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review Why farce? Seriously, why? Why would the thoughtful contemporary playwright apply his or her talents to door-slamming, panty-flinging, double-taking brouhaha? The truth is, some writers still love the form -– and some even try to put a new spin on its tired conventions. That’s what Asian-American writer Vernon Takeshita tried to do in his funny but problematic 1990 comedy "Performance Anxiety", now in motion again in Monterey Park. It’s a production of the East L.A. Actors’ Company –- a professional Equity theater based at East Los Angeles College, performing mostly Latino and Asian-American plays. Not many people know about ELAC, and that’s a shame: the impressive cast for this show includes Greg Watanabe, Kimiko Gelman and François Chau, all pros with strong stage, TV and film credits. Unfortunately, their talents can’t fix Takeshita’s script. "Performance Anxiety" was part of a new wave of Asian-American plays that came out of East West Players in the 1990s, featuring a wilder, bolder style of writing. (Christopher Durang is the obvious influence.) But Takeshita’s extremely bold choice – presenting a story of sexual and racial confusion as a farce – is also a very big problem. David (Watanabe, seen in South Coast Rep’s "The Summer Moon") is a college professor with sudden impotence. He’s in love with blonde-wigged Jane (Gelman), who, sans wig, is actually Felice, the Asian-American wife of a closeted doctor named Derek (Chau). Derek adores their sexless relationship and plywood children. (Maestro‘s two-dimensional set pieces are a hoot.) Derek, a total "banana," denies both his heritage and his homosexuality. But Derek, you see, is also David’s doctor, and he secretly has the hots for David, who is, after all, fucking Felice who he believes to be Jane … and the farce begins. Director Alberto Isaac, who also guided the 1990 world premiere, can’t quite rescue the play from its machinations. A big stretch of Act Two is flat-out dumb, an extended scene of hotel door-slamming and mistaken identity. That’s all because the David character agrees to a wholly implausible ruse at the end of Act One: transvestitism. Naturally, Felice doesn’t recognize David in women’s clothes at six inches’ distance. Ha, ha, ha. In the last 10 minutes of "Performance Anxiety", we get a glimpse of the hard-hitting work Takeshita could have written – the one buried by the farce. The tone turns confessional, and the real desires of the characters come out in a series of reflective monologues and highly stylized, pan-sexual scenes. They almost convince you that you’ve watched a better play. Two notes, for what they’re worth: on the night I attended, a young student understudy named Jennifer Lynn did a terrific job as Felice, and the theatre began to smell enticingly like hamburgers during Act Two, the result of its proximity to a Carl’s Jr. "Performance Anxiety", presented by East L.A. Actors’ Company at East Los Angeles College, Little Theater, 1301 Cesar Chavez Blvd., Monterey Park. Fri-Sun thru June 18. $15 (some discounted nights). 323.260.8166. Copyright © 2000 The Write Word, Inc. All rights reserved. |