TROUPE OFFERS MONOLOGUES IN PROMISING DEBUT By Alice T. Carter Tribune-Review Theater Critic Saturday, April 19, 2003 Barebones Productions is offering area theatergoers not one but two Pittsburgh premieres: a new theater company performing three monologues by an up -and-coming playwright not previously seen here. Those who attend area theater may already know Barebones' founders. Barbara Herseyand Patrick Jordan, recent graduates of the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Theatre Arts, also have performed with area theater companies such as Starlight and City Theatre. As producers, Hersey and Jordan plan to offer Pittsburgh premieres and timely revivals of what they call "contemporary American classics," plays from the 1950s to the present. For their debut production, in which they both perform, they have chosen a trio of monologues by Neil La Bute. La Bute is best known as the screenwriter for "In the Company of Men," "Nurse Betty" and "Possession." But he also has been identified by theater critic John Lahr of The New Yorker as "the most important playwright to emerge in a decade." The characters in "bash: latterday plays" offer three grim personal revelations of their involvement in acts of violence. The evening opens with Jordan performing "Iphegenia in Orem," a chilling solo monologue about a dark secret and the death of an infant daughter. Hersey concludes the evening with another solo monologue, "Medea Redux," that begins with her recounting a physical relationship that began with her junior high school teacher when she was 13. Between these pieces, Autumn Ayers and Jason Planitzer offer separate but interlocking and alternating monologues in "A Gaggle of Saints," in which a pair of privileged college students recount their separate memories of a weekend in Manhattan tinged by violence. Presented in a long, narrow back room that serves as gallery space at a vintage resale shop in Squirrel Hill, the production is simply but neatly and stylishly presented. The pieces themselves are difficult to discuss without revealing too much of the stories. But their title references to the Greek tragic figures Medea and Iphegenia prepare us for disturbing deeds of passion, rage and recklessness. La Bute's characters also make casual and parenthetical references to their Mormon roots that are also hinted at by the "latterday" in the play title. Director and production designer Jeff Cordell's spare use of furniture and harsh lighting emphasizes Bute's characters' clinical, detached and dispassionate delivery that makes their recountings even more chilling. Cordell allows his actors and their characters little movement, adding additional emphasis to the disparity between their outer control and their inner turmoil. Hersey and Jordan both could both do more to help us make a connection between their inner lives and the brutal events. As the overprivileged Ivy Leaguers, Ayers and Planitzer are perhaps the most disturbing as their bright, glib, self-satisfied chatter about cars and tuxes and haircuts envelops their tale in a blanket of orderly normality. While the plays themselves are dark and disturbing, they are nonetheless a bright and promising inaugural offering. Alice T. Carter can be reached at acarter@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7808. To join our mailing list Email us: barebonesproductions@yahoo.com		home archives press