Friday, February 24, 2012

DAUGHTERS OF LOT

Brain Melt Consortium Presents
DAUGHTERS OF LOT
Kraine Theater 
85 E 4th Street, between 2nd Ave & Bowery
Part of the 2012 FRIGID New York Festival.

Written by Alexis Roblan
Directed by Rachel Kerry
Featuring Marlena Kalm, Stav Meishar, Caitlin Mehner, Naomi Bland,and Rebecca Gray Davis

 director’s note in haiku form:
Are you man enough?
For tonight’s entertainment?
...Do enjoy the show.

DAUGHTERS OF LOT is a brilliant idea for a play, with a brilliant conception for its style.

It has a terrific cast. (It's fun to see young actors that will be stars at an early stage of their careers!)


 
Caitlin Mehner, Marlena Kalm, Stav Meishar
DAUGHTERS OF LOT 
Photo by Nicholas Grant


It does not have a fully developed script, or the energy, ferocity and conviction to live up to its premise, or the promises made in the promos (see the director's haiku above) and even the introduction to the audience: After "threatening" the audience with the promise that they will be disturbed, and that the play is for adult audiences only, and that anyone squeamish should leave right away, the play wimps out and is less sexual, explicit, or daring than 9 PM TV.

Let's start at the beginning: DAUGHTERS OF LOT uses the biblical story of Lot's daughters, in the context of a burlesque show, to comment on the role of women and provide a "vexing exploration of the way women are taught to be 'women'."

Here's a little background: In Genesis, after the world is created in seven days, Adam and Eve are thrown out of the Garden of Eden, and Noah and his animals survive the flood, we come to Abraham (the Patriarch of the Israelites). Lot is Abraham's nephew. Lot lived in Sodom, which together with Gomorrah were "exceeding grievous" in their sinning. Lot was said to be the only righteous man in Sodom. Lot had lots of daughters (at least 4: two married, two virgins).

And here's the interesting part of this story: Although Lot was said to be righteous, there were some things that happened that raise modern eyebrows...

First, the Lord sends men to visit Sodom to see how many righteous men live there, to determine if the town is worth saving. When townsmen come to attack these messengers, Lot offers his virgin daughters to the crowd: "Behold now, I have two daughters that have never known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you and do ye to them as is good in your eyes, only unto these men do nothing, for as much as they are under the shadow of my roof."

Then, Lot escapes the destruction of Sodom and the death of his wife (who is turned into a pillar of salt) with his two virgin daughters, and they -- the only survivors of the destruction -- live in a cave in the mountains. Alone in the mountains and imagining they are the last people on earth, Lot's older daughter one night, and his younger daughter the next -- to preserve the seed of their father -- get Lot drunk and sleep with him. Later, each has a child that grows up to be the Patriarch of another tribe.

So, Rape and Incest (of biblical proportions) by the only righteous man in Sodom, with the background of Sodom -- a city renowned for its sinning -- in the context of a modern burlesque, as a platform to discuss the education of women, by an acting troupe of 5 highly talented & beautiful women, playing all the roles of modern and ancient men and women... This should be a fierce play.

But it was bland. There was no sex (just a little talking about the sex and sin that would be but never happened). No nudity. The burlesque was not real -- no singing, no dancing, just a few jokes. The daughters of Lot were on stage, in the burlesque(?) or not(?), but though there was talk about "educating" them, it was not clear what was taught, or what they learned, or what they did with their knowledge, or how, exactly, what they learned in the burlesque was brought back to their own time. The play ends with Lot kind of apologizing for having sex with his daughters -- but aside from the revisionism (the bible blames the girls -- not Lot -- for the sex) its an interesting, but not a very strong scene. And he's just talking; nothing's happening. And the play ends there. After just an hour.

Plays at an early stage are interesting because it's possible and fun to think about how they might develop.

Here are some ideas...

The conception is terrific. Just strengthen it and make it fierce, real, clear, personal, political and sexual.

Dramatize the incendiary scenes in the story of Lot's daughters. Don't just talk about them.

Use members of the audience. Involve the audience physically! (If necessary, put shills in the audience.) Make the audience (safely and comfortably) uncomfortable.

Instead of beginning with the burlesque girls stretching (while people are walking in), have them in the more intimate setting of their dressing room, and have the stretches choreographed with the grace of a kind of abstract dance. (Note/disclosure: I just saw PINA; now all dramatic physicality seems like it should be colored by dance.)

Make the burlesque real with sex, jokes, dance and song. Note that mesh stockings and cleavage alone do not burlesque make. The costumes are excellent, but the burlesque costume is over-used, and there's lots more burlesquing to be done.

Make Sodom real with sex, sin and nudity (on stage, not just talked about).

Make the differences between the time of Sodom, the present day, and the present day burlesque of Sodom real (and clear).

Be clear about what the daughters are learning, and how they change with what they have learned. When interacting with the daughters in the burlesque, make it clear how that is part of the burlesque.  When they are in Sodom, make that real, clear, and explicit; and connect it to what they have "learned" in the burlesque.

The older daughter initiates the rape of the father. Make her role stronger and clearer.

Extend the length of the play to full length theater (100-120 min running time).  That should allow ample time to include songs, music, jokes, sex, sinning and the rest of these ideas.


This play was intriguing. I like theater that makes me think, and makes me think about how I would approach it if I could reshape and direct it.

DAUGHTERS OF LOT  plays at the Frigid Festival, which is a great place to bring a new play to be put on its feet, to be tried out and to be seen by an audience. The Frigid Festival is created by the Horse Trade Theater Group, which is shaping up as one of the most prolific and important OOB theater companies.




DAUGHTERS OF LOT
Kraine Theater 
85 E 4th Street, between 2nd Ave & Bowery

Performance times are as follows: Thursday, Feb 23rd, 7:30 PM; Saturday, Feb 25th, 5:30 PM;
Tuesday, Feb 28th, 9:00 PM; Friday, Mar 2nd, 5:30 PM; and Sunday, Mar 4th, 4:00 PM. Tickets
are $15 and may be obtained through ...

SMARTTIX
www.smarttix.com .




DAUGHTERS OF LOT OFFICIAL SITE
http://www.brainmeltconsortium.com/daughters-of-lot.html

BRAIN MELT CONSORTIUM
http://www.brainmeltconsortium.com

FRIGID FESTIVAL - FRIGID NEW YORK
http://frigidnewyork.info/

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP
http://horsetrade.info/

CAITLIN MEHNER ON IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2790561/


STAV MEISHAR
http://www.stavmeishar.com



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