The Pocket Playhouse is a venue that allows University students to showcase any theater work they wish to: originals, classics, musicals, old plays, new plays and so on. If “Mrs. Sorken Presents Durang” is representative of the offerings selected for this school year, it should be an interesting season, indeed.
The aptly-titled play was a small-scale production (given the size of the venue, perhaps this is hard to avoid) — minimal props and lighting, black curtains and walls. Scenes might better be called “sketches.” They were loosely connected by an ensemble of actors and themes of miscommunication, annoyance, understanding and superficiality. There wasn’t much conclusion or movement to any of the narratives, but in this context, it doesn’t really matter.
“Mrs. Sorken,” the first scene, was a one-woman monologue with actress Katie Plein. She slyly addressed the audience on theater, Dionysius, the Greeks and the etymology of drama. Perhaps as a nod to the University Theatre department, there was a reference to the Tony Kushner play “Angels in America” — a production mounted by the department earlier this year. The best line: “We go to the theater desperate for photosynthesis.”
The “Funeral Parlor” sketch — in which a bereaved widow is consoled by the unlikeliest of loudmouths, played by Scott Stewart — was especially notable. For a while, this scene could have been played for a predictably slapstick or sitcom-ish ending, but it avoided such contrivances.
“Business Lunch at the Russian Tea Room” was probably the most directly brutal of the arrangements. The stage was split in a way that the viewer has to imagine two separate settings: a house and a restaurant. Here, a playwright meets with a Hollywood agent-type woman, whose dialogue is appropriately over the top. She spouts lines such as: “Although I’m not married, I like having affairs with black men and move on from one to the next.”
The production was directed by Leigh Cook; running time clocked in at just under an hour. The play’s program lists “scenes by Christopher Durang” which perhaps indicates the content has an autobiographical nature.
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