Year of the Slut featuring Jen Lieberman (Photo by Lindsay Goldman)
Jennifer Lieberman’s one-woman show, Year of the Slut, is an odyssey through the life of a young Canadian getting her feet wet in the bright lights and big city of New York. The main things on her mind besides getting her acting career in high gear is to successfully 1) lose her virginity 2) survive the land mines of available yet dysfunctional bachelors who she finds herself involved with and 3) meet Mr. Right while opening up her horizons to channeling her sexuality through her creativity.
Playing the role of nearly ten different parts as she narrates her tale, the hour is interspersed with moments where she quotes poetry she has written throughout her life. As a whole, the show did not really work for me as much as I’d hoped it would; this started from the very top of the play when one of these poems is read aloud in complete darkness. Later, when the lighting came down to a spotlight on the actress and she quoted her writing again, it worked so much better. That said, I was sometimes thrown by the poetry, and felt it was too much at times.
Lieberman exhibits a lot of talent, but only certain characters seemed to really come to life (particularly when she plays her mother) and only certain moments seemed to really have much depth (such as her best friend who is hospital-bound back in her hometown and their relationship). I find it interesting that these moments are the ones that have the most at stake, despite the turbulent relationship with a flake Brit ex-boyfriend (taker of said virginity) or her gay cousin, who seems more of a cliché that could have gone deeper. I never really got much of a picture of these people.
Solo Performer shows are tremendously difficult to pull off, and I applaud Lieberman for sharing her story with us. Jeff Murray’s staging is more often than not, fluid. I just feel that the piece slightly overstays its welcome and at times was more of someone telling a very, very long story instead of a theatrical event; and one which didn’t quite allow me to see all the characters as vividly as I would have liked.
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Year of the Slut Written by Jennifer LiebermanPresented by JJ Rockstar Productions Maple, ON Canada
The Red Room (85 East 4th Street) $15
Thu 2/24 @ 9:30pm, Sat 2/26 @ 11pm, Sun 2/27 @ 3:30pm, Tue 3/1 @ 6:30pm, Fri 3/4 @ 11pm, & Sat 3/5 @ 9:30pm
FRIGID New York Festival 2011 will run February 23-March 6 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1sr Ave and Ave A). Tickets ($10-$16) may be purchased online atwww.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444. All shows will run 60 minutes long or less.
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