2.5 MINUTE RIDE - LA Weekly Recommended
Written by Leigh Kennicott, March 18, 2004
In this revival of Lisa Kron’s one-woman show, Kron’s affecting family portrait is in good hands. Jessica Zweiman plays Kron in a softer, gentler approach to the intimate narrative. This approach does just as much to pinpoint significant moments as the electronic pointer she uses on nonexistent slides gliding through an imaginary slide tray. Kron’s father is in love with danger in the form of the Dyno-Drop (the 2.5-minute ride of the title) at Cedar Point Theme Park. Perhaps his own precarious youth during the Holocaust, when separated from his parents, is to blame. To find out, Lisa dutifully accompanies him to Auschwitz, while her elusive mother plans her brother’s wedding to an Internet bride. All three events are jumbled into the slide tray in a patchwork of laughter and pain. Zweiman is best when Lisa’s father interrogates a Nazi Gestapo officer after World War II. His insight that being born a Jew prevented him from having to decide whether to support the German state reveals the old man’s humanity, especially when juxtaposed against his infirmities in later years. Although Zweiman comes precariously close to sinking under Matthew Jordan’s monotonous staging, excellent minimalist lighting (Chris Kjos), spare sound effects (by David Zumsteg) and her own passion save the play.
MagnaCarta Theater Company at the ITA Production Stage, 10015 Venice Blvd., W.L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru April 10. (323) 860-9907.
2.5 MINUTE RIDE
Written By Dany Margolies, March 10, 2004
The 2.5-Minute Ride was one of many roller coasters playwright Lisa Kron rode with her ailing father as their family found recreation near their hometown of Lansing, Mich. So, too, did they find excitement and bonding on the Iron Dragon, the Demon Drop, the Mantis. The metal rails carried the two away from their present-day realities. Father and daughter bonded further while touring the railway system that carried six million Jews to their deaths in Eastern Europe.
The roller coaster also describes the shape and mood of Kron's piece, here rendered by solo performer Jessica Zweiman in a dynamic that is alternately delicate and sturdy, sometimes light and bright and sometimes pointedly revelatory of the darkness of human nature. Under the direction of Matthew Jordan, there are no faked tears, no bodice-ripping agony for Zweiman. Her delivery is a steely combination of objectivity and first-hand knowledge, yet the black humor of the stories comes bubbling out of her. Some of her speech cadences are that of those cheery 1950s TV commercials, a perky Zweiman buttoning up the gut-wrenching narrative behind her small, square, delicate face.
The character, Lisa, begins gently with a slide show of her family in various locales. The slides we see are blank--colored for ease on our eyesight but indeed blank. After a few slides, however, our minds begin to see the figures and places she describes. Vision and imagination also become prominent symbols in this piece. Lisa and her father tour Auschwitz, where his parents were murdered. After wandering into the room filled with eyeglasses ("They stumbled off blind to their deaths," Lisa recounts), her father frets over somehow losing a bag of his glasses that day. But her father's philosophy on the journey is among the most stirring elements of the story. "If it wasn't for the good fortune of being born a Jew, I might have become a Nazi," he told her.
There's just enough and not too much here. Indeed the events are told in short bursts without regard to chronology, twisting back on themselves like the roller coasters. Looking back on our own lives, do they seem any longer than a two-and-a-half-minute ride? On the one hand Kron's work is narrowly specific, sharing with its audience the experiences of a Jewish Midwestern lesbian. On the other hand it's a story that even today needs to be shared--perhaps with no one so much as Mel Gibson's father and his ilk.
Theater: ITA Production Stage
Location: 10015 Venice Blvd., West L.A.
Phone: (323) 860-9907.
Starts: March 05, 2004
Ends: April 10, 2004
Evenings: Fri.-Sat. 8 pm
Price: $18
Presented by: MagnaCarta Theatre Company