Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Trish Harnetiaux’s playfully abstract CALIFORNIA launches the 25th edition of Clubbed Thumb’s essential Summerworks series

• By drediman
• May 26, 2022
• No Comments

This week at the cozy wild project in the East Village, I caught California by Trish Harnetiaux (the playwright’s theatrical podcast series The MS Phoenix Rising tickled me during lockdown). The show launches the landmark 25th edition of Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks, an annual festival focused squarely on presenting adventurous new plays (most notably, the series was the first to stage Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me, which eventually found its way to Broadway and beyond, as well as Ms. Harnetiaux’s own Tin Cat Shoes). Over the years, along with showing up for the Public Theater’s iconic Free Shakespeare in the Park, attending Clubbed Thumb’s annual festival has become for me an essential New York summertime theater tradition.

Ms. Harnetiaux’s new play bears all the hallmarks of a Summerworks production – California is pristinely staged (uncommon for such short runs), structurally adventurous, and playfully abstract. Set I believe at some point during the 1980s, the slight piece (in total, the show swiftly runs only 65 intermission-less minutes) depicts a family on a road trip from Spokane, Washington to Huntington Beach, California. To pass the time, the members of the family resort to immersive storytelling to amuse themselves (the play takes place before the prevalence of smart phones, after all). Over the course of the play, the line between reality and storytelling blurs, thereby entertaining notions like multi-verses and surreality, all the while keeping its internal logic close to its chest (if any exists at all). As such, the work ultimately registers more like a quirky sketch rather than a satisfying, fully-formed evening of theater. On Monday night, that didn’t quite matter to the sold out audience, who happened to adore the play’s unexplained flights of fancy.

The production has been sharply directed by Will Davis, who doubles down on both the play’s absurdity/mystery, as well as its involved storytelling (which ultimately delves into some pretty dark territory). The show’s many technical cues are meticulously executed, thanks largely to Oona Curley’s dynamic lighting and dots’ mobile, stylishly austere set design. The cast features Jordan Bellow, Ethan Dubin, Annie Henk, Mallory Portnoy, and Pete Simpson, each of whom imbue their respective family member with amusing specificity. Their fine ensemble work forms the backbone of the show.

In the coming weeks, Clubbed Thumb will follow up California with its Summerworks productions of Gab Reisman’s Spindle Shuttle Needle and Angela Hanks’ Bodies They Ritual.

RECOMMENDED

CALIFORNIA
Off-Broadway, Play
Summerworks / presented by Clubbed Thumb at wild project
1 hour, 5 minutes (without an intermission)
Through May 31