Six floors above the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, 31 one-act plays are squaring off all month long to win a contest that holds a $1,000 cash prize and some serious bragging rights.
Shanna Brown, a house manager of the Manhattan Repertory Theatre, which is presenting the Spring One-Act Play Competition, said the play genres “run the gamut” from dark comedies to existential explorations.
That held true Friday night, when three distinctively different shows were performed in front of a packed 40-seat theater.
In the first play, “Love Me Deadly,” written by Robert LaMonto, “Ashley Slone,” played by Grace M. Peterman, is married to the drug-dealing bookie who also happens to own most of the town. She’s also sleeping with her stepson.
When dear old Big Daddy (Ernest Mingione) pays a visit to Stone and stepson “Victor Jr.,” played by John Stagnari, following a roll in the sheets, he brings along a hulking guy named “Johnson” (Germar Terrell Gardner), who quickly draws a gun to keep Victor Jr. frozen in fear.
Johnson is there to repay a betting debt by keeping Junior from doing anything stupid. He’s successful, since Junior stays literally frozen for most of the play.
Stone soon turns on Junior for Big Daddy, and it’s also revealed that she’s also been sleeping with Johnson, too. Eventually, everyone but Stone is killed one way or another. It ends with Stone delivering a Wicked Witch of the West-esque cackle, then calmly sitting down put on on her makeup while the dead guys lay around her.
The point to the story? Not really sure.
The plays, which ended their runs on Saturday, are not for the kiddies. “Love Me Deadly,” for instance, is filled with an at-times wincing level of vulgarity. And in “The Muse,” written by Cassie M. Seinuk and directed by Kenny Steven Fuentes, “Finn” (Andres Solorzano) prostitutes his friend “Archie” (Kevin Mannering) to a fiftysomething artist “George” (Douglas J. Cochrane). Enough said there.
In “The Muse,” it’s unclear what motivated the boys to go in this direction, but once you get past that, the story flows nicely. Finn is without direction and Archie wants to go to college. Archie, who is usually in the process of dressing, goes on the first date reluctantly and is pretty much repulsed by it, but is convinced by Finn to do it again. It becomes a regular thing.
It continues until George, who is in his fifties, is able to create several impressive works and feels that he no longer needs Archie to serve as his inspiration.
All three in the cast were believable and conveyed the story well.
The last play, “A Cup of Coffee,” is a timely story about a filthy rich hedge fund manager of sub-prime mortgages who is fired when the company’s nefarious practices are about to be leaked to the press. The play was written by the father-son team of Mario Corry and his C.C. Corry. Mario Corry directed and stars in the play as “Steven,” the hedge fund manager.
Steven is found at the start of the performance on a park bench, disheveled but still dressed in his Armani suit. He asks passersby for change for a cup of coffee. One stranger (Gerard Adimando) offers him a hundred dollars to have Steven tell him his story.
We find out that Steven’s wife “Monica,” played by Carolyn S. Keuther, is selfish and greedy and wants nothing to do with Steven if he can’t provide the luxuries she had come to expect. So she leaves him.
Back at the park bench, the stranger turns out to be the CEO of Steven’s old firm. The CEO offers Steven his job back. But Steven, comparing the simplicity of that cup of coffee, a simple pleasure that brings him a form of happiness, to the meaningless chaos that had consumed his life before he was fired, decides to stick with simplicity and turns him down.
“I want to live for a purpose, on purpose,” Steven tells the CEO.
Don’t we all.
Four finalists in the Spring One-Act Play Competition will be named based on audience votes, and the they go on to a final round on June 2, when the winner will be chosen.
To reserve seats for the remaining shows, visit Manhattan Repertory Theatre.