My mother has her own non-profit “recycling project.” It’s called the holiday gift closet, filled with girly lotion sets and hand-held electronic poker games, ready to re-gift. It’s perfect for those fake friends who are clearly not worth the shopping trip. These are just the kind of age-old holiday traditions that Washington Improv Theater wants to know about for their annual show, Seasonal Disorder.
Each December, Washington Improv Theater hosts the yuletide-themed spectacle Seasonal Disorder, performed by the group’s founding troupe, Onesixtyone. Basically, the six-person cast mocks you and your crazytown family for an hour, and will be doing so for another two weekends.
Seasonal Disorder is for the crowd that doesn’t need to see the annually-broadcasted “Frosty the Snowman” on ABC. It’s for the crowd that realizes at least one person will leave Christmas dinner with a broken bone. It’s a sardonic, and unapologetically misanthropic, take on the holidays.
Onesixtyone is comprised of eleven folk—including just two females—with Artistic Director Mark Chalfant as a backbone player. Most of the troupe had college improv experience, some even locally, like Brian Coleman, an alum of GWU’s group Recess, and Michael Bass, of JMU’s Big Honkin’ troupe.
Performance-wise, the show was smooth—so smooth, it almost felt scripted at points. You wondered if they did the joke about the bling-bling gold necklace gift last week. Then you realize the performer pulled the idea from a green questionnaire card, filled out by audience members beforehand. It wasn’t scripted. It couldn’t be scripted. They’re talking about your Aunt Fern’s green bean casserole and your boyfriend’s budding IT Specialist career.
The almost naked stage was composed of just a few nothing-special chairs, a mock fireplace and an imported rug, but the performers transformed this into everything from a car chase to a Normal Rockwell-style gathering around the dining room table. With just two chairs, Mike Bass and David Johnson made running away with a back seats’ worth of electronics look like cake. And passive-aggressive comments about an overpriced HoneyBaked ham at the table looked and felt awfully familiar.
Seasonal Disorder is so on-target and honest, you almost wonder if it’d be funnier to watch the real thing. The raw brawls and gift exchanges between your pedigree might actually be more satisfying. But while Seasonal Disorder does almost too good of a job recreating the faux pas, maybe the t-minus three days until X-day is too long to wait. This show will get you pumped for the impending headaches.
Seasonal Disorder will take place on both Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m at Flashpoint’s Mead Theatre Lab; 916 G St NW. Tickets are $12, and available online.
