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Anything Can Happen When You Decide on "Jumping the Median"
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Steve Connell and Ida Darvish in "Jumping the Median." Michael Farmer Photography.
An attractive woman waiting in the park. A young man obviously attracted to her. This doesn't seem promising, but if you can't imagine the possibilities of chance encounters then you nothing will ever change. That seems to be the message in Steve Connell's "Jumping the Median," a funny and sexy evening of four one-acts presented by Push to Talk Theatre company at the Santa Monica Playhouse's The Other Space.
In the order it was presented the Friday evening I saw it, "Jumping the Median" went first and this is the mostly thinly developed of the four, acting as a preface. A woman (Ida Darvish) goes to the park day after day, waiting for something to happen and reads a book on a blanket with a picnic basket that she never opens and a single daisy in a small vase. A man (Connell) is sitting on a nearby bench and approaches her with an imaginative pick up line. She's not impressed. Neither are we. But he waits and waits and they begin to talk. He talks about seeing the perfect woman, one who is so hot she lights up his world. She smiles at him. He smiles at her. And that is where the chance encounter ends. She walks on. He drives off, not daring to jump the median, get out of traffic and pursue her.
"Love Thy Neighbors" is about love deliciously gone bad. Not just romantic love, but also mother-son, father-daughter and sister-brother types of love. This is the kind of family tragedy that only Jerry Springer could love and maybe that's what Greek tragedy is all about. The mother (Sarah Sido) has invited her new Greek neighbors (Joe Sanfelippo, Darvish and Tyler Moore) over for dinner. Her son, Vincent (Kevin Larsen), begrudgingly helps--he's still at home because the mother convinced him that he killed his father. As the not-so-hidden lusts are revealed, so are other secrets with a Greek chorus (Greg Crooks and Mike Wood) to help narrate and the results are hilarious.
Sido's mother is nervously neurotic as she attempts to hide her poor cooking skills while Sanfelippo is slick, dashing and dangerously foreign. Darvish who was convincing as an intelligent woman stuck in an angry place in "Jumping the Median," plays her Greek wife with over-the-top soap opera lustful impetuousness. Larsen is the clueless good son straying into her carnal embrace.
More poetic is the "All Fall Up," which is dedicated and inspired by Norman Lear. It is about a man (Greg Crooks) and his attempts to sleep and all the possible things he can dream of or the images that keep him awake.
"Us and Them" is a sad yet hopeful scenario. On one side is the future, a couple (a more subdued Sido and Moore) who are moving into a new place. Barack Obama has just started his second term as president. They are starting a new life together. On the other side of the stage, is the past. Kenneth (In-Q) tells of how one lustful night resulted in him breaking up with his then-girlfriend (Darvish) and becoming involved with Maxine (Elizabeth Maxwell). They are in that bad space where they even hate the way each other breathes. Bad job, bad times and bad politics (they are George W. Bush supporters) combine for a bad end to their life together. They cross and give advice to the new couple who shivers and hopes they will not end up that way. Lily isn't sure, but Jonas is, saying, "It's a new day and anything can happen now."
Connell, who co-directed with Emily Weisberg, has a way with words. He was the National Poetry Grand Champion, winning in Hollywood in 2002, the 2003 LA Poetry Slam Champion and the 2003 National Champion for team LA. The cast works seamlessly as an ensemble, transitioning easily from comedy to more realistic scenarios. A workshop of "Jumping the Median" was previously presented at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre.
"Jumping the Median" The Other Space at Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211 4th Street, Santa Monica. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. $20. Ends April 19.
For more articles by Jana J. Monji:
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