ARCHIVE SEASON 16 | September 2003

review

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BareBones Festival

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VORTEX presents The Barebones Festival—Plays of Trouble and Desire. For the first annual Barebones Festival, VORTEX received 111 submissions from around the US, Canada, England, and Israel. The five selected plays will be performed for two weeks.

Photo by Kenneth B. Gall

SCHEDULE A
performed the first two weeks, all three plays each night:

Figures from Giacometti
by George Freek, Directed by Todd Essary

The November Boy
by Stephen Cone, Directed by John Steven Rodriguez

 

SCHEDULE B
performed the second two weeks, both plays each night:

Cruelty to Animals
by Ryan Michael Teller, Directed by Marshall Ryan Maresca

Can winning the match mean losing the prize? Ezekiel’s Wheelchair sets in motion the primary conflict between mother and lover. Consumed with winning, Ezekiel’s women become color-blind, sucked into the VORTEX of Ezekiel’s colorless world. In Figures from Giacometti, on the surface we find two guys, a girl, and a wedding. Beneath the surface? Seething desire, deep regret, unresolved passion, and broken dreams threaten a promising future. In The November Boy, an older gay couple live out their days together, exploring life, love, and death together. A visit from the November Boy, helps them complete the circle.

Fuckjoy (or Necro Stix) is a game of happiness, regret, sadness, and philosophical inquiries into the persistent imbalance of emotions, love, and mental health. A man and woman see-saw between a fulcrum of infinite uncertainty and doubt, and only through mutual sharing of
instabilities are they able to rest, for a short time. Cruelty to Animals is the story of Monty, an abnormal young man trying desperately to maintain a facade of normalcy in the world around him, but with no idea of what normal is supposed to be. Fed by the harsh interactions from his friends, family, and his imagined companion, Monty is torn between the expectations of others and acting on his own desires.