Review: CRABS IN A BUCKET at Echo Theater Company

Bernardo Cubría’s world premiere CRABS IN A BUCKET: OR HOW BITTERNESS RUINED THE FUN is a riotous satire of small minds divided by envy. Focused on literal crabs in a shucking bucket, the crabbiest crab, Amargo (Xochitl Romero), and daffy sidekick Pootz, (Anna Lamadrid), spend their days bitching about the crabs that managed to get away, out of the pail, to freedom, including legendary Mamon (Michael Sturgis). When Beb (Jordan Hull) makes her way into the bucket, they upend the status quo, challenging Amargo’s order.

Cubría (“The Play You Want,” “The Giant Void In My Soul”) has created a microcosm of not just every office on the planet, but every group of friends, every group of creatives, every group of businesspeople. Everyone. He asks, “What happens when we can’t be happy for the success of others? … Why can’t we support one another? Whenever oppressed groups come together, we win.” And yet, some crabs struggle to make better lives for themselves when many don’t try at all … and still get ahead.

Like many of Cubría’s works, there’s an existential, Beckett-like sense to CRABS IN A BUCKET. It’s nonsense, it’s tragic, and it says something without saying it, leading us to fill in the blanks, draw our own conclusions. Cubría makes clever use of crustacean words (“shuck” for “fuck”; “shell” for “hell”)—it’s all very Smurfy—without going overboard with it, showing just how immature these crabs are, and to show just how childish we are as well when we’re backed up against a wall, even one of our own making. The set by Amanda Knehans is a perfect backdrop of orange, the plastic pails of our childhoods, adding to the surrealism of the world. Costume designer Lou Cranch has produced colorful and creative outfits that are practical as well, allowing for believable (and almost alarming) fight choreography by Ahmed Best.

Director Alana Dietze makes fine use of the space, allowing her performers room to breathe, dance, argue, fight, and brawl. The acting across the board is top notch. Pootz’s Beb is sympathetic as they struggle out from under Romero’s bully, Amargo. Amargo could be one-dimensional, the stick in the mud who doesn’t believe they can succeed, so they sit back and mock those who try while seething in envious resentment, but Romero gives them nuances and shadings that make Amargo recognizable. We’ve all known people who are similar. Hull’s Beb is shiny and bright but we can sense her hurt as her shell gets scuffed and she starts to learn about the real world. And Sturgis is at his deadpan best, eliciting raucous laughter with a single word at times.

Altogether, the show is one of the Echo’s best in recent memory and that’s saying a lot because the Echo consistently brings challenging and entertaining material to vibrant life. The collective is one of Los Angeles’ crown jewels — and maybe one of its best-kept secrets.

CRABS IN A BUCKET: OR HOW BITTERNESS RUINED THE FUN is performed at the Echo Theater Company, 3269 Casitas Avenue in Atwater Village, through August 21. Tickets are available at (310) 307–3753 and EchoTheaterCompany.com.

Photos by Cooper Bates

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