|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
April 10-16, 2003 theater ScabIt had to happen sometime. For three and a half seasons, I have remained your dutiful City Paper theater critic, sitting attentively through more than 200 productions till final curtain. It took Eternal Spiral Project's production of Scab to drive me out at intermission. Scab is meant to be a profound, symbolic and hilarious examination of womanhood through a feminist lens. It is (or at least the first act is) a witless gal-pal comedy with unbearable pretensions. Christa, a perky graduate student, has just arrived at UCLA to study French bourgeois women of the fin-de-siecle. She's worried she won't fit in with her brainiac fellow students. She also has to cope with a problem roommate -- Anima -- who is prone to asthmatic fits and lying on the floor. (We can't be too hard on Anima, though. She's just lost her father, and her remaining family enjoys the company of a Virgin Mary lawn statue at their dinner table.) For much of the first act, Christa and Anima do Girl Things. They gab about what dresses to wear. They buy a houseplant, name it "Susan" and treat it like their daughter. Maybe they should be a couple. Really, C and A seem eerily complementary. Hold the phone! Maybe these two are actually opposite sides of the same woman! Perhaps the crude, Jack Daniel's-guzzling Anima ("Anima" -- get it?) is Christa's Inner John Belushi! That would make sense (if anything could) of Christa's graduate school fascination with those French bohemian women who (I'm paraphrasing here) "needed to remain orderly while at the same time wanting to run naked through the streets." If the above isn't enough to convince you I was right to flee when I did, consider that Scab is also virulently anti-intellectual. Sheila Callaghan, the author, enjoys skewering what she imagines is academic discourse. Her smugness is misplaced, since Callaghan gets the tone completely wrong. Director Deborah Block provides no cohering vision on the stage, but does offer a program note that quotes a Ntozake Shange poem (something involving a "lunar vulva"). Among the cast, Jessica Graham (Christa) and Amanda Schoonover (Anima) both have quirky charm that is wasted here. It's all especially dispiriting, since in the past Eternal Spiral Project has done some fine work. As for playwright Callaghan, who is ultimately responsible for this gaseous mess, I recommend a barium Anima. Through April 20, Eternal Spiral Project at 2nd Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-563-4330. 
-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there
Recent Comments
About the Creation Museum `Patrick Rapa, you're the joke. BAD article.` » Get a Map of Philadelphia Sewn into a Blanket `Hey, perfect for "the city of neighborhoods" I bet West Mt Airy, Fishtown, Gray's Ferry, Powelton Village and Germantown will want their own.` » Local couple arrested for skipping out on tip `Bradley,
There is a basic minimum of service required at a restaurant in which a 15% tip is what is the norm expected. A good server who exceedes expectations ` » Council's problematic bicycle crackdown `Last year I was stopped in an intersection waiting at a red light when i biker on the sidewalk did'nt look in front of himself and by the time I saw him ` » 'Cause flashmobs are awesome: Freeze 'n' read at noon `Pretty good turnout for the "Literacy 'Freeze' You" event. It was more regimented than other flash mobs I've been a part of, with organizers coordinating ` » Medical Tourist `I would like to add my perspective as a medical researcher who has been involved in stem cell studies for the past 5 years. The fact is, the only difference ` » THE GOOD WORD Vol. 13: Collin Flatt of Phoodie `Ah, good to see our Collin in something other than the police blotter. Dude, you really have to stop braising people's pets. That is clearly the thigh ` » Medical Tourist `Dear Profit in Unregulated Clinics. The ICMS is a nonprofit organization. It is not interested in profit. By law, it can't make a profit. What it is interested ` » Medical Tourist `Dear Profit in Unregulated Clinics. The ICMS is a nonprofit organization. It is not interested in profit. By law, it can't make a profit. What it is interested ` » Phila Pols say Foxwoods should get the boot
`The writer asks, "why, then, do there seem to be efforts afoot in Harrisburg to help the faltering casino afloat?"
Answer: Because the local investors ` »
Web Exclusives
Repertory Film Your weekly guide to local film events, festivals and under-the-radar screenings. Tim Hecker Sat., Nov. 21, 7:30 p.m., $12 with Aidan Baker, Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 215-291-4919, kungfunecktie.com. Something Good DANCE REVIEW: Fräulein Maria Letters to the Editor What You Say Icepack
Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.
Popular Articles
Invasion of the Body Slammers How South Philadelphia became the center of the alt-wrestling universe. The Nutter Special We're not so different from the Iron City. In a Class by Itself THEATER REVIEW: The History Boys 666
There's slightly demonic stuff everywhere you look.  Academy of Natural Sciences: Family Four-Pack of Tickets | Mango Moon | Prive | Bliss | Raw Dawgs Saloon | Cream and Sugar | S & H Kebab House | Cafe Nola | Copabanana | Hollywood Tans: $50 for $25 HALF OFF DEPOT Why live life at full price? 
"Great vision without great people is irrelevant."
—Jim Collins, Author,
"Good to Great" 
Search Real Estate
Today's Big Deal:
| ||||||||||||||||||
