Austinist Theatre Review: Holes Before Bedtime at The Vortex
Austinist was at The Vortex on Friday for their opening night performance of Dan Basila's wickedly surreal play, Holes Before Bedtime. The short of it is: go and see it before the three-week run ends!
Produced by the talented folks of Rubber Repertory in association with the Vortex Repertory Company, Holes Before Bedtime is a riotous, hilarious sex opera that rudely tramples your traditional family values and then promptly relieves itself over the quivering heap. We should have anticipated this by the tagline, which promised "A Matricidal, Sodomidic Cancer Riddle"; certainly, the frighteningly realistic painting of a giant anus greeting us in the dimmed theatre might have clued us off. But we're either hopelessly dense or were simply too busy admiring the lovely Vortex theatre space beforehand, because we still spent the entire show gawking at the sordid spectacle onstage.
Holes Before Bedtime isn't presented as a linear narrative so much as a series of spasmodic vignettes. It takes place in a womb, peopled with depraved characters who converse in short, incomprehensible phrases that sound as though written by an infant on an acid trip with the liberal aid of a Webster's Dictionary. While inspired by the biological phenomenom of Fetus in Fetu, wherein the remnants of an undeveloped fetus are trapped in the body of its twin (recall the Aunt in My Big Fat Greek Wedding?), this is merely the route Basila selects to describe the morally-bankrupt hilarities of this incestuous family.
Review continues after the jump, along with potentially NSFW pictures!
Indicative of what Basila considers family, in this case, is Sodomy In the Corner: a bearded baby who has his own, as it were, mini-baby trapped within his testicles. He's portrayed masterfully by Frank Benge, an eloquent bear of a man who commands absolute attention with his booming, resonant voice. Cole Wimpee pulls off a very convincing portrayal of the snide Little Brother, who craves yet never obtains the affection of his mother. He eventually pairs with the Girl-Next-Door dubbed The Hand Thief, played by the alluring Susie Williams. Narrating the story is Anthony Megie in the role of The Doctor. We particularly enjoyed his tap-dancing. But far and away stealing the show is Kristine Olson as Sorry Now, mother of Sodomy and Little Brother. Her range of facial expressions - angst, ecstacy, lust, horror - is mesmerizing, and her acute sense of comic timing hearkens to mind any of the Three Stooges.
The acting is also aided greatly by Henna Chou's musical accompaniment. There are several musical numbers throughout the performance, which shift from rockabilly to opera to hysterical shrieking. It was altogether unpredictable, which we found delightful. Some of the singing did seem off-pitch, but that may very well have been deliberate.
In between acts, the actors do this nifty little dance that we swear must have come from the bar scene in Jean-Luc Godard's Band of Outsiders. Surprisingly, the actors are quite lithe.
If you're looking for something other than all the concerts happening these next few weeks, by all means consider heading over to The Vortex to catch a performance of Holes Before Bedtime. Come with an open mind and we're sure you'll have a hysterical time. But go soon, as the production runs through June 18.
Vortex Repertory Company and The Rubber Repertory Theatre present
HOLES BEFORE BEDTIME
June 3-18, 2005
Thursdays-Sundays at 8pm, special late night shows Saturdays at 11pm
The Vortex is at 2307 Manor Road
(1/2 mile East of I-35, between Chestnut and Maple)
Free Parking. Air-conditioning. Wheelchair accessible.
Click here for a map.
Reservations: 512-478 -LAVA (5282)
Tickets: YOU PICK YOUR PRICE $25, $20, $15, $10, $5
Advanced reservations recommended.
