MANKIND'S LAST HOPE is hope for Alameda Theater
MANKIND'S LAST HOPE
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle
You take a staid town like Alameda—it is graced by stately Victorians and dominated by the invisible hand of oligarchs.
Alameda has a deep seated resistance to change that manifests itself in a variety of ways: the speed in which abandoned military property gets reused; the dispatch at which decisions regarding movie theaters are arrived at; and even the response time for coping with demographic changes within the local school district.
In Alameda one would expect to find a little theater—under-100 seats—where reheats of old classics are the usual fare.
And, you would expect to find a respectable civic light opera, which one truly does in Alameda.
But now, Alameda has a fragment of the fringe counter-culture housed at the Virago Theatre on Blanding Boulevard (could THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW be next?).
The current opus on stage at Virago is MANKIND'S LAST HOPE.
It's a grim depiction of what could happen if a horde of highly evolved insects—resembling cockroaches—were to invade and conquer earth and its inhabitants.
Naturally, due to mankind's demonstrated proclivity to casually reach for aerosol insecticides, to deploy deceptively inviting roach motels and to grind roaches under heel, the roach-like invaders have no choice but to enslave all humans as a precautionary act of self defense.
The roach-like invaders recognize that humans have special skills: humans like to whittle, they craft excellent greeting cards and posters, and they are good at manufacturing stretchy things like rubber bands and supportive under garments.
So the roaches draft the humans into forced labor: manufacturing greeting cards, toothpicks and rubber bands.
The invaders, as a myriad of science fiction movies and novels have already suggested, have a penchant for human flesh.
These invaders prefer to devour happy people as opposed to sultry and melancholy ones.
Despite the description thus far, MANKIND'S LAST HOPE is a comedy, and a good one at that: it is a major leap from the mainstream sit-coms that pose as prime time comedy.
Kenneth Sears is one of the conspicuous acting talents in this show.
MR Sears plays Hank, one of the forced crafters of greeting cards and posters.
MR Sears builds his character on body language, inflection, timing and expression: he makes excellent use of nuance and adds more to his character than perhaps even the writers envisioned: any director should fight to get Sears into his or her cast.
MS Chloe Bronzan plays Alex: one of the underground rebels trying to decontaminate earth from the man-size roaches.
Given that MS Bronzan first enters the stage costumed only in a few cargo straps she captures the audiences attention early on but to her acting credit she maintains stage presence even after cargo straps or web belts are swapped for less revealing army fatigues.
Writers Dan Brodnitz and Jeff Green have squeezed a ton of gags into this show.
Characteristic of experimental theater, some gags work while other fizzle.
Hopefully the show remains a work in progress and the directing and writing team can weed out what doesn't work and replace it with funnier material.
While it is true that creativity is largely synthesis, unless one is writing a parody or a satire, it is best not to be able to recognize from whence the elements of synthesis derive.
Unfortunately, much of the story line and many of the gags seem to be traceable to their origins.
The alien invasion and subsequent exploitation of Earth and its humans hearkens back to L. Ron Hubbard's BATTLESHIP EARTH and echoes in such sci-fi epics as INDEPENDENCE DAY and WAR OF THE WORLDS.
BATTLESHIP EARTH is set in 3000 A.D. while MANKIND'S LAST HOPE is set in 2055 A.D.: virtually the same time period.
Actually, as a movie BATTLESHIP EARTH is not as bad the critics universally panned it to be: had it been a little worse it could have easily become a camp classic.
Some the minor gags in MANKIND'S LAST HOPE are easily connected to Mel Brooks' SPACEBALLS.
While Brooks created a Mog: part man; part dog, Brodnitz and Green create a man with a cat's tail instead of a dog's.
Brooks has his villain Dark Helmut surreptitiously playing and talking with action figures; while Brodnitz and Green have their villain, Bongar, furtively playing and talking with action figures.
Despite its gags and plots being pulled out of the film archives, MANKIND'S LAST HOPE is an enjoyable evening: the cast is clearly enjoying itself and such fun on stage is highly contagious to an audience.
For a break from tradition stage fare and a good time in Alameda get thee to MANKIND'S LAST HOPE.
For tickets to this funny, gonzo show call the box office at 510-865-6237 or visit the Virago web site at www.ViragoTheatre.org.
Sidewalk Politician and Arm Chair Liberal