by Joanne EngelhardtEvery year, Mountain View’s Pear Theatre offers up a festival of short plays, all written by members of their own Playwrights Guild. Short play festivals of this sort are a beloved tradition in American regional theatre, and we can be grateful that Pear Theatre is one of a handful of Bay Area companies that participates.
Nothing is perfect, of course, and this year’s offerings are somewhat hit-and-miss, sometimes clever, occasionally tedious. Don’t worry: each play is limited to 10 minutes, so the misses don’t last long!
Joey Dippel and Tonya Mara share directing responsibilities, with each directing four short plays.
From this reviewer’s perspective, three of the eight shorts stand out for their initial concepts, the acting, and their success in telling a satisfying story so quickly. The three standouts:
1 — “The Tree,” written by Barbara Anderson, directed by Mara, and sensitively acted by Stephen Sherwood as the tree and Tim Huang as the man. Irina Dianaova plays the woman. Special credit goes to Sherwood, who manages to look, talk, and act like a tree for the duration of the short play. It’s definitely not easy to play an inanimate object and make it sympathetic to the audience, but Sherwood does just that.
2 — “Dirty Harry and Virgin Sally,” written by Paul Braverman and directed by Dippel. Playwright Braverman has managed to give a nod to one of the late Rob Reiner’s beloved films by calling his two characters Harry and Sally. Making Harry and Sally a pair of condors on the verge of extinction is beyond strange…yet strangely sweet. Dirty Harry (Raymond Alvarez) literally flies onstage and surprises Virgin Sally (Alexandra Velazquez), who is both flattered by and attracted to Harry. But she first has to try explaining to Harry that she is “with child,” although she has never had sex with another condor. How it ends won’t be revealed here.
3 — The strangely titled “Cyrano No No!” is written by John Levine and directed by Mara. Sherwood plays Cyrano, and Dianaova is the “voice” coming out of his computer. The fact that AI is now playing a bigger part in everyone’s lives makes this short play both timely and interesting. As the short begins, Cyrano opens up his computer at work and suddenly finds a woman’s voice talking to him and advising him about his romantic life. Audiences should get some laughs.
Another humorous short play by Bridgette Dutta Portman, directed by Mara, is called “Once Upon A Dream.” It takes place at a sleep study institute where three fairy tale heroines arrive in hopes of getting some respite from insomnia. Sarah Benjamin is funny and charming as Rose, Dianaova plays Penelope as cranky—who wouldn’t be without enough sleep? As Goldie, Velazquez is delightfully funny.
“The Shrewing of the Tame,” written by Greg Lam and directed by Dippel, features Benjamin as Katherine and Velazquez as her sister, Bianca. The actors are both fine, but the short itself seems to run on longer than it should.
The three remaining plays are:
— “After Amy,” by Max Gutmann and directed by Dippel. Alvarez plays Jonah and Huang plays Wyatt. The storyline is that two old friends meet up at the funeral of one of their mothers. Unfortunately, their conversation just isn’t that compelling.
— “Elam,” by Tom Mercer, directed by Dippel. Alvarez plays Elam, Benjamin is Agent, Huang is Walter, and Velazquez is Beinta. Although the storyline has poignant moments, it drags on longer than it should.
— “Girls Just Want to Have Patents,” written by Maury Zeff and directed by Mara, has an interesting storyline. It involves 1940s screen actress Hedy Lamarr (Benjamin), who has secretly invented radar-jamming technology that she intends to keep from the Nazis. She’s filming a play with another actor (Sherwood) in whom she confides, but she wants to make sure the director, Victor, doesn’t learn about her invention.
Costume designer Nancy McClymont did a fine job of creating a multitude of costumes, especially the tree in the short of the same name, as well as the lovely long gowns worn in “Once Upon a Dream.”
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Rating: **1/2 (For an explanation of TheatreStorm’s rating system, click here.)
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“Pear Slices,” by members of the Pear Playwrights Guild. Directors: Joey Dippel and Tonya Mara. Stage Manager: Rue Zadik. Sound Designer: Victor Swinkels-Ryan. Costume Designer: Nancy McClymont. Lighting Designer: Noah Price. Assistant Stage Manager: Sam Crow. Technical Director: Louis Stone-Collonge. Artistic Associate and Production Manager: Lysander Abadia.
Cast
Raymond Alvarez, Sarah Benjamin, Irina Dianaova, Tim Huang, Stephen Sherwood, Alexandra Velazquez.
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