Live the fantasy
Flirting With Reality
By Suzanne Bachner
Directed by Trish Minskoff
John Montgomery Theatre Company
Red Room
85 E. 4th St. (www.smarttix.com/; 212/868-4444)
Equity showcase (closes Nov. 14)
Review by Charles Battersby
“Where do they get these people?” That’s
what a lot of people wonder when watching reality TV. Is there some poor
bastard whose job it is to troll through society in search of photogenic idiots
to appear on these shows? Well, Suzanne
Bachner’s new comedy Flirting With
Reality offers a peek inside the audition process behind the reality
phenomenon.
Flirting with Reality is a
clever two-person comedy about a casting agent and her assistant who are tasked
with recruiting people to appear on a reality dating show called The Love
Limo. We never actually see footage of The Love Limo, but there’s
enough exposition to let the audience know that it’s a lot like MTV’s Next, or
Blind Date, or Hunks, or the horde of other shows where drunken
loudmouth idiots are crammed together to compete in mating rituals. Flirting…
is less concerned with the on-air shenanigans than it is with how those
shenanigans are contrived.
In Flirting… Felicia Scarangello plays Claudia, a
bitchy casting agent, while Alexander R.
Warner plays her new cameraman Jay, who’s actually an aspiring documentary
filmmaker. The two are out to find the right mix of societal archetypes who’ll
be guaranteed to conflict with each other, given the opportunity.
Even though these two characters are
fun to watch, the real pleasure of this show is watching the cast play the four-dozen
other characters who are auditioning for The Love Limo. That’s right, a
whopping 20-something roles for each actor. Scarangello excelled at the many
drunken floozies she played and Warner stood out as a creepy stalker, looking
for his next obsession, and also when playing an insecure girl too.
Minskoff's direction eased the
audience into the notion of Scarangello and Warner’s playing all these
different roles; the first couple of times they changed character, they made a
quick costume change, but eventually the two were popping in and out of zany
characters on the fly, and it was completely believable.
Kimo DeSean’s set wasn’t elaborate, but
it was a spot-on recreation of a studio where such an audition might be held,
complete with a backdrop with a cheesy-looking logo for The Love Limo
show (Love Limo logo credited to John
Chidiac).
Despite the fact that it’s a comedy, the
play does get a bit serious at times, and makes some points about the conflicts
in the entertainment industry between those trying to make art, and those who
are trying to make a bunch of money (and how the two goals aren’t always
mutually exclusive). There are several turnabouts in the final moments of the
show, which seem thrown in just for the sake of having some sort of twist. They
don’t do a whole lot for the story, and the show is just great even when taken
on its most superficial level, without any deep insights into the secret goals
of its characters.
Given the exceptional performances,
and genuinely funny script, Flirting With
Reality is a great choice for a bit of funny business, especially for those
who hate reality TV.
Writing: 2
Directing: 1
Acting: 2
Set: 2
Costumes: 1
Lighting/Sound: 1
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Copyright 2005 Charles Battersby