Anonymous Fun in a South Austin Motel Room: Austinist Reivews Static
When it comes to staging new plays, everything rests on the quality of the writing. Engaging, thought-provoking, and markedly innovative, the writing in Ryan Pavelchik’s new play, Static, is simply fantastic.
The play’s first half is dark, disconnected, and confusing as it follows Josh, the main character, “breaking himself apart”. We’re introduced to characters we can’t hear or see, and bits of Josh’s past we can’t piece together or relate to the present. We learn that Josh has committed a crime – seemingly severe, but never stated outright. We see him eat, vomit, eat more, and then make-out with liquor bottles – all for reasons unknown. As Josh fractures into pieces, we learn just enough about him to keep us interested – struggling all the while to understand the difference between what’s real and what isn’t.
But the struggle is worth it. Without revealing too many plot points, we’ll just say that Josh begins to “put himself back together” – and as he does so, the fragmented stories converge, the play gains clarity, and the production begins to move in a way that practically shines. Pavelchik’s daring choice to move from de-constructed to constructed – springboarding from the now well-entrenched methods of “postmodern” playwriting – to create a distinctly contemporary, epically hopeful piece is a refreshing step forward for all us who are tired of watching modern playwrights compete for the title of “most randomly and pointlessly fucked up”. (Come on, didn’t we all read Shopping and Fucking back in 1994? Can we please just be done with that?)
As staged by Salvage Vanguard, the production’s big conceptual decision was presenting Static – which takes place in a hotel room – in an actual hotel room. Novel? Yes. Gimmicky? Maybe a little. Effective? Read on.
The “reality” of the hotel room certainly grounded the production – the familiarity of the setting allowing us to empathize with the character and his journey even in the play’s most disconnected and stylized moments. However, this left the design team absolutely no room for error. Every recording, costume piece, and television segment had to be crafted with such a meticulous attention to realistic detail as to believably exist in a hyper-real space. For instance, the televised pieces in the production, while cleverly displayed on the actual hotel room TV set, just weren’t high-quality enough to match the “reality” of the other visual elements. On the other hand, heaping praise to Etta Sanders (Production Manager), Buzz Moran (Sound Design), and Laura Cannon (Costume Design) for their subtle, but well-placed additions to the production.
In that same vein, the “reality” of the room also presented a daunting challenge for Brent Werzner, the actor playing Josh. Any artifice, or “stagey” acting would look ridiculous when performed so close to an audience, and Werzner does well in creating a subtle character – still managing, however, to truthfully reach the extreme emotional peaks and troughs that the part demands. And, while we thought his performance during the play’s first half could have been more specific (he occasionally came across as simply “in a dark place”), his journey back to normalcy through the play’s second half was precise, compelling, and utterly convincing.
So, theatre fans, here’s the verdict: Static isn’t exactly an easy ride, but its well worth it for those of you who want to see some daring new work.
Running through May 6th at the Woodward Hotel
Tickets and information at SVT website
