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Absurdities
by Timothy John Papp
PANEL.ANIMAL reviewed July 1, 2005
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| (l-r) Heather Peroni and Rob Hipskind |
| Photo Credit:Ryan Jensen |
| Panel.Animal is not a full-length play but two one-acts performed consecutively in one energetic performance. The first half of the production is called The Young War and centers around a panel of two men—Jason Craig and Rod Hipskind—and two women—Jessica Jelliffe and Heather Peroni—using scripted dialogue to attempt a pair of seductions.
The four panelists pair off immediately, with Hipskind pursuing Peroni and Craig pursuing Jelliffe. A series of short skits follows, whereupon Peroni and Jeliffe compete to determine who is the alpha female, Craig and Hipskind contemplate the nature of manhood, and sexual awakenings occur on both sides.
But the skits and the discussion panel itself are soon interrupted by the show's sound engineer—Peter Blomquist—who takes an interest in Peroni and begins to woo her away from the already faltering Craig. Confused, the panelists search their scripts but find that no such interaction is provided for.
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| (l-r) Jason Craig, Jessica Jelliffe, and Heather Peroni |
| Photo Credit:Ryan Jensen |
| Freed from the constraints of their scripts, the four panelists and the sound engineer interact with one another on more personal levels. Complex relationships develop as the men and women explore their desires for intimacy, reveal their secrets, and ultimately break each other's hearts.
Though Panel.Animal was created by the actors performing it, the text is credited to Craig. He fills the script with equal parts poetry, bawdy humor, and sharp wit, with these elements oftentimes overlapping one another. At the onset of the play, Jelliffe confesses, "I once had a secret life affair with a man that didn't, couldn't know about it for fear of his children." When Craig asks, "You feared his children?," she responds, "I feared his children would be born."
But the attempts to combine the highbrow with the lowbrow often backfire. Craig goes for the easy joke a few too many times, and while talking about chlamydia may garner a few cheap laughs, the repetition of STD humor detracts from the real cunning of the rest of the play.
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| (l-r) Mrs. Falnagan and Jessica Jelliffe |
| Photo Credit:Ryan Jensen |
| Craig and company make no attempt to hide their absurdist influences, dissecting language and word usage in order to better understand why men and women understand and misunderstand each other. But Panel.Animal goes beyond merely copying its predecessors, bringing new elements into the theater. At one point, Craig plays a song on a ukulele while Jelliffe performs with spoken word and Hipskind and Peroni dance. While this scene is very ridiculous to watch, the actors perform with a sincere fervor that makes it difficult not to take seriously.
The second half of the evening belongs to Sandwich, a dark musical comedy about killing animals. Craig and Jelliffe play two restaurateurs who have killed a pig and made a ham sandwich. Their cat, played by Peroni, is sad because she was friends with the pig and doesn't understand why her masters killed it. In attempts to cheer up their cat, Craig and Jelliffe buy it a rabbit and a knife. The cat kills the rabbit, then finds herself confronted with remorse as the rabbit is hoisted Christ-like up to the theater's ceiling before being covered in a body bag. The restaurateurs' chicken-child (Hipskind) soon joins the fray and finds himself on the wrong end of a knife-wielding (and scene-stealing) knife salesman's bloodlust.
Composer Dave Mallory crafts some amazing songs, and pianist Sarah Engelke does an equally amazing job performing them. As the dead rabbit, Jelliffe delivers a postmortem solo that is nothing short of hilarious, particularly every time she goes into her falsetto. Peroni is brilliant as the rapping, dancing kitty cat.
But Sandwich loses its way after the rabbit's murder, wandering aimlessly through forced conflicts to no evident purpose. The sheer musicianship of the cast is enough to keep any audience member interested for a while. But clocking in at about an hour, Sandwich fizzles long before the 60-minute mark.
While Panel.Animal drags on a bit too long at nearly two and a half hours, the actors provide intense performances of very original material. It is running for only a limited engagement at the Ontological Hysterical Theater. For anyone interested in catching a great piece of experimental theater, Panel.Animal is well worth seeing before it's too late.
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Ontological Theatre
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Category: Experimental
Written by: Jason Craig
Directed by: Mallory Catlett
Produced by: Banana Bag & Bodice in Association with The Ontological Hysteric Theatre
Opened: July 1, 2005
Closed: July 9, 2005
Running Time: 140 minutes
Theater: Ontological Theatre
Address: 2nd Ave between 10th & 11th
New York, NY 10003
Yahoo! Maps Directions
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Tickets: $15.00
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Creative Team
Text: Jason Craig
Director: Mallory Catlett
Produced by: Banana Bag & Bodice
Lighting: Miranda Hardy
Sound: Jamie McElhinney
Music Composition: Dave Malloy
Wrangling: Morgan Murphey
Production Coordinator: Peter Ksander
Managing Director: Morgan Pecelli
Ensemble & Co-Creators:
Peter Blomquist
Jason Craig
Sarah Egelke
Rod Hipskind
Jessica Jelliffe
Heather Peroni
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