Review: Mildly Funny SCAB from Many Hats Goes Nowhere

If you're going to put your personal problems up on stage then, please, have a reason for telling them, some kind of journey or growth, and/or make them interesting. Unfortunately the issues put forth in Sheila Callaghan's play "Scab", currently playing as the inaugural Seattle production from Many Hats Theatre, have none of those elements. Instead, the main character rambles on and waxes poetic about how depressed and confused she is for two hours and ultimately learns nothing resulting in one of my biggest pet peeves in theater, someone else's therapy on stage.

The therapy is told through Anima (Zenaida Smith), a young grad student who's dealing with several blows to her life all at once. Her abusive Father has just died, her boyfriend Alan (Kevin Harland) has just dumped her, she hates her classes and she's just gotten a new roommate, the perky Christa (Sydney Tucker). And that's pretty much the show. There is one more issue she deals with but we'll get to that in a minute.

Anima (who is only ever referred to in the play as Annie and I only know her name is Anima in that it's listed in the program that way. Um, why?) deals with her problems by getting drunk, having imaginary conversations with inanimate objects or her family, and waxing poetic rather than just saying what she feels. Now, I'm all for the quirky and surreal but in my book "quirky" indicates some level of cleverness to itself. But here, there's no rhyme or reason or thought put into why she's speaking with the Virgin Mary (Debra Rich) other than because her roommate bought a statue of it and put it in the living room. The weirdness just kind of happens at various intervals with no flow or catalyst for the weirdness to occur and thus becomes weird for weird sake which is not clever.

And then there's the big other issue for Anima which I will not give away here. But I will say that this issue is conveyed to the audience right before the end of Act One with no indication that it was ever coming. Up to that point there were just a lot of trite conversations about life leaving me wondering if there was going to be some kind of main conflict for the play and then, BAM, "here's your conflict, enjoy the intermission." Introducing the central conflict of the show with no foreshadowing right before intermission is tantamount to a mystery writer introducing a character in the last chapter who turns out to be the killer. It's cheap and lazy. And to top it all off, this main conflict is then batted back and forth during Act Two with no resolution or growth. Instead we just end the play with more flowery speeches about plants.

If you can't tell by now, I did not care for this play. The cast and crew do a fine job with what's there. The pace of the play from director Caitlin McCown is fine as are the performances. Smith and Tucker are both likable as the two roommates and Harland, Rich and Kiki Abba bring in some fun moments with their multiple, mostly surreal, roles. And I must call out some interesting things with the sound design from Mario Gomez. But unfortunately, as talented as they may be, they were all confined to play that took us on a journey to nowhere with only a few laughs to make the journey worth the trip. And so I give Many Hat Theatre's "Scab" a bored and unsatisfied MEH-. I'd like to say I'm excited to see what another new theater company in town will have for us next but if it's going to be more plays like this, then I can't.

"Scab" from Many Hats Theatre performs at the Ballard Underground through September 10th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.theatrebymanyhats.com.

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