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A CurtainUp Review
Sides: The Fear is Real . . .Actors, Auditions, Agony
by Eric Beckson
| That which does not kill me, makes me stronger. --- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols. |
L - R: Rodney To, Hoon Lee
(Photo: Brian Barenio) |
Representing Audience A: stony faced, sixtyish real estate broker sitting to my right. I notice the tattoo on his right forearm. "So you're an ex-marine," I say. "Former marine. Never an ex. Semper Fi." During the show, he chuckles a few times, and checks his watch just as often.
Representing Audience B: twenty-something actor sitting behind me. "Moved here from Little Rock five years ago and loving it," he says. "Acting is a hard way to make a living, though." A human laugh track with the wingspan of an NBA forward, he could conceivably throw his arms around me in a fit of laughter (he doesn't). He greets the curtain calls with an energetic standing ovation.
Funnier than Saturday Night Live and Mad TV, Sides has only one problem, and that's the continuance of watching so much bad acting and so many annoying casting directors. "But isn't that the basis of the show," asks a nettled Audience A? It is, and as a quarry for sketch comedy, auditioning is richer than job interviewing but scanter than dating.
In one sketch, we watch six bad readings of the same lines, or side, as it is called in the business. There is something to be said for being really good at being really bad. But couldn't we recycle what already exists? Find a lousy movie and supply your own Mystery Science Theater 3000 narrative.
To say that Sides is mired in realism may be stating the obvious as well as a revelation that I am becoming my father (who if dragged to 45 Bleeker, would be a ranking member of Audience A.)
But given the difficulty level, it's an excellent rendering by the all-Asian-American cast (who are also the authors) and director Anne Kauffman. The unobtrusive set by David Korins resembles a ballet dance studio, complete with mirrors, hardwood floor, a rail, and table and chairs as needed. Suspended TV monitors encircle the stage for short sketch interludes. Surprisingly, the mirrors become back lit and transparent.
The obvious question--what causes the unsettling apprehension implied in the show's title? Presumably it is the fear of rejection, fear of being demeaned, and fear of humiliation.
We constantly feel the actors' nervousness and embarrassment, but the searing quality of humiliation is allusive due to the prevalence of slapstick; for example, one actor puts his hand on the back of a chair and gets stuck with gum-lots of it. Then the back of the chair falls off. The actor falls over the chair while trying to put it back together again, knocking himself unconscious. He lies face down on the floor, unresponsive. Audience B loves it.
I can't help wondering what the underlying emotion is that makes Sides so endearing to Audience B? Is it fear, as the title suggests, or is it self-hate? What motivates an actor or a comedian to seek approbation? As Ray Romano said recently, had his father said one kind word to him, he would have become an accountant. Sides is always funnier when the actors are portrayed less as victims of unsympathetic casting directors than self-sabotaging neurotics.
A plot that features as many auditions as songs in a musical would garner much greater empathy from an audience with no auditioning experience. Without that synthesis, sketch comedy alone does not quite sustain 80 minutes of nightmare auditions. What is so important that needs so much time to be said? Perhaps nothing, other than the fact that Nietzsche was wrong.
| SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL . . .Actors, Auditions, Agony Authors: Seikiya Billman, Cindy Cheung, Paul H. Juhn, Peter Kim, Hoon Lee, Rodney To Directed by Anne Kauffman Cast: Sekiya Billman, Jane Cho, Paul H. Juhn, Peter Kim, Hoon Lee, Rodney To Set Design: David Korins Costume Design: Elizabeth Flauto Lighting Design: John-Paul Szczepanski Sound/Video Design: Jamie McElhinney Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes, no intermission. The Culture Project, 45 Bleeker St., (212) 307-4100 From 8/18/05 to 10/27/05; opening 8/25/05. Tickets: $28 and $42 Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8PM, Friday at 8PM & 10PM, Saturday at 7PM & 10PM and Sunday at 7PM. Reviewed by Eric Beckson based on the August 23rd preview performance |
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