There are a couple of reasons why I’d like to see the Silver Spring Stage move south of the Beltway. The absence of decent pre-theater eats in Four Corners is one of them.
Among the short list of dining options is China House (10121 Colesville Rd), a tidy but otherwise unremarkable restaurant with food on the brink of “ick”.
The chicken with walnuts entree ($5, below) offers small, dry cubes of dark meat in a gooey, saccharine barbecue-style sauce.
There’s a heavy hit of licorice-like star anise, which would usually do the trick at balancing out sugar. Instead, it only turns up the sauce’s volume until the chicken and walnuts are completely muted.
And then there’s the roast pork with snow peas ($5, below). Dry, tough slices of bland pork are suspended in a gelatinous brown gravy. Throw in some water chestnuts and bamboo shoots that taste like the tin can they squirmed out of, and it’s a freakin’ mess.
Both dishes come with a stingy serving of either steamed white rice or fried rice.
Unfortunately, quick and courteous service doesn’t make up for the unappetizing food. Do yourself a favor before hitting the One Act Festival: Eat at home.
China House, 10121 Colesville Rd, Silver Spring, (301) 593-5020.
Photos by Ron Pace and Jennifer Deseo for The Silver Spring Penguin.
In keeping with those quick one-act plays, I now present a compact review of the festival’s first weekend.
“Memory Sticks” by Kristin Holodak
Pete (Andrew Greenleaf) and Lisa (Julie Zito) love each other, but only one thing stands between them and blissful domestic partnership. Pete is addicted to flash memory sticks, which he uses to record actual life memories, good and bad.
It’s a premise worthy of Philip K. Dick, and its sharp dialog — written by Kristen Holodak and deftly delivered by Greenleaf and Zito — flows effortlessly.
While the plot hinges on Pete’s obsession with technology, its true conflict — Pete’s fixation with the past — is addressed only indirectly. Without an appreciation for the character’s motives, the play leaves some expectations unfulfilled.
“The Record” by Matt Casarino
VIP Ron (David Flinn) slips journalist Marni (Melissa B. Robinson) a big scoop. But when he realizes the damage his words can do, he tells Marni to keep it “off the record.” Threats of wrecked careers and bodily harm ensue.
Playwright Matt Casarino aims for quick, Mamet-esque dialog but falls short of his mark. The actors’ slow timing only trips the script further, resulting in a loud but emotionally flat play.
“No Vacancy” by Joe Dennison
Married couple Jake (Stuart Fischer) and May (Stephanie Phelan Offutt) may have bought the farm, but they can’t work their way through the GOP — Gates of Paradise.
Had they wrecked their car just a few seconds sooner, there would have been enough room in heaven for the both of them. But now, their guide to the afterlife (Ralph D. Johnson) tells them that they must choose who scores eternal bliss and who rides the spit on hell’s rotisserie.
The plot is predictable, but Fischer and Phelan Offutt portray the couple with spunk. It turns silly and cute into funny and endearing.
“Significant Others” by Steve LaRocque
A husband (David Gorsline) and wife (Leta Hall) are technically married, though they have separate lives with their respective POSSLQs — people of opposite sex sharing living quarters.
When the spouses meet again for their daughter’s wedding, they immediately recall the insecurities that drove them apart. However, their magnetism is like a sexual and emotional dynamo that holds them together.
Gorsline and Hall are terrific at constructing, then deconstructing, the sexual tension. Steve LaRocque’s intelligent script occasionally gets ahead of itself. (The wife’s description of how frostbitten feet affect higher brain function is overkill.)
Otherwise, it’s one sharp, smart act.
Photos by Neil Edgell for the Silver Spring Stage.
Not to take anything away from guys like Shakespeare and Miller, but there’s something very cool about a one-act play. And I ain’t just talking about getting through a show before I finish my peanut M&Ms.
One-act plays carry a level of excitement that teeters from nervous delirium to focused ferocity, and watching that excitement unfold is entertaining enough.
After all, one-acts tend to employ few characters and a spartan set. This isn’t Cirque du Soleil, with its well-choreographed cast of thousands and a revolving stage. It’s one or two actors, maybe a chair, a spotlight, and a hundred piercing eyes staring through the darkness.
And then there’s the time factor.
Say the guy playing Stanley in the three-act “A Streetcar Named Desire” flubs his first few lines. By the time he’s screaming for STELLA!, the bugs will have worked themselves out.
But actors in a one-act play have to hit the ground running. There’s no time to recover from a missed cue. The actor’s got to pull it together ASAP.
Tense? Yes. Entertaining? Oh yes.
And not because I’m just waiting for someone to screw up. (I’m not that evil.) In fact, many of the performers in this year’s One-Act Festival so far have transformed the frenetic energy into strong performances, all while preserving that giddy excitement.
And that’s not the peanut M&Ms talking.