ion theatre’s latest glimmers amid all the glorious glitter
By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic
Oh, all the things vegetable and mineral you’ll see pulled from Bottom’s ass in ion theatre company’s “Ass, or a Midsummer Night’s Fever”!
It’s all about movement – the kind that takes place on a public dance floor. You and your glitter are encouraged, nay implored, to become part of it – cellphones turned on – to make as many videos and photos as you wish and to become disco-boogiers.
There’s even a dance contest with coaching by characters DJ Meter and Lizard Sanders, whose names might give the clued-in some glimmer amid the glitter as to their Midsummer-ness. Even a Bardophile may find this a long and winding path through Shakespeare’s forest near Athens. One needn’t know a thing about the original plot, though, and perhaps it’s even best to be a babe in the woods.
“Ass” breaks all the rules from the moment one enters the cabaret space set up in ion’s BLKBOX URBN CNTR 4THE ARTS @ 6th and Penn, and knowing their hood, co-directors Glenn Paris and Claudio Raygoza have conceived a feverish mix of Shakespeare, “Star Wars” and Studio 54, to borrow their terms.
Clever costumes are by Mary Summerday, lighting by Karin Filijan and sound engineering and stage management by the lamé-clad and proud Evan Kendig, whose character name is DJ Phuck Finn. Michael Mizerany provides choreography that is so relentless one wonders how the company can possibly do two shows on Saturdays.
Rhianna Basore and Justin Lang play Titsonya and Obi-Ron, respectively. The young lovers lost in the forest are Sheila (played by Anne Gehman), Shirley (Brittany Taylor), and the aforementioned DJ Meter (Marco Puente) and Lizard Sanders (Shaun Tuazon). Bottom (perfectly cast Max Macke) and his Mechanicals (a mishmash of actor/dancers already mentioned, including an orgasmically hopped-up Gehman) are party crashers.
Familiar bits of staging and dialogue, not necessarily from the right Shakespeare play, remind some of us where we are in the fantasy forest never too far from Hillcrest but a long way from Balboa Park.
As Bottom says, “We are children of a looser god.” Line dancing led by Puente – everyone on your feet! – initiates audience members in the joys of the funky chicken. Other music includes Billboard chart-toppers “It’s Raining Men,” “I Will Survive” and “YMCA” – with shades of Diana Ross and The Village People – and on another note entirely, “Magic to Do” from Stephen Schwartz’s “Pippin.”
“Ass” is a magical way to get your groove on. Gather up your kinetic friends and do it. Wine, soft drinks and fruit plates are available for purchase in the space. Seating is cabaret style with long banquettes on either side of the playing space, and some high cocktail tables as well.
“Ass, or A Midsummer Night’s Fever”
WHERE: ion theatre company, 3706 Sixth Ave. (Hillcrest)
WHEN: Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 7:30 and 10 p.m. through Aug. 24
INFO: 619-600-5020
WEB: iontheatre.com
