Tuesday, November 10, 1998
Odd ‘Massacre’ tortures audience interest
THEATER: Eccentric play reveals trials, tribulations of Ute
Indian banishment
By Erin Beatty
Daily Bruin Contributor
Polly, Joan and Suzi Dagenhardt are three psychotic sisters
responsible for guiding the audience through a delusional adventure
atop their roof in hickville Colorado.
Steve Morgan Haskell’s play "Massacre," showing at Theatre of
Note through Nov. 28, begins with a more-than-brief introduction
from Polly (a.k.a. psycho No. 1). From what can be gathered, Polly
is the youngest of the three sisters and still lives at home with
her family. She discusses sandwiches, zips up her fly and in one
scene, stuffs her bra to ridiculous proportions.
Suzi, the hippie of the family, apparently hitchhikes quite
often, smokes a little pot on occasion and, like the rest of her
family, has a bit of a fetish for pecan pie.
Finally, there is psycho No. 3: Joan. This sister is the real
estate worker of the family. When around her sisters, she plays a
silly psycho, but when on the phone with her co-workers, she is a
serious psycho, which classically is the psycho who is greedy for
financial success and willing to sacrifice her family’s memories
for financial gain.
It is no surprise that the surface interaction bases itself on a
conflict among the three sisters. Joan comes home for the memories,
and as she prances her silly-psycho self about, we understand that
she just might have an ulterior motive. It is soon unveiled that
Joan wishes to sell her family’s house that they can no longer
afford.
But, of course, this story of family betrayal is only the shell
for a much more subtle subtext. Berk, the crazy roof-worker who
just doesn’t want to go home, introduces us to the dark and tangled
web beneath the surface.
One of Berk’s many eccentricities is his story of the flying
spaghetti plate. We learn that one lonely evening, Berk, taking a
break from his home on the Dagenhardt’s roof, finds himself alone
at a restaurant. (Though the audience is not at all shocked by
this, now is a good time to mention that the three sisters are all
oddly infatuated with the roofer.)
Anyway, Berk, all alone, becomes absorbed in his loneliness, and
wanting to be noticed, throws his plate of spaghetti. While
watching it soar, he observes his meatballs diverge away from the
plate and fly onto the neck of a beautiful woman who does indeed
notice him, though ironically with a smile.
Of course, this is merely a symbol for something else, perhaps
the universal fear of being alone. Who knows? Though the audience
is terribly confused at this moment, they forgive, briefly
recollecting the childhood memories of "On top of old smoky, all
covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball, when somebody
sneezed…"
Disappointed to discover that the whole flying meatball bit is
merely a brief illusion coming from the disillusioned mind of Berk,
the audience is consistently brought back to their senses by
strange moments of song, powerful acting, and various actors
crawling and pulling themselves across the stage.
The subtext of the play, which is alluded to by Berk, but never
fully exposed, is centered on the hidden story of the trials and
tribulations of the Ute Indians, forced years ago to leave their
homes, but refused to do so without a fight.
Thus we discover the remarkable parallel between the Ute Indians
and the Daggenhardts, both betrayed and exiled.
So it seems only natural that the play, eerie as it already is,
must end in a not-so-tragic massacre. Unfortunately, the
slow-moving murder draws on for hours, making the most powerful
massacre the painful death of the audience’s interest.
THEATER: "Massacre" plays at the Theatre of Note in Hollywood
through Nov. 28. Tickets range from $7 to $12. For ticket
information, call (323) 856-8611.Photo courtesy of Theatre of
note
(Clockwise from bottom) Dana Wieluns, Derrick Sanders,
Jacqueline Wright and Lauren Roedy Vaughn.
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