BFE
San Diego Asian American Repertory Theatre has done some remarkable productions over the years. Their current offering, about a dysfunctional Asian trio in Arizona (aka "bum-f..k Egypt"), however, isn't one. Alienated from without and within, Panny, Lefty, and Isabel seek love but instead find rejection: from pizza delivery boys to serial killers. Written by Julia Cho, BFE feels like several plays tossed together, ranging from stark comedy to an emotionally powerful ending. The AART production, directed by James Paul Cirino, has too many basic problems to let the play come through. Most of the acting is amateurish. The actors speak as if the audience didn't exist: mumbling to each other, or to the floor, and glossing over key lines and phrases. The production's pace is deadly slow (made even more so by many scene changes with C.L. Ward's modular set). A wall-to-wall tightening could cut a good ten minutes. Samuel Dent and Albert Park's videos show the action from different angles (the theme of the play: truth depends on how one sees it), but what's in front of the screen lacks life and emotional truth.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, September 19, 2010
Hours
| Sundays, 2:30pm |
| Thursdays, 7:30pm |
| Fridays, 7:30pm |
| Saturdays, 7:30pm |