REVIEW: Wipeout (Studio Theatre)
Undead monsters, gonzo journalism, and Andy Warhol. DC’s having a pretty diverse pick of shows this summer! It’s lovely, but I’m sure there’s room for something particularly estival. And lo, it’s 14th Street’s Big Yellow Box here to do so as Studio presents their season-closing beach comedy Wipeout. Surf’s up!
Book
Aurora Real de Asua’s book is concise and natural. Claudia is an elderly Northern California woman who, on her birthday with her two best friends Margaret (Gary) and Wynn, decide to take a surf lesson. The opening scenes—heck, even the pre-show “Turn your phones off” spiel— establish their relationship wonderfully, with organic quips about relationships, menopause, and other elements of life that they’ve had decades to develop jokes about. This serves as a big moment for the normally uptight Claudia, as she tries to shed her risk averseness; Wynn, though, is going through a divorce; and Gary bursts in as a surprise guest. Eventually their instructor arrives, the airheaded 19 year-old surf bro Blaze. What follows is a solid round of surf therapy as Blaze takes each one on their own individual lesson, in which they spill their own concerns about life while he unpacks his own. De Asua’s storytelling is a solid exploration on the bookends of adult life: one unsure of themselves and newly matured and the others reaching their twilight years. Occaisonally, the scene will shift back to the remaining women not in their lessons, where deeper secrets are unveiled and friendships grown even further. What begins as a potentially light-hearted comedy evolves into a somber, but moving analysis on making the most of the life you have. 7/10
Acting
The four performers work off of each other tremendously, and with wavelike drift carry the flow of the story well. DC favorite Naomi Jacobson, hot off a great performance in Theater J’s Your Name Means Dream this season, is back at Studio as a terrifically skittish, yet optimistically neurotic Claudia, the glue of her friend group. A group that includes the barely-wants-to-be-there Wynn (a steadfast Delyssa Reynolds) and their rambunctious lesbian Gary (a profound performance from Katherine Cortez). Yet, it’s Blaze’s surprisingly layered character whom I left the most impressed by. He is played with brilliant himboism by Alec Ludacka, making his Studio debut; hopefully the first of many. 8/10
Production
The top of the play sets the scene: the ocean.
Our protagonists are taking surf lessons, awaiting the arrival of their surf instructor, floating around on their boards. They discuss returning to the beach, seeing other surfers, and being sunburnt.
Not that you’d know this from Danilo Gambini’s befuddling staging, which is an intricately decorated beach house. It creates a strange environment for a book that, from what I’ve read, never actually takes place inside. The women are wearing capris and dresses, making cocktails, and lounging about — and suddenly bursts in Blaze, whom without the liner notes would appear to just be breaking into their bungalow to drag them to the beach himself. It doesn’t make much of an effort to clear itself up, either. Though there’s a coffee table that would make a decent surfboard stand-in (surf-in?), it is seldom used as such in favor of merely sitting the actors upon the kitchen counter. Things get awkward when the blocking calls for paddling and sometimes waterplay and there’s only air to deal with (save for the handful of times that there’s some entertaining spraying from the sink.) It makes all of the establishing dialogue and scene changes all the more confusing, and for what? 2/10
Viz
I think the last time I was in a beach house was when I went to the Outer Banks when I was 9. But some things remained etched: the bright colors, the aquas, the natural materials, and the fact that the kitchen had a small, plastic, flat-screen TV tucked in a corner (in 2006, this was the peak of wealth). These are the kinds of details Studio greets the audience with, including some looping surfing videos and twangy beach noises. The surfboard among wispy waves was another good direction for the program art. 9/10
Verdict
Wipeout is not exactly its title, but aggravating direction still holds it back despite the efforts of its talented cast. 27/40
