Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Fractal edgy

Stupid F---ing Bird at Cygnet Theatre

Cast of Stupid F---ing Bird
Cast of Stupid F---ing Bird

In Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896), the characters wonder how people will think about them in 100 years. Boy, if they only knew! They’ve been revised, relocated, remixed, and, in Aaron Posner’s comic tribute/diatribe, Stupid F--ing Bird, deconstructed.

Stupid F**king Bird

It’s as if the human ear in the last century got clogged with Velveeta. For us to hear Arkadina and Konstantine and Nina these days, they must morph from doleful passivity to pyrotechnics, from subtle suggestions to attitude, F-bombs, generic jitterbugging, and a relentless attempt to make it “real.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

That said, except for the final scenes when the bills come due, Stupid can be funny, touching, and always refreshing, not for what it does to Chekhov, but how it slams the safe, tried-and-true theater of today.

Konstantine, the fledgling writer in Seagull, is now Con, bug-eyed in love with new forms and aspiring actress Nina. His mother, Emma (née Arkadina) and her lover Doyle Trigorin (now a screenwriter) have made it big time. Mash, a Goth dressed in black “because it’s slimming,” loves Con as much as Dev loves her. Sorn, a composite, is a doctor and owner of the estate. He floats through scenes like a sage ghost.

Stupid is, at the same time, the story of The Seagull, monologues and manic outbursts, musical interludes, and a play written on the spot in front of a live audience — who, it’s implied throughout, are as Chekhovian as they come, dull and stuck and afraid to demand better theater and better lives.

Cygnet’s opening night had uneven performances (as if caught somewhere between an earlier version and one that’s working well). But Ro Boddie’s Con carried the show over all rough spots. In a blue headband and shades, he warmed up the audience as if for a rap session. For the next two-plus hours he gave a secular sermon about living “actually.” His edgy Con — nay, fractal edgy — really hurts and feels mightily in this spellbinding effort.

(The play has a problem, though: Con lives “actually” and loves fully, then contemplates suicide as a result; here and elsewhere, it’s best not to peek beneath the show’s brash surface).

They should call the top of Act Two “The Jacque Wilke Show”: as Mash, she plays ukulele and sings (“What could be harder than life, oh yeah…”), and suffers in ways that combine angst and hilarity.

Andrew Hull’s spare set exposes backstage elements, à la Brecht, and Michael Mizerany’s splashy choreography turns it into a Spring Awakening–like stomp fest, with pounding chairs and precise shakes and twitches.

Other highlights: San Diego favorite Carole Foreman’s a stately/near psychotic Emma; she’s a hoot when her right hand dies a melodramatic death. Walter Murray is excellent as Sorn. His stillness and humble honesty share the author’s message — about loving life, warts and all — in the most genuine manner.

Playing through June 19

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dating Sites For Little People: Best Platforms & Tips

Cast of Stupid F---ing Bird
Cast of Stupid F---ing Bird

In Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896), the characters wonder how people will think about them in 100 years. Boy, if they only knew! They’ve been revised, relocated, remixed, and, in Aaron Posner’s comic tribute/diatribe, Stupid F--ing Bird, deconstructed.

Stupid F**king Bird

It’s as if the human ear in the last century got clogged with Velveeta. For us to hear Arkadina and Konstantine and Nina these days, they must morph from doleful passivity to pyrotechnics, from subtle suggestions to attitude, F-bombs, generic jitterbugging, and a relentless attempt to make it “real.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

That said, except for the final scenes when the bills come due, Stupid can be funny, touching, and always refreshing, not for what it does to Chekhov, but how it slams the safe, tried-and-true theater of today.

Konstantine, the fledgling writer in Seagull, is now Con, bug-eyed in love with new forms and aspiring actress Nina. His mother, Emma (née Arkadina) and her lover Doyle Trigorin (now a screenwriter) have made it big time. Mash, a Goth dressed in black “because it’s slimming,” loves Con as much as Dev loves her. Sorn, a composite, is a doctor and owner of the estate. He floats through scenes like a sage ghost.

Stupid is, at the same time, the story of The Seagull, monologues and manic outbursts, musical interludes, and a play written on the spot in front of a live audience — who, it’s implied throughout, are as Chekhovian as they come, dull and stuck and afraid to demand better theater and better lives.

Cygnet’s opening night had uneven performances (as if caught somewhere between an earlier version and one that’s working well). But Ro Boddie’s Con carried the show over all rough spots. In a blue headband and shades, he warmed up the audience as if for a rap session. For the next two-plus hours he gave a secular sermon about living “actually.” His edgy Con — nay, fractal edgy — really hurts and feels mightily in this spellbinding effort.

(The play has a problem, though: Con lives “actually” and loves fully, then contemplates suicide as a result; here and elsewhere, it’s best not to peek beneath the show’s brash surface).

They should call the top of Act Two “The Jacque Wilke Show”: as Mash, she plays ukulele and sings (“What could be harder than life, oh yeah…”), and suffers in ways that combine angst and hilarity.

Andrew Hull’s spare set exposes backstage elements, à la Brecht, and Michael Mizerany’s splashy choreography turns it into a Spring Awakening–like stomp fest, with pounding chairs and precise shakes and twitches.

Other highlights: San Diego favorite Carole Foreman’s a stately/near psychotic Emma; she’s a hoot when her right hand dies a melodramatic death. Walter Murray is excellent as Sorn. His stillness and humble honesty share the author’s message — about loving life, warts and all — in the most genuine manner.

Playing through June 19

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will L.A. Times crowd out San Diego U-T at Riverside printing plant?

Will Toni Atkins stand back from anti-SDG&E initiative?
Next Article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.