2015 Hollywood Fringe Round Up: Wombat Man, Smudge, and Catherine

Chief Leibowitz, Commissioner Borden, and Wombat Man

Wombat Man:  You really couldn't ask for a better premise.  In this parody of the campy 1960s Batman TV show, Wombat Man investigates a string of cereal icon murders (Tony the Tiger, Lucky the Leprechaun) at the hand of the Trix Rabbit, who has just about reached his breaking point after decades of being denied a taste of his namesake cereal.  Wombat Man, as dumb as he is sincere, bumbles along searching for clues and trying, like so many before him, to stop that rabbit.

In this throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks production, the execution leaves quite a bit to be desired.  Though the show is not without its amusing moments, it too often relies on clammy jokes and pop culture references in place of actual humor.  (By the time the third non-sequitur Frozen cover roles around, the audience really starts to question if the gag is worth the run time.)  Writer/Director Chrisi Talyn Saje seems to have followed every whim and idea that surfaced during the creation of the show.  Particularly with a show this bizarre and campy, Wombat Man could have used an outside perspective who knew when to say "enough."

The sets and costumes also suffer as the vision appears to overpower the budget.  A scaled down approach would have been less distracting.  A truly savvy production would have made the limitations part of the joke.  It's unfortunate to see that the amount of effort expended didn't yield more effective results.

Clare Wess Yauss and John Potter stand out in an uneven cast.  Yauss plays dippy Lucy with ease and Potter takes what could have been a thankless role and shines with every reaction and facial expression.  These two consistently stole the scene - even ones they were barely in.  

Whitney Wellner & Jesse G. Louis

Smudge: In Rachel Axler’s Smudge, eager parents Colby  and Nick’s  expectations are dashed when their baby is born deformed – limbless, one-eyed, purple/gray skin.  Not quite a baby.  Closer to a smudge.  Some might even say inhuman.  Would you?

While Nick (Jesse G. Louis) is immediately taken by his daughter - lumps and all, Colby (Whitney Wellner) has a much harder time tapping into her maternal instincts.  Her resentment of the smudge is palpable.  A lesser play would have made Colby a villain and Nick a saint, however Smudge digs deeper.  The play adequately gives Colby a point of view that can be understood if not entirely sympathized with.  Nick's response, too, is shown to be lacking as it becomes clear that each parent is missing a piece of the truth: Colby refuses to accept what she has while Nick refuses to mourn what he’s lost.

The play takes a bit too much time setting up the story and reaching its conclusion.  Scenes repeat themselves as we are given the same information about characters/character traits over and over again.  Worse still, the conflict between the parents takes implausibly long to come to a head.  Once it does, however, the show really starts to pay off.  We get a rewarding speech from Nick followed by a a conclusion that is equally strong -thematically fitting, organic, optimistic and bleak. Each parent moves from their original reactions and touchingly, closer together with the aid of solid performances by Wellner and Louis.

Ultimately Smudge ends up being a fascinating and challenging 60 minute show saddled by a 90 minute run time.

The cast of Catherine

Catherine: In this modern take on Jane Austen’s lesser-known work Northanger Abbey, our heroine Catherine has been transported to present-day Los Angeles.  A stranger in a big city, Catherine is just beginning to carve out her space in her newfound home, encountering a broad range of characters of varying degrees of integrity.  Good and kind Catherine learns to stand on her own feet and live by her convictions.

Adaptations of this sort have the unique task of satisfying two audiences: those familiar with the original work and those who are not.  Unfortunately, Catherine is not up to the latter task.  The story seems to meander along - nods to various subplots surface and disappear with little impact on the central story.  Playwright Stina Pederson would have done well to eliminate a few of these to better focus the story, particularly considering she is attempting to condense 200 pages of story into an hour's time.

The choice to have the characters speak in 19th Century vernacular is another misguided nod to the source material.  Unfortunately, it only serves to make the thinly-drawn characters sound unnatural, further distancing them from the audience.

A disappointing misfire from the production company that brought us last year’s impressive HFF debut Four Tree Plays.

You can catch Wombat Man at Underground Theatre on June 19th (8:00 PM), 20th (8:00 PM), 26th (8:00 PM), and 27th (8:00 PM).  Find tickets here.

You can catch Smudge at Hudson Theatres on June 19th (8:00 PM), 20th (8:00 PM), 21st (3:00 PM), 26th (8:00 PM), 27th (8:00 PM), and 28th (3:00 PM).  Find tickets here.

You can catch Catherine at Theatre Asylum on June 17th (5:30 PM), 18th (5:30 PM), 19th (7:00 PM), 21st (8:30 PM), 23rd (5:00 PM), 24th (5:00 PM), 26th (5:30 PM), and 27th (4:00 PM).  Find tickets here.

Dan Johnson is a freelance writer in Los Angeles helping cover the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival for Cinesnatch.