BWW Reviews: SUMMER SHORTS at City Theatre

City Theatre has long billed itself as "America's Short Play Festival" and reaching it's 20th year goes a long way to validate that claim. So they're celebrating the anniversary with this year's edition of SUMMER SHORTS now playing on the Susan Westfall Playwrights (sic) Stage at the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

The stage is ringed with photos from previous years and a large upstage video screen shows Artistic Director John Manzelli, during scene changes, commenting on the company and its history.

The show itself? Well, as with all such evenings of short plays, unevenness is the rule. Most are good, some are not so and blue seems to be the theme. Lock the kids in the cellar and chain Granny to the kitchen table. Obscenities prevail.

Four veteran actors and two less experienced flash their chops in nine plays. It's mostly funny stuff with three on the sombre side.

Elizabeth Dimon and Tom Wahl top the evening with FLARE, written by Edith Freni and directed by Margaret M. Ledford. A clever script and tight direction cover the lack of action as an awkward airline passenger sits next to a dead heading Captain. Lots of secrets. Fun stuff and real people.

Dimon is delightful as a lonely drunk in Holli Harms' COUGAR when the always excellent Karen Stephens is pursued by Michael Uribe. Tom Cruise reborn in Miami? Lucky us. Directed by John Manzelli.

Uribe again, excelling again, this time with the terrific Bechir Sylvain in a finalist from the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival, MANDATE, by Kelly Younger. Bromance birthing. Directed by John Manzelli.

LET'S GET PHYSICAL, Kelly Younger's world premiere, directed by Paul Tei, has two doctors fighting over the backless gown draped body of Tom Wahl, once again an airline pilot. Wahl and Sylvain are at their veteran best. Chasity Hart plays the second doctor.

The winner of the 2015 City Theatre National Award for Short Playwriting Contest is RISEN FROM THE DOUGH by France-Luce Benson. Directed by Bechir Sylvain, it has Karen Stephens and Chasity Hart as Haitian sisters struggling to run a bakery in Miami. Stephens has the lead, with lengthy monologues about her tough life and lost husband done well, but the piece is overlong and repetitive.

Another less than expected is the world premiere of BEDTIME by the who is she really Jane Martin. Two couples, Karen Stephens as Claire 1 and Tom Wahl as Joseph 1 and Chasity Hart as Claire 2 and Michael Uribe as Joseph 2 share the same large bed. The younger couple are starting their lives together and the older are finishing theirs. Gimmicky and predictable. Directed by Margaret M. Ledford.

HUMAN RESOURCES by R. Eric Thomas, and another world premiere, is directed by John Manzelli and is the first act button; all the actors are on stage and upstaged by a myriad of puppets who apparently are in charge. A few laughs, but not much here.

Elizabeth Dimon and Karen Stephens are together again in THE ANTHROPOLOGY SECTION by Patricia Cotter and directed by Margaret M. Ledford. A well acted minor piece about lost lesbian love.

And the evening ends with the world premiere of a City Theatre commissioned piece, MRS EVELYN FOXY & HER LOW LEVEL ANXIETY, by Steve Yockey and directed by Paul Tei. Elizabeth Dimon, Bechir Sylvain, Michael Uribe and Chasity Hart save the owls, prowl half naked, practice Tantric sex and dodge falling...well, you get the idea.

This years's SUMMER SHORTS is one of the more successful. Plenty of laughs, a few heart string tugs, good acting and a smoothly run production.

Scenic design by Jodi Dellaventura, sound by Matt Corey, lights by Preston Bircher and costumes by Ellis Tillman.

Plays through June 28 at the Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami. 305-949-6722 http://www.arshtcenter.org

Photo: Elizabeth Dimon and Tom Wahl

Credit: George Schiavone

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