THE SHORT AND HAPPY LIFE
THE SHORT AND HAPPY LIFE
Reviewed by Jeffrey R Smith of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle
The incongruously named Sleepwalk Theatre Company boldly staged THE SHORT AND HAPPLY LIFE by Ryan Michael Teller: not to be confused with The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway.
Anyone who attends to more than a dozen shows per year would greatly appreciate this invigorating breath of fresh air by Ryan Michael Teller.
MR Teller writes like he does NOT attend more than a dozen shows per year.
To his credit, MR Teller writes like maybe he attends a dozen undistributed Indie films per year, maybe a dozen raves, listens to vynal and sees absolutely no theatre aside from possibly the Marsh and Exit theaters.
Tolstoy told his children, that if they could avoid thoughts of a white bear, then they could have anything that they wished for.
Tolstoy planted the vision of the white bear; the children got no wishes.
That is the problem of seeing too many plays: the creative process is essentially one of synthesis: elements and themes of witnessed plays tend to ingratiate themselves into new works.
Many playwrights seem to pull too much off the shelves: cognitively, perhaps unconsciously or unwittingly, they are cutting and pasting.
MR Teller has a greenness, non-linearity and randomness, bordering on Camp mind you, all of which are a welcome qualities in the world of contemporary theatre.
Assuming MR Teller can write, without thinking about randomness, non-linearity and Camp—figuratively also the white bear—he stands an excellent chance of becoming a stimulating, provocative and highly entertaining playwright.
Ariane Owens, cast as Sally, has a saucy stage presence and seems to only approximate the her full-throttle potential.
MS Owens needs to pull out all of her control rods and just go for the meltdown.
If audiences were honest with themselves and directors, they would tell you that they like energy: they want a show that requires not only seatbelts, but shoulder harnesses: they want to see actors limp with exhaustion: slumping, not bowing, at the final curtain.
Director Tore Ingersoll-Thorp should carefully side-step trying to forge anything for mainstream consumption: let his genies out of their bottles and take the dogs off the leashes—including MS Owens.
Do not go for the tried and true: close the eyes and hope for a camp classic.
Susan Sontag, one of the greatest minds of the 20th century, admitted, "I am strongly drawn to Camp, and almost strongly offended by it."
She described Camp peripherally as one would Zen: " . . . the Camp sensibility is disengaged . . . true Camp has the power to transform experience . . . Camp merits the most serious admiration and study . . . Camp comes from the effortless smooth way in which tone is maintained . . . Camp rests on innocence."
Tore Ingersoll-Thorp, Ariane Owens and especially Ryan Michael Teller seem innocent enough: they have a shot at Camp; let us hope they take that shot with their blindfolds in place and cotton in their ears.
To see what the Sleepwalkers have up their pajama sleaves, surf on over to www.sleepwalkerstheatre.com.
Access 350+ FREE radio stations anytime from anywhere on the web. Get the Radio Toolbar!