Archive: Arts & Entertainment

True to its mission, the Kitchen Theatre has given us the freshly oddball play boom, by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. First directed by Ithaca College alum Kent Nicholson in a developmental reading at The Playwrights Foundation In the Rough series, boom has been produced at the Wooly Mammoth Theatre in D.C. and Ars Nova in NYC.

Marine biologist Jules has predicted the end of the world based on his study of the habits of tropical fish. He invites undergraduate journalism major Jo into his underground lab to play Eve to his Adam. All of this is orchestrated by Barbara, some kind of futuristic tour guide. Because it has several surprises and surprise endings, that's all the plot you'll get.

However, you do need to know that the play runs an hour and 45 minutes without a intermission. It makes sense when you see it, but make sure you're ready before entering the theatre.

Director Samuel Buggeln cast the show brilliantly. Jimmy King brings a goofy, sandy-haired boyishness to Jules; Alison Scaramella a raccoon-eyed ferocity to Jo. As Barbara, Ronica V. Reddick has the comic face and laugh of the great 40s and 50s soubrettes (the funny looking sidekick to the lovely ingénue). But when Barbara fears losing her job, Reddick drops all that for soft vulnerability.

At first, the comedy is a bit overdone-too much yelling, too much jumping around, even though King made every gloriously schticky gesture count. And what else can you do with lines like "everyone loved my solo movement tribute to ontogeny repeating phylogeny"? But King and Scaramella did calm down for the final apotheosis.

Scenic Designer Daniel Zimmerman has created a claustrophobic and sterile underground lab, and a star-trekish orange machine, which Barbara uses to run the show, that had me recalling the great Interossiter from This Island Earth. Costume designer Lisa Boquist clothed Jules and Jo appropriately, and Barbara in a wonderfully futuristic stewardess outfit complete with winglike hat. Lighting designer Max Doolittle had fund with the show's lighting effects, and sound designer Ben Truppin-Brown with the sci-fi sound.

At the end, the script delivers concepts that go beyond sci-fi effects and comic surprises. boom is an unusual show, definitely worth seeing.

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