The Hot Mess Chronicles 3
Leave it to the Abreact to spin a turd into gold: a few Halloweens ago, a last-minute show was assembled to fill an unfortunate scheduling hole, and lo and behold, a series was born. This year’s installment, The Hot Mess Chronicles 3, sees the return of director Mike McGettigan to a new crop of fright-themed plays engineered to surprise and amuse, even as they retain the best of that thrown-together magic.
In true Hot Mess fashion, the episodic play is strung together with introductions by its host; this year, a uniquely outfitted and disembodied-voiced entity known as MR BABY presides from his spot catty-corner to the main stage. The placement, along with Kevin Barron’s lights and quietly creepy sound design by Mike Eshaq, provides enough distraction to let the scene changes feel unobtrusive and gives the production a nice flow. Quick changeovers are crucial for this installment, which has grown from four to eight short plays by a total of nine playwrights. This year’s selection features a number of scenes that deliver a quick one-two, just enough setup to enact a change-up ending: Ron Morelli’s “Yard Sale of the Damned” infuses an ominous tone into a humdrum transaction, Joe Becker’s “Player V Player” lies in the safety of two guys playing video games, and Dave Davies’s “A Family Feature” fires off a punchline in its suggestively grotesque resolution. A longer second-act piece, Bill McGettigan’s “The Wreck of the Minerva Witherspoon,” takes its time maneuvering toward a gruesome fate, giving its construction-worker characters a long leadup full of probably important but ultimately foggy details.
Given more to play with, the company finds plenty of humor and strong beats in the “Monster” and “Angry Mob” duo (by Mike McGettigan and Brian Papandrea, respectively), in which workaday monster Patrick Cronin finds more than an ally in acquaintance Josh Campos as he is chased by the horde. Some of the most successful pieces include substantial references to specific films or artists; the second-act opener “Fright Court” (by Papandrea and Campos) imagines bringing Stephen King’s infamous evil clown to justice in a strictly King world, including standout turns by Papandrea as Pennywise and Sarah Galloway as Carrie. Similarly, a touch of Laurel and Hardy and a little Keystone Kops give James Nanis’s “Call of Coocooloo” appealing flair, as a couple of salesman unwittingly infiltrate a cult.
But in all, this reviewer’s personal favorite is the laugh-a-minute “Lucky Day” (by Robbin Tenglin Makled), which expertly maintains a heightened level of suspense throughout its hilarious exchange between Dawn Rasnick’s sweetly friendly suicide hotline worker and Cronin’s differently friendly night janitor. A raft of silly and varied performances showcase the strength and diversity of this ensemble, from Nanis’s dramatically foreboding old man and robotic Judge Maximum Overdrive, to Campos’s appealing skill at improvising through rough transitions or ill-timed cues. However, Cronin proves the all-star of this production, contributing to key duos in “Monster” and “Coocooloo” as well as delivering a spot-on riotous impression sure to thrill any fan of The Silence of the Lambs.
But the greatest achievement of The Hot Mess Chronicles 3 is in maintaining the genuine hot-mess feel that characterizes the series. Eric Maher’s set is largely, if not entirely, a holdover from the prior production, but the ensemble makes good use of its surprises rather than struggling within its limitations. The tone varies widely between and even within plays, hopping from amusing to downright threatening and, crucially, doing justice to each. The show is proudly under-polished and too tongue-in-cheek to be effectively terrifying, but these are less shortcomings than vital elements contributing to the show’s incredibly fresh feel, unexpected tenor, and mischievously sloppy approach played as much for laughs as for thrills.
October 21, 2011