Los Angeles Premiere
boom
By Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Directed by Dámaso Rodriguez
May 22 - June 20, 2010
CRITIC'S PICK!
May 27, 2010
By Les Spindle
In Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's 2006 play "Hunter Gatherers," the slaughter of a lamb set the stage for a savagely funny exploration of the animalistic impulses of desperate humans. Fittingly, another life species—small fish swimming in a tank—becomes a metaphor for human civilization in Nachtrieb's hilarious and thought-provoking "Boom," a quirky romcom that morphs into a tension-filled apocalyptic parable. Brimming with originality and wit, Nachtrieb's engrossing play is given an exemplary L.A.-premiere staging, thanks to the efforts of director Dámaso Rodriguez and a splendid three-member cast.
When Jules (Nick Cernoch), a nerdy marine biologist, runs an Internet ad promising "sex to change the course of the world," the horny respondent, Jo (Megan Goodchild), doesn't realize he means this literally. Jules' studies of fish behavior have convinced him a calamity will strike the planet that evening. He believes he and his guest will be the only survivors, and they must find ways to ensure human life will go on. As this odd couple struggles through an uneasy getting-acquainted period, Nachtrieb springs delicious surprises. A clever framing device features the character of Barbara (Julia Duffy), a tour guide, who hosts a dramatized exhibit depicting the end of civilization, thousands of years prior.
It's impossible to predict what's coming next during the play, and further involvement derives from Nachtrieb's invigorating mix of tones—from goofy to rueful to suspenseful. Cernoch achieves a richly varied performance, including superbly dexterous physical comedy. He somehow parlays the bizarre logic of this forlorn hero into a character earning our empathy. Goodchild excels at revealing intricate layers of her troubled character while finding the zany humor in the dialogue. Duffy is marvelous as the chatty hostess who initially comes across as businesslike but soon begins showing her own emotions, adding fun and insight to the unfolding drama.
The design team expertly balances the gadgetry of Barbara's stage-right control booth with the demands of Jules' densely furnished subterranean fortress. Kurt Boetcher's scenic design, Christie Wright's lighting, Doug Newell's original music and sound, Leah Piehl's costumes, Shannon Dedman's props, and Eric Pargac's graphic design wonderfully support the irresistible fancies of Nachtreib's fertile imagination.
Play offers deliciously wacky take on end of world
May 28, 2010
By Frances Baum Nicholson
With global warming, various rogue nuclear states, and the general fury of Mother Nature, it isn't hard to find people discussing the possibility of the end of the world.
Certainly, this is not a new thing. The Cold War inspired movies and even episodes of "The Twilight Zone" using the premise that an individual or small group were the last to be alive on Earth. Still, now - as then - some conjecture on impending doom can be so extreme it's almost comic.
Now the Furious Theatre Company, upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse, offers a delightfully silly look at a scientific armageddon in Peter Sinn Nachrieb's "boom." Essentially weird and silly, it examines what fallout would ensue if the two most completely unlikely people possible were humanity's survivors. But who is that lady watching the proceedings from some kind of control booth?
Nick Cernoch is the awkward marine biologist Jules, who has accurately read signs of disaster from the fish he has been studying. Preserving his favorite aquatic species, he has also prepared a type of bomb-shelter haven to ride out the oblivion nobody will believe is coming.
Into this sanctuary, he invites Megan Goodchild's Jo, perhaps the worst possible person Jules could pick to be locked in a shelter with. Familiarity and time only increase the peculiarity of this pairing.
Cernoch and Goodchild make these characters sympathetic, silly and honest all at once: just enough humanity to connect with the audience, just enough silliness to keep the atmosphere light. And then there is their watcher.
Julia Duffy, as the businesslike Barbara, operates a control room complete with dramatic drum effects and some startling on-off switches. When she leaves her established duties to connect with the audience, things become ever more wildly improbable, and delightfully funny.
Director Damaso Rodriguez has given the piece a fine intensity, and his vision plays out on Kurt Boetcher's interestingly realistic set - making the improbable feel just probable enough. The result is a satisfying whole.
Furious is often known for its high-intensity, troubling, message-filled plays. It is admittedly fun to see them give that same detailed attention to something so deliciously wacky. For a satisfying, unique chuckle, "boom" makes for a charming, but still humorously thought-provoking evening.
Bangs and whimpers
Furious Theatre’s ‘boom’ shows us how to laugh while the world falls to pieces
May 27, 2010
By Leigh Kennicott
Despite the Pasadena Playhouse’s recent financial woes, the intrepid Furious Theatre Co. ensemble continues to churn out hit after hit in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre space above the Playhouse, the most recent example being “boom” by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, which focuses on the fascination with the fictional consequences of the real actions of our society. Along the way, we’re entertained by a play about a play that is thought provoking, funny and clumsy in an engaging way.
The many references to pop culture, science and the alienation caused by technology embroider a plot that not so much unfolds as comes together. There are so many switchbacks that it is unfair to spoil the fun of putting all the pieces together. Suffice to say, there are three misfit characters. One is the well-known TV actress Julia Duffy, lending perfect comic timing to the role of Barbara, a woman who has a mysterious hold over the other characters in the play. Furious veteran Nick Cernoch portrays Jules, the perfect science nerd, who spends his time and most of his money on outfitting his underground bunker to prepare for Earth’s doom. And there’s Megan Goodchild as Jo, his uncooperative hostage, proving that acting can be a workout.
Their efforts to survive provide a cautionary tale for today, while Barbara’s commentary about “the resilience of life against all odds, blah, blah, blah” lets us know that the event we are watching actually took place some 45 million (or is it billion?) years ago. The ending will surprise some and provide food for thought to all.
Furious Theatre finds success in the tightness of its ensemble, and Dámaso Rodriguez knows how to pull the best from his actors. Aided by Nachtrieb’s wacky script, he insinuates Duffy’s brand of comic timing into the mix for a heady cocktail of clever wordplay and downright visceral fight choreography (by Brian Danner).
The future, we should know, is remarkably absent complex technology, an unobtrusive clue from Kurt Boetcher’s set design enhanced by decoration and props (by Shannon Dedman). Costume Designer Leah Piehl also plants subtle evidence of “then and now” in contrasting Duffy with survivors Goodchild and Cernoch.
There is significance in the use of lower case ‘b’ in “boom.” If this play depicts the end followed by new hope for the world, then we will experience it not as a bang, but as a whimper. And should you want to laugh while contemplating society’s present and future, “boom” is the play for you.
January 27, 2008
By Sharon Perlmutter
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's boom is one of those plays that's all about the plot. The dialogue isn't particularly electric; the characters are not complexly drawn. What it has going for it is a quirky, multi-layered story which (like the recent "Lost" finale) is emotionally satisfying but still leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
The action takes place in a basement science lab at a university where we meet Jules, the current resident of the lab, and Jo, the journalism student who is meeting him there. Jo has answered Jules's advertisement seeking sex and is raring to go; Jules is surprisingly nervous for a guy being jumped by a pretty girl who answered his own ad.
Turns out that they're both here with ulterior motives. Jo is working on a journalism project—she's been directed to find a story in a non-traditional way, and thinks that answering the ad will give her a story about random sex in an otherwise unhappy world. "In no strings sex," she says, "hope is still possible."
Jules has a secret motivation, too. According to his research, a cataclysmic disaster will soon strike the earth. And in that way of a marine biologist who knows everything about fish but nothing at all about human beings, he figured that the best way to ensure the survival of the human race was to place a sex ad to attract a woman—and then hunker down in his underground bunker with her for a few years until the earth's surface again becomes habitable and get on with the business of repopulation.
Jo thinks he's crazy, and you can't really blame her. There's a risk that the audience will think that Jules is simply a deranged nutcase who is locking a woman in his lab against her will. Nachtrieb solves this problem by adding a narrator, who can stop the action on stage and directly tell the audience what is actually going on outside the lab. But Barbara is more than a narrator. She sits in a control booth right beside the lab set, and affects the action by pushing buttons and pulling levers (and adding a dramatic soundtrack by pounding on a great big drum). It turns out that we're watching some sort of exhibit, which Barbara is running for us.
As a result of Barbara's existence (and, indeed, the existence of her audience), we know one really important thing: whatever happens in that lab, we know that humanity does, in fact, survive. (It's almost like watching 1776—you know the Declaration is going to get signed; you just have no idea how they're going to get there from here.) And we know one other thing: whatever happens in that lab is important enough for there to be an exhibit about it.
And that's the very most I can reveal. Because the fun of boom is in watching it unfold. Sure, the play is about a homosexual Adam trying to conceive children with an unwilling Eve—probably the two least-qualified people for the job of saving humanity. (And, yes, comedy ensues.) But there are larger themes at work here: the threat of extinction on large and small scales, perseverance, science, and, above all, survival. And there are some deliciously unexpected shout-outs to other topics, which may keep you puzzling over the show long after it has ended.
The three-person cast is comprised of two Furious Theatre Company members joined by Julia Duffy. I admit that I first wondered where on earth there would be a part for Duffy in Furious's edgy brand of theatre, but the role of Barbara was written for exactly Duffy's style of comedy. Part self-important teacher, part ditz—Duffy's Barbara is easily flustered and adds just the right tone whenever she interrupts the main action for something she feels she just has to share. Jules is all nerd—right down to the duct tape and WD-40 in his pockets—but Nick Cernoch brings an earnestness to him, such that his singlemindedness of purpose seems almost noble. Indeed, Megan Goodchild's Jo occasionally comes off as the unreasonable one in the pair—which is really odd when you think about it, as Jo certainly didn't sign up for being locked in a lab with Jules. But Goodchild emphasizes Jo's selfishness throughout, making her stray moments of vulnerability surprising.
Dámaso Rodriguez's direction is solid, as usual, with the action in the lab sometimes becoming so engrossing that we completely forget that Barbara is over there in the control room, until she intentionally grabs focus. (Although, near the end of the play, when Barbara echoes lines spoken in the lab, it is a nearly criminal separation of focus, as what's going on in the lab truly deserves our undivided attention.) Kurt Boetcher's dual set is one of Furious's more realistic designs. And props to the prop designer—we don't doubt for a moment that this lab has been fully stocked with exactly what Jules would think a couple would need for a few years of survival. Now, if he can only get the girl ...
