[NEohioPAL] Review of "Based on a Totally True Story" at convergence-continuum

Bob Abelman r.abelman at adelphia.net
Sun Aug 25 07:21:13 PDT 2013


convergence-continuum's 'True Story' is a disarmingly charming comedy 

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 8/30/13

 

 

"This is a story about a guy, a writer, and another guy, also a writer, and a dad (the first guy's dad), and a play the first guy wrote, and the people in Hollywood who want to turn that play into a movie, and what happens with the people in Hollywood, the first guy, the second guy, the first guy's dad, and what they learn about themselves and the world."  

 

So begins Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's disarmingly charming "Based on a Totally True Story," currently in production by convergence-continuum in Tremont.  

 

The guy is Ethan, a self-absorbed and excessively unassuming playwright and writer of "The Flash" comic books.   His structured, shallow and solitary existence in New York City gets thrown into disarray when one of his plays gets optioned for a Hollywood horror film, he meets and falls in love with Kevin, who is a novelist and writer for the "Village Voice," and his father announces that he is leaving his mother for another woman.

 

More than just a synopsis of the storyline, Ethan's rambling opening monologue also tells us that "True Story" is all about the storytelling.  It will be quirky.  It will be personal.  And we soon discover that Aguirre-Sacasa, who is himself a comic book writer, will employ comic book structure, conventions and vernacular to drive his play. 

 

Starting with this opening monologue, the playwright employs the same self-aware direct address found in the running, written narrative in comic books.  

 

The play unfolds like a series of comic book panels, where a short self-disclosure by Ethan abruptly segues into a short phone conversation, which abruptly segues into a short scene between characters, and so on.   

 

Although the story covers two years of Ethan's life, the characters inform us that some scenes have been compressed for time and alert us to the end of a flashback with "Meanwhile, back in the present.."  

 

Director Cory Molner and his designers, Terrii Wachala (lighting), Clyde Simon (set/sound) and sade wolfkitten (costume), accentuate the whole comic book motif by dividing the stage into five primary color-coded locations that contain two-dimensional scenery.  It's as if we have walked into a graphic novel minus the speech balloons floating above us.    

 

All this is very clever stuff, but without a truly engaging storyline or fully fleshed-out characters - and this play has neither - the playwright's pretense stretches mighty thin mighty quickly (insert your own clever Mister Fantastic reference here).  ''It's a slightly familiar story,'' says Ethan at the end of his opening monologue, ''but that's okay because nobody likes things that are too original or challenging.'' Yes they do.

 

Yet, this production succeeds mightily and it does so thanks to Zac Hudak as Ethan.  Like the comic book hero his character helps create, Hudak saves the day.   

 

>From the play's opening moments, which take place center stage and within inches of patrons, Hudak turns on his boyish charm and wins over the audience.   Most of his character's witty repartee defies texture or nuance, but Hudak finds opportunities to provide both.  We end up caring about Ethan's life and take pleasure in watching Hudak live it.  

 

Stuart Hoffman offers us a sincere and stalwart Michael.  This, thankfully, undermines much of the whining that wants to seep through the dialogue.  But it also dampens some of the first-act affection Michael has for Ethan and makes it difficult to see them as a couple.  Still, Hoffman's Michael is an interesting and believable counterpoint to Hudak's Ethan.   

 

As predatory film producer Mary Ellen Eustice, Lisa Wiley does her best to breathe life into this overused archetype, and largely succeeds.  So, too, does Clyde Simon as Ethan's dad, who takes a character as two-dimensional as the scenery and makes him somewhat appealing and well-intended.

  

Bobby Coyne is excellent as Ethan's comic book editor, who pops in and out of the play and gives Ethan the opportunity to engage in interaction rather than merely report it.   But as an Apple store salesman, a video store clerk, and an L.A. actor, Coyne gives into the playwright's tendency to go for broad comedy which detracts from his grander and cleverer aspirations. 

 

Like depictions of "The Flash" in comic books, this play sometimes seems to go nowhere fast.   But there is a lot of heart and plenty of humor in this delightful production, and Hudak's charm makes the venture worthwhile.      

 

"Based on a Totally True Story" runs through September 14 at convergence-continuum's The Liminis Theatre, 2438 Scranton Rd., Cleveland.  Tickets, which range from $10 to $15, can be purchased by calling 216-687-0074 or visiting www.convergence-continuum.org.

 

 

 
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