Schneider (Great), Elizabeth V. Newman (Trilby),Ann Moller (Henrietta)
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Director Talya Klein plays it tongue in cheek which gives just the right tone to a sometimes bewildering plot line involving Great (Brett Schneider), the 22-year-old last in a long line of magicians; Trilby (Elizabeth V. Newman), the waitress who was meant to be a one-night stand but extends her run; Egypt (Martina Lotun), his former assistant, now on a vindictive course of her own; and Henrietta (Ann Moller), the cheeky ghost of his grandfather’s assistant who died by perforation in the Hypnotic Balance trick that Egypt demonstrates and Trilby is now required to perform. It’s all about trusting your partner and whether love is worth the pain.
Schneider, who actually is an award-winning magician, works the house doing card tricks before the play begins and other tricks are liberally sprinkled throughout the production. The coup de grace is a sort of towering spike on which the Greats have impaled their assistants with varying degrees of success for decades.
Klein has assembled one of the best-looking casts in recent memory. Schneider ranges between nasty and nice as the conflicted magician who is running scared of women. Moller makes Henrietta, the ghost who has been hanging around until he gets it right, a snippy and adorable piece of ectoplasm. Lotun plays Egypt with gorgeous menace and Newman, who has the largest female part, grows into its nuances as the play progresses.
Krystyna Loboda situates an enormous number of props on the Complex’s tiny box of a stage and, though her lighting design doesn’t vary, the stage emanates an air of ominous mystery. Karen Murk Potter’s fanciful costume designs suit the play’s tone.
In the interests of full disclosure, I must say that my father’s hobby was magic and I grew up with the joy of being fooled, as Great puts it, and the pleasures of manipulation as he pulled coins out of our ears. We loved his attention and cleverness. When he impressed on us that a magician never reveals his tricks we felt he was admitting he had secrets, that we could trust him to keep them and that the coins would always be there.
Groff sees the manipulations of magic and love as "a world of astonishment" and Klein’s production fulfills that intent with humor and delight.
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ORANGE LEMON EGG CANARY Playwright: Rinne Groff Director: Talya Klein Cast: Brett Schneider (Great), Ann Moller (Henrietta), Elizabeth V. Newman (Trilby), Martina Lotun (Egypt), Sean Lambert, Jordan Charter (Magic Assistants Set & Lighting Design: Krystyna Loboda Costume Design: Karen Murk Potter Running Time: Two hours, one intermission Running Dates: February 29-April 5, 2008 Where: The East Theatre of The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles. Reservations: (323 960-7862. Reviewed by Laura Hitchcock on March 1, 2008 |
Easy-on-the budget super gift for yourself and your musical loving friends. Tons of gorgeous pictures.
Leonard Maltin's 2007 Movie Guide
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