| 3rd
Annual New York International Fringe Festival "Sodom or The Quintessence of Debauchery" by Sir John Wilmot At St. Mark's Studio Theatre Reviewed by David Roberts for for Theatre Reviews Limited Sodom was a small biblical town which often fell prey to earthquakes and whose population and infrastructure eventually succumbed to the outflow of volcanic and bituminoid hyperactivity. Some rumored that God had done the city and its residents in. You can only imagine what people thought of the denizens of Sodom to have blamed God for such wanton and capricious behavior. They were apparently so bad that their city has become synonymous with any municipality of people "behaving badly." Or, thought Sir John Wilmont, any government behaving badly, including that of the seventeenth century Court of Charles II. Wilmont wrote "Sodom or the Quintessence of Debauchery" to satirize the hypocrisy of that Court and the Puritan movement in England at that time whose "peculiar brand of logic" equated sex with death. His sexually explicit farce was not received well by those he was satirizing and his "scurrilous lampoon of the Court of Charles II" was declared obscene upon its publication, many of the original manuscripts were destroyed, and public performances were forbidden by law for over two hundred years. Paul Wells and his Dysfunctional Theatre Company have decided to resurrect the play and to update it to comment on the recent political scandals here in the United States. And in so doing, they have reminded us that these scandals have far more to do with "behaving badly" than just sexual indiscretion. For the real "sin" of Sodom was not just sexual misbehavior; it was, more broadly, "wicked" behavior. The Hebrew word used here means: "persons who broke the established order of things, who destroyed and confounded the distinctions between right and wrong, and who afflicted and tormented both themselves and others." Now we are getting somewhere. For this kind of "wickedness" is pandemic which makes Wells' effort all the more relevant. So even though his players sport foam penises and decorative vaginas and speak of all manner of sexual indiscretion, the point of the piece is far more substantial: wickedness seems to be prevailing. In Kenneth Starr's report, in Washington, in police departments and city halls, in pentagons and oval offices and their counterpoints throughout the established world, maybe beyond! The Dysfunctional Players mostly succeed in their effort. William B. Franken often comes closest to conveying debauchery. Before curtain, as he played the house piano (which itself was in a state of debauchery), Franken often stared into space and had a look on his face as though he were speeding toward some distant bright light where his long-dead great aunt Sophie awaited his arrival with outstretched arms. I liked the scene with the young prince (Tim Wersan) experiencing his first sexual encounter. The "Men of the Gold Lame" number was outstanding and the shameless boys with no shirts began to exhibit the kind of costuming (or lack thereof) and movement that was needed more throughout the piece. Bawdy is as bawdy does, after all. Ask Pockenello, played to perfection by Elliott Kennerson. The foam penises were not at all new in concept (most recently used in "Lyz!) but were appreciated (largely) by the audience. There were times the rhyming lines of Wilmot's verse were muddled and that needs to be fixed. By and large, though, this production works well. The king and queen of Charles' Court become the current leaders of the United States and we see Monica appear quite often. But that is all right. All that we have seen and heard recently in that situation remind us of what happens when we forget who we are and how our behavior affects others. And we see more clearly why "the gods have failed to grant us immortality." Thank you, Dysfunctional Players. Originally Reviewed on Monday, March 29, 1999 at Theater 22. "SODOM OR THE QUINTESSENCE OF DEBAUCHERY" By Sir John Wilmot. Directed by Paul Wells. Music and choreography by Paul Wells; lyrics by Sir John Wilmot; music performed and arranged by William B. Franken; costumes by Paul Wells; lighting and set design by Adam Chamberlin; scenic consultant, Eugene Warner. Presented by the Dysfunctional Theatre Company at St. Mark's Studio Theatre, 94 St. Mark's Place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. In August at the New York International Fringe Festival on the following dates: Saturday the 21st at 8:30 p.m.; Sunday the 22nd at 9:15 p.m.; Tuesday the 24th at 9:30 p.m.; Wednesday the 25th at 9:45 p.m.; Saturday the 28th at 2:15 p.m. All tickets are $11.00. For information or reservations visit http://www.fringenyc.org WITH: Bob Curren, William B. Franken, Tal Goretsky, Elliott Kennerson, Jessica Klein, Jennifer Marbuger, Juliette Mariani, Steve Orlikowski, Amy Sherman, Jamie Simmons, and Tim Wersan. (Cast might differ in the FringeNYC production.) |