Review: The Hotel Plays

Critic’s Pick

Ponder these questions, please: A frothy comedy by Israel Horovitz? A socially insignificant play co-directed by Ed Cohen? World premiere performances of scripts by a world-renowned, prize-winning playwright in the Cincy Fringe Festival? Yes, yes and yes.

The Fringe launched itself on May 28 with a dazzler: The Hotel Plays, three jubilant little Horovitz comedies, each with the weight of cotton candy and the sparkle of Perrier Jouet, all taking stage with the kind of authority you only see when actors and directors who know what they’re doing work with splendid words.

Let’s mention all of these able people right up front. Ed Cohen (who more often stages weightier material such as Footlighters’ winner of multiple CEAs, Parade) and Dan Doerger (NKU faculty) directed Brian Berendts (first-time Fringer, in from Columbus), Jen Dalton (TV personality and a featured performer in New Stage Collective’s recent production of Bug), Ted Weil (of Falcon Theatre) and Tara Williams (who appeared in Dalton’s Mad, a harrowing script Cohen directed for the 2007 Fringe).

And Horovitz, of course. Humor isn’t unrepresented in the long, long list of his plays. But it’s usually a mordant sort of dark-heart comedy used to thrust home social relevance, as in his frequently produced Park Your Car in Harvard Yard and in his brief, enigmatic Line, which has been playing continuously off-Broadway for over 30 years.

He’s far better known for such searing dramas as The Indian Wants the Bronx. But here he is with three little comedies.

No messages. No agendas. But here’s the thing: Horovitz packs such insight and such possibility into his spare dialogue that able actors such as the quartet at hand can turn 12 or 14 words into convincing portraits of people, not types, even as they’re provoking raucous laughter. Which means that the comedy might be frothy, but it’s neither heartless nor gutless. Quite the opposite.

There’s a randy waitress (Dalton) who turns food-and-wine talk into a machine gun seduction of an all-too-receptive diner (Weil) while his date (Williams) does a slow burn that’s as elegant as it is likely to incinerate the whole damn place.

There’s a room service waiter (Berendts) and a woman hotel guest (Dalton again) who’s been deserted, she thinks. Waiter and guest discover that each occasionally exchanges body services for cash on the nightstand. There’s a shaky moment, then they get past it and discover each other as people.

At that point, Horovitz might even get a little romantic. It’s all fine. It’s wonderful. And it’s all done with something rare in the theater these days: flare.

— Tom McElfresh

Comments

[Dan Davidson]

Be still my heart.

Someone hugged him!

[Michael Waddell]

I quite enjoyed this trio of plays, as did the reviewer and, seemingly, the entire audience. It was fun yet sincere, light-hearted yet heart-felt. It was also the least fringey of the Fringe performances I've seen so far, and that's both it's strength and its weakness. On the one hand, it barely fits into the Fringe atmosphere, and many of the more adventurous theater-goers may feel more amazed and challenged by the festival's other offerings. On the other hand, if you are used to more conventional fare (as I suspect McElfresh is), you will appreciate the superb writing and accomplished acting of this performance more than the puppets and slam poetry you'll find elsewhere.

In short, if you only see one Fringe performance, then this is the one for you. It would be an excellent date play: approachable, entertaining, and (bittersweetly) lacking the jarring, challenging aspects that typically make up the heart and soul of the festival. This play's soul is in its quality.