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"Shyness Is Nice" - a play named for a Smiths lyric

posted by davidt on Tuesday June 19 2001, @10:00AM
Mrs. Shankly writes:

A review of a play in New York from the Village Voice:
Reel Around the Fountain Pen

Named for a Smiths lyric and opening in the strains of a Belle and Sebastian live-twee-or-die anthem ("Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying," actually), Shyness Is Nice (Wesbeth Theatre) attempts an affectionate skewering of indie-fanboy paralysis - it's even thoughtful enough to get its central pair of fey, depressive manchildren laid. In fact, the play has also been adapted as a porn film with the straightforward working title Platypussy, though Marc Spitz's stage version bashfully conceals all bumping of uglies behind a bed-and-dresser set) festooned with a vintage poster of "Physical"-era Olivia Newton-John. Stew (Zeke Farrow) and Rodney (Andersen Gabrych) are 30-year-old virgins - all hunched shoulders, trapped-rabbit glances, and cardigan sweaters - prone to pondering whether "fucking is better than the Joy Division box set." (Spin contributiong writer Spitz also wrote the Ian Curtis paean I Wanna Be Adored.) Their junk-addled friend Fitzgerald (director Jonathan Lisecki) contrives to relieve them of their chastity with a visit from Kylie (Camille Shandor), a motherly prostitute with a vagrant Australian accent. She's represented by irascible pimp Blixa (Sibyl Kempson), who's driven to murderous rage when she catches on that double dealer Fitzgerald has gven her "baby formula in exchange for my finest bitch."

With bodies waylaid by lust or bullets piling in Stew' room (or is it Rodney's? Do they share a bed as well as a record collection? Why has Fitzgerald brought them a girl?), Shyness Is Nice ends up as High Fidelity with a casualty list. A few of the physical bits stick (notable Rodney's squeamish attempts to familiarize himself with Kylie's nether regions), but Shyness Is Nice struggles to maintain it's histrionic pitch over 7-minutes, and its escalating, arbitrary chaos is more slipshod than genuinely dreanged. It's almost beside the point who's left standing at the finale - heaven knows they're miserable still. - Jessica Winter

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  • When I came to the States, I didn't speak any English and I lived at Providence, Rhode Iceland with my Portuguese roomies and worked at the Jewelry Factory for 6 bucks per hour... And I would do anything to save money, skip breakfast, hustle here and there (I was a stupid 19-y-o kid), shoplift, just anything to save $40 bucks, take Greyhound bus to NYC, and just have the best time in my life, going places, meeting people at Greenwich Village etc... And I remember buying Village Voice and looking at pictures and having little pathetic pocket dictionary and trying to read it, 'cause for me it was a source for info, so that's how I would learn English, going to clubs, meeting people and reading Village Voice... So I just moved to NY, but I meet some very wrong people and I had some substance-abuse problems and even spent 3 months in jail... but later I figured out my sh*te and took some photography classes and started to live in a honest way... And I was "married" for like 3 years on Jewish Long Iceland guy... And we were one happy queer couple... But the bad thing about 2 creative people, we both had our ambitions, our plans, and each of us wanted to be the chief of the tribe... So we had to break up, we are still friends, and then I moved to Miami, then to New Orlean and finally to San Diego, and I'm doing art photography and I paint and I do ceramics, s I pretty much enjoy San Diego, especially Solana Beach Art District where I work... I hate LA so, except West Hollywood, but again our Hillcrest is 1000 times better then We-Ho... I have relatives at Lisbon, San Paulu and Worwick, RI, but they treat me like sh*t, and I don't blame them, cause I was very problematic teen, I dropped out of high school in Worwick, and gave them a lot of troubles... They helped me to get a Green Card, spent ton of money on lawyers and sh*te (my biological mom died, overdosed actually, when I was 14), and in exchange they got all those troubles from me... But, my point is, I like Village Voice, East Village, West Village, NY City... There I became 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Queer American :-) Respectfully, Joe Buck...
    Anonymous -- Tuesday June 19 2001, @05:17PM (#13076)
  • i so adore belle and sebastian.
    tishbite -- Monday June 25 2001, @10:28PM (#13457)
    (User #1466 Info)
    the commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it.

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