They call it the San Diego revival of Lisa Kron\u2019s \u201c2.5 Minute Ride.\u201d Early in the script\u2019s development, La Jolla Playhouse presented the monologue, featuring the playwright in the role of memoirist.<\/p>\n
Diversionary Theatre in University Heights \u2014 which recently received the San Diego Critics Circle Don Braunagel Award for Outstanding Small Theater \u2014 currently presents Kron\u2019s one-woman \u201c2.5 Minute Ride\u201d and her six-actor \u201cWell,\u201d also autobiographically based, in rotating repertory through March 19.<\/p>\n Though this writer experienced the original production of \u201c2.5 Minute Ride\u201d in 1996, detailed recollection of the event fails, and there is no review or write-up to be found.<\/p>\n So the experience of the 75-minute work, with Shana Wride profoundly portraying Lisa under Rosina Reynolds\u2019 precise direction, was as if a new experience, and a splendid one at that.<\/p>\n Kron weaves together three interlocking journeys, seemingly willy-nilly streams of consciousness, but actually structured for maximum effect, dramatic and comedic, a combination that prevents our being overcome by the tragic by providing leavening agents that keep us from being overwhelmed.<\/p>\n The principal journey is Kron\u2019s trip with her father to Germany and Poland that culminates at Auschwitz, where his parents died. He, like many others who never saw their parents again, was removed in 1937 by participation in the kinder transport.<\/p>\n The other stories detail the annual family excursion from Lansing, Michigan, to the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, which has a huge rollercoaster collection (hence the play\u2019s title).<\/p>\n This type excursion, accomplished by using three full-size automobiles, was common to families of yore.<\/p>\n The third journey concerns Lisa\u2019s attendance, with her longtime lesbian partner, of her brother\u2019s orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony in Brooklyn. They went expecting to scoff and were instead enchanted.<\/p>\n Kron\u2019s \u201cWell,\u201d which premiered on Broadway in 2006, is the playwright\u2019s effort to deal with her mother, of whom she says, \u201cWe were entwined.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa (played by the luminous, insightful Samantha Ginn in this play directed by Kym Pappas), places said Mom, Ann Kron (the brilliant Annie Hinton), in a recliner, far stage right and proceeds to tell mom\u2019s story. Naively, she expects mom to remain tacit. Wrong.<\/p>\n Ann, who has been physically ailing most of her life, refuses to accept her daughter\u2019s account of truth, makes corrections, and battles ensue, fleshed out by others who play an assortment of characters from the past (Adam Cuppy, Cashae Monya, Durwood Murray and Tiffany Tang).<\/p>\n The truth of the matter is that Lisa wants Mom to be well, as well as she, Lisa, is; all the while realizing that it cannot be. It\u2019s the eternal mother\/daughter paradigm, the eternal family paradigm: few who were there at the same time in the same place remember an identical reality.<\/p>\n There will always be amendments. Furthermore, one may possess all the personal power and strength in the world, but fail to heal oneself.<\/p>\n Kron\u2019s journey in \u201cWell\u201d is at least as perilous as that she took in \u201c2.5 Minute Ride,\u201d in which she attempts to limn her beloved father.<\/p>\n The two works, written a decade apart, make a courageous duet, bravely produced in alternating repertory (both may be seen on Saturday or Sunday) by Diversionary Theatre. See one or both and you will be rewarded.<\/p>\n One of our nation\u2019s great lesbian writers and a founder of the New York theater collective Five Lesbian Brothers, Kron went on to great success with the autobiographical plays such as \u201c101 Humiliating Stories\u201d and with the musical, \u201cFun Home,\u201d which received multiple 2016 Tony Awards, including best original score, shared with Jeanine Tesori.<\/p>\n Kron is recipient of the 2017 Kleban Prize of $100,000 for most promising musical theater librettist.<\/p>\n \u2014Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. Follow her blog at charlenecriticism.blogspot.com<\/a> o llegar a ella en <\/em>charb81@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Charlene Baldridge |\u00a0Theater Review<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":251257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Diversionary presents Kron in repertory","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Diversionary](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/web-Shana-Wride-as-Lisa-in-2.5-Minute-Ride.2.jpg\")
\u2018Well\u2019 (seen Feb. 19)<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Diversionary](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/web-MAIN-Durwood-Murray-and-Samantha-Ginn-in-WELL.jpg\")
![\"Diversionary](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/web-Samantha-Ginn-as-Lisa-and-Annie-Hinton-as-Ann-in-WELL.2-200x300.jpg\")