BRIEFS: A Festival of Short LGBTQ Plays opened last night, Friday, at the Centene Center. This is their fifth year, and they continue to evolve.
There are a lot of laughs in this year's collection, even when the subject is a serious one – after all, just because you're in the middle of a mess doesn't mean a wisecrack can't happen. And the collection of contributors to the effort, from playwrights to actors, helps a great deal. Some of local theater's best-known names, from Todd Schaefer to Donna Weinsting, are on stage, and directors like Pam Reckamp and Christopher Limber are among those credited.
Perhaps the most notable of the eight short plays is "When Oprah Says Goodbye", by Dan Berkowitz. Thomasina Clarke lives in some sort of an extended care facility and gets a new roommate, Peggy Calvin. The two were part of a love triangle many years ago. It's sharp and poignant, with good work from all, including director Fannie Belle-Lebby.
The corseted cohorts of Weinsting, a nineteenth-century ladies' literary society, become entranced when someone recites a paragraph from Gray's Anatomy. (That's the book, of course.) Lavonne Byers tears it up as the wife of A Great Artist in Scott C. Sickles' "I Knew It", with a collection of lines that are almost etched with a scalpel.
"The Grind", a first play by winner of the Ken Haller Playwriting Competition for LGBTQ and Allied Youth Max Friedman, looks at young adults in the era of the app, gently exposed by actors Jared Campbell and Kai Klose. Stephen Peirick wrote and directed "A Comfortable Fit", in which Kim Furlow is looking for some kitten heels in a size 11 1/2.
Overall pacing is very good – this is an evening that moves quickly – and while close examination could reveal questions about a plot or two, most of those questions are the result of the brevity of the offering. More time would have given the opportunity for further exposition, but that's the tradeoff sometimes. Definitely adult humor, but plenty of it.
Three performances left, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. today, and a 2 p.m. Sunday brunch with food catered by Hiro, the restaurant downtown.
BRIEFS
That Uppity Theatre Company
Cenetene Center
3547 Olive St.