Mad Gravity – it’s the law at Flying H Theatre

by Jim Spencer and Shirley Lorraine

Many plays billed as comedies often have only sporadic comedic moments. Not so with Mad Gravity, the current production at Ventura’s Flying H Group Theatre Company. The laughs start in the first 60 seconds and continue constantly to the final blackout.

Mad Gravity is a 21st Century farce from the fertile mind of playwright William Missouri Downs. It features frenetic layers of physical action, literate dialogue and situational complications, all exquisitely blended and choreographed into a remarkably cohesive piece of theatre by the skilled hand of director Larry Swerdlove.

Here are the basics. Archie (Taylor Kasch) and his wife, Eudora (Brenda Evans), are free spirited, performance artists of the absurdist school of theatre. They have installed spectator seating throughout their house and invite audiences to watch as they live
out their lives as performance art. Akin to reality TV, they view it as 3D Reality Theatre without the glasses. Archie finances their efforts with a “government arts grant,” as he calls unemployment insurance.

Their teen daughter, Dakota (Sam Sullivan), has announced her love for a classmate, Tommy (Trent Trachtenberg). So, Archie and Eudora have invited Tommy’s parents, Joe (Scott Blanchard), a local dentist, and Mary (Angela DeCicco), to a get acquainted dinner in their home. Unfortunately, nobody has clued-in Joe and Mary about Archie and Eudora’s life style or that there will be an audience on one side of the room during dinner.

But wait, there’s more. A TV news anchor announces a comet is being pulled toward earth and there is a high probability everyone, including the audience, has only an hour to live. This leads to a series of events and confessions that heighten the hilarity
and furthers the chaos, even after the comet ultimately fails to make direct contact.

Major issues are resolved in the second act, which is very short (only one page in the script), and, as a finale, the meaning of life is revealed to the audience (really).

The cast is a tight ensemble and the actual audience is very much a part of this production, giving an additional dimension to the experience. Although Archie implores the cast not to break the fourth wall, it is frequently shattered, to the delight of all. We especially enjoyed how the material was personalized with local references to heighten the feeling of being intimately involved in the couple’s antics.

The Flying H is known for providing unique theatrical experiences. We highly recommend this one. Mad Gravity plays weekends (plus a Thursday performance on September 17) until September 19 at the intimate Flying H Group Theatre Company, 6368 Bristol Rd. (between Johnson Dr. and Victoria Ave.) in the Montalvo area of Ventura. All seats $15. Cash or check only at the door. Reservations recommended 901-0005. Advance tickets on-line at http://madgravexampleity.brownpapertickets.com. No late
seating. Doors open 30 minutes before show time: 8 p.m. Thur/Fri/Sat and 4 p.m. Sun.

By Eduardo Victoria / [email protected]

One of the great divides of the musical world is the rap genre. Relatively speaking, it’s still in its infancy and changing as much as the times it has existed in. Straight Outta Compton tells the story of 3 important figures in rap: Eric Wright (Eazy-E), O’Shea Jackson (Ice Cube), and Andre Young (Dr. Dre). Played by Jason Mitchell, O’Shea Jackson, Jr, and Corey Hawkins respectively.

1986. Gary Gray does an amazing job setting the time and place for the film. Compton, CA – 1986. Wright, Young, and Jackson find themselves living in the slums of California, racially charged due to gang violence and crime. What Jackson and Young have in common is a love for music, which eventually connects them with fellow struggling artists Lorenzo Patterson (MC Ren) and Antoine Carraby (DJ Yella). Actors Aldis Hodge and Neil Brown, Jr. portray the rappers in the film, respectively.

What ensues is their rise to fame and eventual fracture as the group NWA. The film is a rare case in which it felt that it ran too long but we didn’t see nearly enough. It’s apparent that the group’s long and troubled history is perhaps too great to fit into just one film. So many characters come and go that we’re still meeting new people in the third act.

Paul Giamatti is three for three this year, delivering another great performance, this time as Jerry Heller, the group’s manager. The acting is brilliant, particularly the performance from O’Shea Jackson, Jr. playing his own father (very meta indeed, especially because they look just like each other). One of the best soundtracks of the year also supercharges the picture to almost angry levels, just as the young rappers were back in the late 80s, dealing with gangs, drugs, police brutality, and the evils of the music industry.

Even with all of that, the film just didn’t click with me. There are many scenes that go nowhere. A great example is early on when we see Heller approach the guys at a swimming pool, accompanied by two other people, yet in the next shot, they’re gone. The film’s score by Joseph Trapanese sounds like it’s more at home in an action picture than a dramatic biopic about the NWA. A chase sequence through Downtown LA culminates with a booming crescendo of bass drums that’s a little a “too Dark Knight.”

The loose editing, pointless story beats, unnecessary character introductions (sorry Snoop and ‘Pac), and bizarre explosions of action make Straight Outta Compton feel like a rushed product. For a film that runs at 2 hours and 27 minutes, we see a lot but only scratch the surface. The film should have strictly focused on Eazy, Cube, and Dre to have really hit home in the dramatic department.

Because I’m not a rap fan, nor have I followed their careers closely, I can only judge the film on its cinematic merits, for which it is getting a lot of awards buzz. Only time will tell if Oscar will give Compton a watch. For me, this is a rare case in which I’m hoping for an extended or director’s cut on the Blu-Ray, which I probably should have waited for anyway.

Rated R. Now playing at Downtown Cinemark 10. 147 minutes.