Down in the O.C.
Culture Clash examines the next county in a show that is funny, thoughtful, and biting
By Don Shirley
South Coast Repertory produces interesting new plays more often than any other theater company in southern California, but not enough Angelenos travel to O.C. to see them.
Yet if Costa Mesa seems remote for some Angelenos, it’s too close to L.A. in the minds of those who decide which South Coast plays are subsequently produced in L.A. Perhaps they figure that the L.A. critics have already reviewed the South Coast versions, so the plays won’t get enough attention when they arrive in the next county. Many South Coast plays don’t arrive in L.A. years until years later, in productions that aren’t nearly as good as the original SCR stagings.
I thought about this last weekend, as I saw SCR’s Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, and the L.A. premieres of two plays that had opened first at South Coast.
Culture Clash in AmeriCCA is the latest edition of a show that has had several incarnations elsewhere – usually with fresh, local material added. The format is similar to a comedy revue, but the material is based on interviews that the three L.A.-based Culture Clash artists conduct in the field. This time, it’s Orange County’s turn to go under the microscope, directed by SCR’s producing artistic director David Emmes.
An interview with an O.C. day laborer (Richard Montoya) opens the show. He re-appears throughout – but sometimes only in the background, illustrating that OC’s shiny image is sustained by largely unseen immigrants. Naturally, he tweaks the host city of Costa Mesa for its recent anti-immigrant measures.
Later we see a Little Saigon car gang member (Montoya again), the disgraced Sheriff Mike Carona (Herbert Siguenza) and a couple (Siguenza, Ric Salinas) who runs a sex club in the city of Orange. New O.C. references also dot a few of the pre-existing sketches from other cities. Culture Clash is trying to counter-program the image of a young, white, affluent O.C. that has recently paraded through prime-time TV.
I was struck by how much more effective this Culture Clash show is than the group’s trio of long-form narratives that played L.A. – Chavez Ravine, Water and Power, and Zorro in Hell. Culture Clash wants to explore more sustained stories that dip into fiction and history, but each of these attempts was packed with distracting references to current events. The Clash apparently can’t resist trying to make explicit connections to what’s happening in America right now. The O.C. edition of Culture Clash in AmeriCCa provides that without distractions – plus a rich harvest of giddy laughs, authentic sentiment, and biting wit.
Meanwhile, two plays that were SCR premieres have finally reached L.A. Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour is fairly well staged by Stuart Rogers at Theatre Tribe, but Gidger, the closeted gay assistant to a 25-year-old fledgling publisher in 1919 Manhattan, is played by Kyle Colerider-Krugh, who looks at least twice as old as Thomas Burr, playing the publisher. At SCR these roles were cast as contemporaries, probably college friends. Theatre Tribe raises its own unanswered questions about the men’s relationship. Also, due to constraints of the stage and budget, the Theatre Tribe scenic design can’t match SCR’s.
The dingy, noise-infected Gardner Stages basement where Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade is being introduced to L.A. is an even worse site for an L.A. debut. This play crackled at SCR, but 3KO Broadway’s version raised few laughs at the performance I saw.
SCR should find an L.A. annex, or a willing L.A. host company with a mid-size stage, where original SCR productions could immediately transfer from O.C. SCR tried this once, in the ’80s, unsuccessfully. But the taste for excessive driving has faded. An SCR/LA alliance might work better in the 21st century.
Culture Clash in AmeriCCA, South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. (714) 708-5555. scr.org. Closes April 6.
For more of Don Shirley’s comments on The Violet Hour, Mr. Marmalade, and other shows, see Stage listings.
Published: 03/26/2008
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