…an outrageously haphazard, improv-heavy, character-swapping production that accomplishes exactly what it promises.
Having just captured the rebel spy Princess Leia (Valerie Hopkins) in a ship-boarding firefight, the evil Darth Vader (Tony Smith, with football pads, sunglasses and a beanie) wants nothing of her diplomatic claims, saying, “You’e part of the Rebel Alliance… and a traitor,” before turning to one of his loyal stormtroopers and ordering, “Take her away!” “Word,” replies the stormtrooper (Kenn Parks in a Halloween mask)… and scene!
The first installment in The Alley Theater‘s ongoing Sci-Fri series, ‘Star Wars: The Original Trilogy in 60 Minutes or Less’ is an outrageously haphazard, improv-heavy, character-swapping production that accomplishes exactly what it promises. Frenetically jumping about from actual lines of dialogue from the films, fourth-wall-breaking winks at an increasingly uproarious audience chock-full of fans and moments of complete breakdown which see respective cast members arguing on-stage as to the best way of portraying a particular scene (“There is no way we’re doing the battle of Hoth!”), ‘Star Wars’ delivers on the biggest requisite of improv-centric theater, in that while taking plenty of time for laughs and never shying from a bit of ironic reveling in all of its no-budget glory, the actors consistently strike the perfect balance in terms of staying on track and making a sincere attempt to sketch-out this much-beloved story in surprisingly coherent fashion.
Aside from kicking off a new late-night series, ‘Star Wars’ is also one of the first introductions of The Alley‘s newest performance space, an intimately-sized black-box theater located in the basement of the troupe’s The Pointe facility in Butchertown. The new space was a perfect complement to the feverish production and helped to illicit a further appreciation for the undeniable physicality of the material, with nothing between the slightly glistening and oft-out-of-breath actors and their audience but mere inches and no barrier to speak of. (In fact, I think I got my toes stepped on once or twice, but who’s complaining?) Needless to say, especially given the exceedingly deep relationship held by most fans towards the material, the increased intimacy between audience and actor goes a long way towards making this production what it is.
…Kenn Parks as Han Solo, whose entire acting career seems to exist exclusively to reaffirm his own masculinity.
But of course the swanky new venue and space-fairing hijinks are only half of the story, and thankfully the excellent cast members fair just as memorably, whether it be successfully jumping in and out of characters on a whim, stoking the flames of a building sense of humor amidst no small amount of LOL-able gags, or generally helping to hold the whole mess (used in the best way possible) together through sheer will alone. Tony Smith, who Alley-goers saw most recently as Agent Smith in ‘The Matrix: Live!’, is hilariously self-aware as both Lord Vader and Obi-wan (even joking that the two characters sound suspiciously alike), but kicks things into a completely new galaxy at the point where he and Scott Goodman have an on-stage scuffle over who gets to play Lando Calrissian, aka “the only black man in the galaxy”. Not to suggest Goodman (who was quite memorable himself in The Alley‘s production of ‘Hitchhikers…’) is lacking for any parts, as he also moonlights as a slightly more masculine version of Luke (as opposed to Valerie Hopkins’ pitch-perfect, “but I was going into Toshi Station, ” whine), all while squeezing in some appropriately over-the-top backwards-speak as Jedi-Master Yoda alongside a masterful rendition of everyone’s favorite Wookie and his patented, guttural roar. And then there’s Kenn Parks as Han Solo, whose entire acting career seems to exist exclusively to reaffirm his own masculinity (seriously, in the last six months alone this guy has been Patrick Swayze, Morpheus and now the biggest planet-hopping rogue of them all). But all jokes aside, there’s a reason Park is perfect for these parts, and he seems to have just as much fun hamming-it-up as always. Filling a litany of other roles, as well as double-duty as the production’s director, is the ever-industrious Chris Petty.
Normally it might be possible to suggest that a production’s over-reliance on its subject material would be a limiting factor in terms of accessibility, but for a force as ubiquitous as ‘Star Wars’ that just isn’t the case. Director Chris Petty, cast and crew have crafted the best kind of tribute in that it plays to the most hardcore of fans while still helping to communicate to less fervent initiates just what all the fuss was about in the first place. In his 2008 film ‘Be Kind Rewind’, director Spike Jonze introduced the concept of ‘sweding’, by which fans create scaled-down and humorously low-budget renditions of iconic films with whatever they have on hand. Much in the same way, it’s clear that the participants of ‘Star Wars: The Original Trilogy in 60 Minutes or Less’ have done more than their due diligence and spent many a sweaty-browed hour brainstorming and freeform improvising on just how to bring this big-time-tale to a notably green-screen-less small stage. Their passion for the project shines through in both accessibility and a dauntingly high entertainment factor.
‘Star Wars: The Original Trilogy in 60 Minutes or Less’ has additional performances at The Alley Theater at 10:00pm on February 10th and 24th, with tickets costing $10.
More information on ‘Star Wars’ and other Alley productions via the theater’s website.
More articles by me here.
Chris Ritter <<<< twitter.com/CT_Smash <<<< ctsmash@gmail.com
