BWW Reviews: SHOOT O'MALLEY TWICE Intrigues Now Thru Nov 26

Virago Theater Company's 'shameless passion for theater' and ongoing love affair with the unconventional continues with their world premiere of Shoot O'Malley Twice, a play that touches on quantum mechanics, alternate realities, and the fact that the Dodgers and Giants are about to play their last games in New York City. It's 1957 and a lot seems to be at stake -- past, present and future. Shoot O'Malley Twice, which opened last Friday at StageWerx 446 in San Francisco, confounds the conventional and delivers a bizarre and comedic play of innocence lost and parallel universes found that is thoroughly intriguing and delightful.

Shane Rhoades plays Billy Future, a psychic odds-evens shooter, who, along with girlfriend Cyn (played wonderfully by Naomi Hummel) play the odds-evens circuit for high-stakes money. Odds-evens, like baseball, is a children's game. If you don't remember this popular recess pastime, it was a game between two players. One called out "odds," and the other got "evens," then they'd proceeded to 'shoot their fingers' at the count of three. If the sum added up to an odd number, the "odds" guy won and if the total was even then the "evens" guy won.

A simple enough premise, but in playwright Jon Brooks play this simple game is played for big money - much like American baseball is played for high-stakes money...with high-stakes emotions attached. Brooks shows that even a child's game can be turned into much more when played by adults. Dedicating this show to his father, "to the borough Brooklyn born," he seamlessly weaves together complex themes and emotions to craft a play about New Yorkers and what felt like the beginning of the end for them when the Dodgers and the Giants packed up their toys and went to play in California.

The move seems to foreshadow other future "beginning of the end" moments for the Big Apple as the play's physics share their foreboding thoughts about 9/11 while playing odds-evens.

As Billy, Raymond (Paul Jennings), and Wendell (Dorian Lockett) shoot, psychic thoughts flare, raising the tension even higher. The Judge (the delightful Dennis McIntyre), along with trusted companion Catchings (played with comedic perfection by Eric O'Kelly) "umpire" the game and name the rules for the contestants. Book (Alex Goldenberg is great in this role that he originated) holds the bets while Cyn watches the proceedings.

It is 1957 and none of them are prepared for the entry of an odds-evens circuit player called the Savannah Kid who turns out to be a woman (and a racist) named Emmaline Grady. ChrisTy Crowley plays the southern lady whose extreme psychic abilities help her mesmerize and manipulate many of her fellow shooters. StageWerx 466 is an intimate theater and Crowley plays the room brilliantly, her every eye movement and muscle contraction adding to her powerful portrayal. Costume designer Jennifer Gough does a fine job contrasting Emmaline with the others. While they are dressed mostly in browns and blacks, Emmaline is dressed in a blue flowered dress and a string of pearls with a grey jacket and a smart pink hat, completely belying her conniving ways.

She has her eyes set on Billy Future and invokes God in order to seduce him. "God lives in one dimension and we live in another. He dreams up things there and it happens here," she tells Billy, letting him know that God has told her that he wants her and Billy to get hitched. Billy doesn't buy it and the two grapple together, pitting their powers against one another. When her agent, Jackie Lee (Elmer Strasser) returns, things take a sudden turn for the worse. It is then up to Billy Future to win the day.

Brooks packs a lot into this play about multiple realities and he is helped immensely by the lighting and sound design of Andrea Schwartz and Ryan Lee Short, respectively. Both designers help to create a sense of the other-worldliness so necessary to the audience's understanding of the piece. Director Angela Dant moves the piece along with excellent staging and impeccable timing in this, her full-length Virago show directorial debut.  Hopefully we'll see more from her in future productions.

Shoot O'Malley Twice is a fun, quirky show made all the better by an extremely strong ensemble performance. I note that Virago's website states that they use a collaborative rehearsal process, which may be the reason for this fine piece being so cohesive. Make the time to go see this amazing show, playing now through November 26th.

Shoot O'Malley Twice
By Jon Brooks
Directed by Angela Dant
November 3-26, 2011
StageWerx 446, San Francisco 446 Valencia St. San Francisco, CA 94106
http://www.viragotheatre.org/
Photos Courtesy of Virago Theatre Company

 

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