Thirst Theatre

Review from Minneapolis Star Tribune

Just another Manic Monday
Rohan Preston, Star Tribune
October 18, 2004

Two men argued feverishly last Monday upstairs at Joe's Garage until their anger boiled over. They tussled and tumbled, threatening nearby tables as they wrestled.

No one called the police.

The men -- Ron Menzel and Nathan Christopher -- were professional actors who were performing a scene about two estranged brothers reuniting in a bar for a tense, raw 10 minutes.

The piece, titled "Stand Still," was written for them by Cory Hinkle. It was last Monday's opening scene of "Thirst," a collection of bar-themed playlets cooked up by about two dozen accomplished Twin Cities actors and playwrights.

Patrons pay $9, plus their dinner-and-drinks tab, to sit inches away from the dramatic action. Judging by the performance last Monday, "Thirst" is gutsy stuff that had the immediacy of music.

"I really like the intimacy of the show; I feel like I'm sitting onstage with all this action right here," said Atty Kim, 35, a Minneapolis nail technician. "But having them just a few feet from me, I was relieved that there was no embarrassing audience participation."

This is definitely not your mother's dinner theater. For one thing, there's no song and dance routines. The playlets are serious and funny, ranging from Bill Corbett's "Hunters," about a self-involved, super-horny beautiful couple enacted with vim by Phil Callen and Alayne Hopkins, to Allison Moore's "C.U.T.R.S.," a one-person lecture performed by Annelise Christ about shopping being the greatest expression of patriotism.

There is also Alan Berks' "Jesus Is My Drinking Partner," a direct address from a guy (played by Charles Fraser) waiting at an airport bar for his flight.

"A bar is a natural setting for a play," said Corbett. "Wasn't it Brecht who said you should have beer with your theater?"

Professional actors, living playwrights

"Thirst" came about after three of the participants sat in a bar, drinking and kvetching about the cyclical nature of their profession. "As actors, we live a boom-or-bust rhythm, and spend a lot of time not working," said Chris Carlson, one of the organizers of "Thirst."This puts us in the driver's seat and helps us keep our muscles toned. It's like an actors' gymnasium."

Because it's set in a bar and because it has no production values to speak of -- no special lights, sets or sound gear -- "Thirst" would seem like an amateur pursuit. But the talent elevates it to theater at a high level. All the performers are members of the Actors' Equity professional union. All have appeared at the biggest theaters in town, from Theatre de la Jeune Lune to Penumbra, the Jungle to the Guthrie. Menzel, for example, was an understudy in the Guthrie's "Othello" and has appeared at the Jungle ("Orson Welles Rehearses Moby Dick") and Ten Thousand Things (including "The Tempest" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"). Christopher has also been at the Jungle, most famously in "Lobby Hero." In fact, Tracey Maloney, who hatched the idea with Carlson and playwright Alan Berks, just returned from Ireland, where she was part of the cast of the Guthrie transfer of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman."

"We got a special dispensation for the union to do this on Monday," a traditional day off for union members, said Carlson.

Going for the jugular

There are both drawbacks and rewards for actors and playwrights to work like this. They miss the lights, sets and other things that usually guide the action and direct audience attention. They do not have any technical and administrative support.

On the other hand, they have total control. And this bare-bones style, which is the specialty of a local company such as Ten Thousand Things, allows them to focus on the acting. Besides, said some of those involved, actors and playwrights do not get to work together often in such an unmediated fashion. It's an opportunity to deepen their relationship.

"What we gain is a direct relationship - actors and playwrights," said playwright Melanie Marnich, author of the riotous playlet "The Old-Fashioned New Wave Midlife Crisis of Monty Miller: A Musical Fairy Tale," in which a middle-age man played by Terry Hempleman ends his 15-year love affair with a character played by Amy McDonald because he has the one song that solves all his problems, Modern English's "I'll Melt With You."

(Last Monday, the performers had fun with the song's earnest lyrics, delivering them with slight irony: "Moving forward using all my breath / Making love to you was never second best / I saw the world thrashing all around your face / Never really knowing it was always mesh and lace. / I'll stop the world and melt with you ... ")

"It's such a hoot to just let it rip," said McDonald. "The playwrights write from the gut; they can't be precious or anything, and we get to go for the jugular."

Patrons gain something, too. Last Monday, massage therapist Maura McCarthy, 30, was smiling at the end of the evening. She said that she and her three friends would probably not have gone to the show in a traditional theater. For one thing, they wanted something with a cool ambience, where they could multi-task, as it were. For another, they sometimes "talk about a show that we have to see but never get to go because it's too involved. This was very easy to do."




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