The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
The cast of Brainpeople (Rorschach Theatre).
Our host for the evening is Mayannah (Regina Aquino), a statuesque, wild-eyed heiress who has hired Rosemary (Monalisa Arias) and Ani (Amanda Thickpenny) as her companions for the night. It's clear from her first few lines that Rosemary has brought more than one guest with her for the evening (per the play's title), while Ani's own demons are bottled up a little more deeply - at least at first. There's more mystery to Mayannah as well, and it goes beyond exactly what meat is being used in those kabobs she's serving.
Rivera's a contemplative, poetic playwright who clearly has found his way into the Rorschach company's heart - the company first introduced audiences to him with 2007's References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. He's a talky writer, too, and his words here fly by so quickly, and on so many different tangents, it's easy to feel like one's missing some of his nuances.
But while Brainpeople starts off a little sluggish, it quickly falls into a satisfying rhythm as the three women begin to open up to each other. Mystical circumstances fit comfortably into the mechanisms of Brainpeople and happen so naturally that questioning their probability doesn't really come into play.
Watching Arias' violent personality swings accounts for much of Brainpeople's tension, and the actress proves quite the heavyweight juggling the contrasting roles. Thickpenny's performance is by contrast admirably restrained but wholly convincing. She connects almost hypnotically with the self-possessed Aquino, whose composure always seems on the verge of collapsing as the night's events wear on.
Rorschach is limited to a tiny classroom space (finding it's a journey in itself) within Georgetown's Davis Performing Arts Center complex to stage Brainpeople, but it doesn't take much more than a spare, gothic set to transport the audience to Mayannah's mansion. And once we've gotten there, the magnetism of these three women is comfort (and discomfort) enough to get us through the evening.
Brainpeople runs through July 19 at the Davis Theatre Lab. Tickets are available online.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)