Written by 5:40 am Review, Theater, Theatre Out, Uncategorized

Short But Sweet : Wolves @ Theatre Out in Santa Ana – Review

Written by Alina Mae Wilson 

People love re-imagining fairy tales. The popularity of well-known stories such as Into the Woods, Wicked, and every single re-created plot point on ABC’s Once Upon a Time proves audiences everywhere are still willing to sit through the same basic storylines -so long as the tale is presented in a different, somewhat more “clever” way. In Theater Out’s production of Wolves, we get our “redone fairy tale” fix from one man’s delusional worldview, which resembles a horror film version of Little Red Riding Hood. Wolves is brief, amusing, and thoroughly, thoroughly weird.

11131792_10153122778819627_7185883548478343311_o

photo courtesy : David C. Carnevale

Via edification by an omnipotent narrator who can stop time, we learn Ben is a young man from a small town currently living in a big city where he does not fit in. We also know he lives with his infinitely more confident roommate, Jack, who happens to be his former boyfriend. Despite their breakup, Ben still has feelings for his roomie and doesn’t cope well when Jack decides to go out for a night on the town.  

I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s important to note this is not your typical fairy tale re-telling. This is not a re-imagined version of the original “Little Red Riding Hood.” This is a modern version of the story. Ben provides us with the central perspective rather than the Narrator. The Narrator is there to clarify facts about Ben more than anything else. The most important perspective in the story is undoubtedly Ben’s because he is the reactor to everything that happens.  

11103079_10153127916269627_1160110630230174291_o

photo courtesy : David C. Carnevale

In the best possible way, Jeffrey Fargo is disgusting as Ben.   He is miserable, terrified, quivering like a mass of jell-o every moment he is onstage. From the beginning to the end, there is absolutely no difficulty believing the wretchedness of this sad and pathetic person. But it is possible to be too miserable, and I think that line is crossed with Ben. The Narrator gives us a condensed version of Jack and Ben’s history together, but it is too brief.   Ben and Jack do not make sense as roommates or lovers simply because Jack is so down to earth, and Ben is so…not. Yes, opposites have been known to attract, but we, as an audience, never see anything appealing about Ben.   It might have made more sense for the two men to be brothers if only because the bond of familial love might make Jack’s willingness to humor Ben more understandable. Otherwise, we are left with our own bewildered thoughts of “Why on earth is Jack still here?” With a running time of just under sixty minutes, we still have plenty of time to get into the richer details of their relationship, so it’s somewhat surprising they focus on overly-long dialogues between Jack and his friend Wolf.

The Narrator is well-written and has some of the best lines in the show. Her consultations with the audience and her eerie intentions towards Ben make the show. Played by Lori Kelley, the Narrator had the audience laughing almost every time she spoke. Kevin Carranza is perfectly believable as Wolf in every stage of his development. Dylan Wallace seems to come to life during the show’s second half when he undergoes some personality development. During the first half, his average Joe persona appears to be reciting his lines rather too much by rote. 

The show is under an hour long and could stand a bit more character development, but what is shown is shown pretty well. 

7.8/10

April 3 – April 25

Podcast Interviews with the cast by Ashton Marcus:

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/199679998″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

(Visited 4 times, 1 visits today)
Tags: , , , , , , Last modified: December 2, 2022
Close