Anyone For A Swingin’ Threesome? is a trio of comedic One Act Plays put together by Just Ask Productions.
I like One Act collections, and collections of short stories. Besides being short, I also like that – as collections – they are of different origins (even if by the same author) and that the world of the story is of a completely different universe than the others in the collection. Yet often, as with this collection, they are held together by some subtle yet powerful thread of why they were collected together in the first place.
Sometimes the reasons are obvious, other times, more subtle. The connection in Threesome leans more towards subtly; for a few days, at least, the ultimate theme eluded me. In a show titled Anyone For A Swingin’ Threesome? one might jump to the conclusion that it’s a play about throwing morals to the wind and hooking up in some unconventional way with a non-traditional number of people. However if you look at the plays shown here, the characters (as well as the audience) seem very aware that a moral conundrum is being portrayed, obviously we are being given some potential ethical dilemmas that must be figured out:
1. The Questions of the Queen (by Duncan Pflaster, Directed by Adam Samtur)
Which is more important: happiness or order?
The answer may not be as simple as it appears. Though Spock might advise: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
In Queen Cindy’s (Stephanie Strohm) sunny kingdom everything runs like hearts and sunshine, because if it doesn’t she’ll “Off With His Head” you sooner than Alice In Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts. Disagree with Queen Cindy – even when her direct order is to tell her the truth – and you’re signing your own death warrant. And she does it all on morning TV (Whhheeeee! Fun!). With her sycophantic Justin (Brendon Katon-Donegal) and Barry the Guard (V. Orion Delwaterman) telling her everything she wants to hear, is it any wonder she’s confused when straight talking Victoria (Sarah E. Jacobs) uses her “come on down” moment to tell Cindy that no one is happy, people hate her and life isn’t fantastic? Queen Cindy pits Victoria against Nick (Charles Coleman) who terrifyingly keeps insisting everything is fine. By the time the dust settles the Kingdom is left very very different.
2. Trials (by Will Lacker, Directed by P. Case Aiken III)
Which is more important: love or the integrity of space and time? Or: Can every relationship be fixed or are some just doomed no matter what?
Don’t we all wish we had a Groundhog Day apparatus of our own, something to make all the events which lead up to that one disastrous moment happen again so that we could divert the (perhaps not so) inevitable and make sure it all goes right this time? In Trials the twist is that perhaps this relationship isn’t worth saving – but Miles (Partrick Reidy) needed to come to that conclusion on his own, and no matter how many times he re-set his date with Judith (Vanessa Hardy), it was all to no avail until some very strange things begin to occur.
3. Park Slope Cassoulet (by Dan Via, Directed by Matthew Kagen)
Which is more important: The idea of a neighborhood or the ideas of a neighbor? In other words: You can’t step in the same Gowanus Canal twice.
Mark (Jeffrey A. Wisniewski)) and Lydia (Regina Gibson) are you typical Brooklyn couple. They live in the ‘Slope, Lydia cooks up healthy delicious dishes for herself and her family, and they live a good life. They do things “right”, they want things “fair”, they blog about their little corner of the world and grip tightly against the gentrification, rising property costs and new neighbors like the very pregnant Jeanne-Anne (Caitlin Bruggeman) who, despite being a lesbian (good), is also a banker (bad). Jeanne-Anne is exactly the type of person who’s ruining Brooklyn for all the people who’ve been there for the last twenty five years. And . . . well . . . Lydia’s had just about enough. So she and Mark take action . . .
Ultimately, for Threesome - the theme of the plays overall is judgement. Do we have the right? And what would happen if we didn’t exercise ours correctly?
So most likely the “swingin’” in this threesome is representative of a “hangin’” (more than a sexy-fest) – the ultimate symbol in judgment. But like the Hanged Man card in the Tarot Deck these plays are symbols that can give us some guidance as we move into the second mysterious and confusing decade of this second millennium.
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Anyone For A Swingin’ Threesome? Just Ask Productions The Questions of the Queen (by Duncan Pflaster, Directed by Adam Samtur) Trials (by Will Lacker, Directed by P. Case Aiken III)Park Slope Cassoulet(by Dan Via, Directed by Matthew Kagen) This show has now closed.
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