CAN'T YOU HEAR ME KNOCKING Plays Manhattan Theater Source, Opens 11/4

Can't You Hear Me Knockin? opened the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June 2010 to packed houses. The one-woman show written and performed by Kerri Randles is coming to NYC for a limited engagement in November.

Knockin' is a stylistic and sensual account of an insatiablewoman's journey to change the hand dealt to her in rural America, and recoup her father's love through rockstars, filmlegends and success in Hollywood. Tennessee Williams' themes of love, revenge, and the dysfunctional family resonate through this piece. From alcoholism, to inter?racial love, and the ever?elusive father?daughter relationship, Kerri escapes from limitation into the world of possibility.

Her journey takes her west, to the last frontier, where she must face and conquer what holds her back in life. Masterfully directed by renowned stagedirector, Tony Abatemarco. Miss Randles titillates and temptsyou to delve into the past, discover the future and explore the places you've avoided going.

Taking the stage wearing nothing but a bra and panties, Kerri Randles signals right away that this 90-minute staged memoir of her life as a Midwestern farmer's daughter, Chicago art student, struggling L.A. actress and girlfriend to the stars, and itinerant stripper is going to be plenty revealing. With legendary rock'n'roll groupie Pamela Des Barres as her role model and occasional mentor, Randles unstintingly re-enacts her romantic liaisons with the huge-time music and film stars she's met around town as well as the quasi-dysfunctional family scenes from youth and adolescence that have influenced her path through early and middle adulthood.

While this kind of material can often devolve into self-serving confessional or, worse, embarrassing public therapy session, the persona that Randles presents is so winsome, and her performance so unself-conscious, that it's easy just to root for her. Tony Abatemarco's absolutely masterful direction organizes Randles's hodgepodge of anecdotes into a cohesive, linear story arc.Can't You Hear Me Knockin? by Lyle Zimskind for LAist Can't You Hear Me Knockin? is not just a Rolling Stones song. Kerri Randles's hilarious one-woman show depicting her life of sex, music and cars certainly entertains. Raised by an emotionally unavailable dad who hid under his toupée and an emotionally too available mother who put parenting aside to feel like a woman, Randles searches for love behind every door.

Enthralled by every word of Pamela DesBarres I'm With the Band, she clings to a twisted romantic notion of the groupie. Eventually after art school, she road-trips it to LA and becomes an actress-turned-stripper. To call her a stripper with a heart of gold would be too simplistic. Her wit, honesty and candor make her so much more.

Scantily clad in a matching bra and panties (with few other costume elements and shoes to set the scenes) she bares it all. Always cool, calm, collected and sexy she takes her time sharing her story with effortless transitions. Each character is clearly defined to the point where even just one word spoken and we immediately recognize the character.

Kudos to director Tony Abatemarco, for keeping the storytellingorganic and for sharpening Randles' performance. Randles definitely knowshow to capture an audience.LA THEATER REVIEW

Can't You Hear Me Knockin? at the Lounge by Ashley Steed

MANHATTAN THEATRE SOURCE
November 4 - 12 Thursdays & Fridays @ 9pm
177 MacDougal Street New York, NY 10011
November 19 - 20 Friday & Saturday @ 10pm(bet. 8th St & Waverly Pl.

 

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