Curtain Calls
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 15, 2002 9:00 p.m.
“Toska” at Lee Strasberg Creative Center
(323) 650-7777 Through April 28 Don’t believe
anything. Nothing is as it seems in Juan Carlos Malepi’s
“Toska.” In this whirlwind, mind boggling and
convoluted play, viewers are left with a sense of confusion as well
as total satisfaction as it successfully employs horrific scenes of
insanity along with zany characters living in a mental hospital. As
“Toska” recounts the life of a fallen actress who has
“lost it,” it also touches upon other themes, such as
an artist’s need to create works and accept moving on in
one’s life. From wacky scenes of insanity to profound
insights, the play makes the audience think about their own lives
in a different way. Thoroughly involving audience members from
start to finish, “Toska” draws them into a world where
everyone is forced to “let go” and not think. During
the play the actors constantly bombard the audience with questions
and comments about other cast members and look to them for support.
The characters and their actions further enhance the play. With all
the actors portraying mental patients, viewers can only expect pure
entertainment. The highlight of the performance is the emotion and
fervor the actors put into their performances. Kludjian and Malepi
approach the audience with honest passion, putting themselves out
there in full force and succeeding marvelously. The set of
“Toska” is another highlight ““ it creates the
vicinity of a mental hospital with its dark, shady corners and
medieval look. By luring the audience into this fanatical world and
trapping them in with the plot, the scene adds to the authenticity
of the play and creates an experience people can see themselves
encountering. The plot, though completely confusing, winds itself
together at the end, sewing all the missing strands to create a
quilt of utter enjoyment and eye-opening experiences. The play is
worth every minute of wacky dialogue and confusion because the
final sense of closure makes it worth it. Definitely for college
students into avant-garde theater, “Toska” will
enchant, confuse and leave the audience with an
“Oh-my-god-I-get-it-now” ending. Siddarth Puri
“Jaunt: A play with Caribbean rhythms, poetry,
dance y Chaos” Gascon Theatre Center (310) 204-3126 Through
April 28 Lucy Vargas’ first play, titled
“Jaunt,” takes audience members on a trip through time,
as one girl finds herself dead and in limbo. Subtitled
“A play with Caribbean rhythms, poetry, dance y Chaos,”
the play also includes Spanish phrases that lend to the flavor.
Although the word “jaunt” means a short pleasure trip,
the jaunt taken by Angela, played by Vargas, is far from a trip of
leisure. Killed by her husband in the opening scene, Angela finds
herself between life and death with the gods examining her life in
order to decide where she will spend eternity. However, before a
decision is made, Angela must take a trip to her past and accept
responsibility for her actions when she was alive. Not relying
entirely upon dialogue, the play sends out some of its message
through music and dancing. The use of these elements to illustrate
Angela’s two confrontations provide a unique feel rather than
the normal give-and-take of dialogue. In the midst of Caribbean
beats, the audience is taken back to Angela’s younger years,
where viewers learn of her alcoholic and discouraging mother.
Angela’s mother, quite possibly the best actress in the play,
excellently depicts her role as a harsh mother who has grave
effects on her daughter. The portrayal of this influence is also
shown in a realistic manner. In contrast, the scenes of the gods
encouraging and tempting Angela are rather cheesy at times. The use
of visual lighting effects and smoke unoriginally depict the
gods’ intentions. The characters in the play are very
traditional, which adds predictability to the play. There is the
harsh mother, the wayward daughter, the evil god, the good god and
the gatekeeper. The play, not meant to be a comedy, does have some
humorous aspects to it, including the unprofessional costuming of
the gatekeeper’s star-stickered Velcro sneakers that scream
“homemade.” Laura Morgan
