I MISS COMMUNISM - Review
I MISS COMMUNISM
Reviewed by Will Stackman
The title of this show isn't an April Fool joke. Nor was Ines Wurth's autobiographical one-woman show about three women in one house through three wars, three governments, and three currencies. The communism she misses is the idealistic creed she learned as a child in the Young Pioneers, the Commintern version of Scouting. It's the one expressed in the naive lyrics of the Internationale that ends her show. Her life in Zagreb, Croatia is another story, detailed in 90 minutes, interspersed with a few show tunes, mostly from "Oliver", the movie that informed her growing up. She emigrated to this country to work her way through college in L.A. and has worked in stage and film both here and abroad, without losing her national identity though she's now an American citizen. This show mixes the serious and the comic on several levels, revealing a deeply human story, enough to make one hope Wurth'll be back in these parts again sometime soon. The show's deeper moral, that fracturing a country is bad for all concerned might even apply to the good old USA.
What appears to be a simple autobiography is really the work of several professionals. This show was written with and directed by Mark Soper, a seasoned professional, with choreography by Brian Frette, music composed by Zeijko Marasovic as well as Lindsey Gillis, with original lyrics by Patty Tobin. Ronda Dybnice Brooks designed Ines' layered costume, which takes her from childhood in signature orange to a young pioneer to a show girl. The complex lighting was created by Bosco Flannagan. But all their efforts are really just a gloss for Ines' range of acting and impersonation. Jimmy Tingle's Off-Broadway once again proves its worth as a legitimate theatre. Particularly for solo and intimate shows.
posted by will at 9:54 AM
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