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Escape from Breakfast offers laughs, introspection, fun Double feature of 1980s classics packs it all into two tight productions
Posted: Thursday, Jun 7th, 2007
BY: JOE HANSEN
Centro Del Sol's Escape from Breakfast – a double feature of "The Breakfast Club" and "Escape from New York" – once again captured the combination of heart and humor that has made earlier Centro shows standingroom only. In the opening act The Breakfast Club, the Cottage Grove Drama Rascals channeled their teen angst in touching ways, giving the dialogue-driven production hilarity and sadness in equal parts. As per the 1985 Jon Hughes archetypal teen movie classic, The Breakfast Club finds five teenagers stuck in detention one Saturday . They begin as clichés : The brain, the criminal, the princess, the jock and the basket case. But after being stuck in a room together for a day, these disgruntled teens find they're not so different after all. Guthrie McClenny carries the load of the dialogue as Bender, a troubled kid who hides the pain of his broken home behind anger and general nastiness. In this McClenny was superb, finding that smirk and belowthe-belt punch line that makes Bender such a despicable yet intriguing character. Bender is especially harsh to his eventual love interest, the popular princess Claire, played by Rhea Gates in an eye-catching red wig. Gates nailed the part of the deeply unhappy Girl Who's Got it All, at times showing Claire's inner dork she usually hides and exposing real, raw emotions . The jock Andrew, played by Ty Thiel, is a similar character in that he's outwardly on the "right track," but inwardly deeply disturbed. Smith eventually peeled back the layers of a troubled kid being pushed by a father bent on living vicariously through him. As the nerdy brain Brian, Guthrie McClenny's performance is perfectly awkward, and Brian's hopeless attempts at sounding cool - "I've laid lots of times" – touch the hidden dork in us all. And, of course, there was the silent Allison, played by Moriah West, also the show's director, to perfection. West managed to squeak like a mouse and hide behind her hair one moment, then later go from zero to angry in no time at all. With lines like, "I'm not a nymphomaniac, I'm a pathological liar," West stole the few scenes in which she had a speaking part. Despite all these great performances , the most memorable scenes were those that involved the smarmy teacher Vernon, masterfully played by Troy Pitts. Vernon is the one that the characters and the audience alike can love to hate, as Pitts oozed mock swagger and spouted garbage lines like, "The next screw comes loose is you!" And when Bender asked Vernon , "Does Barry Manilow know you raided his wardrobe ?" the real hilarity was that Pitts' coat gave the impression that the real Barry Manilow might just be looking for his missing jacket. The second act was a fast, hard-hitting production of "Escape from New York." Directed by Ivan Del Sol, Escape managed to cram virtually all of the meaningful dialogue from John Carpenter's cult classic into a 25-minute play. Ivan Del Sol starred in the show as well as Spider Plissken, a renegade former special ops soldierturned-bank robber on his way to the new maximum security prison of New York City sometime in the future. Del Sol plays Plissken with the same sleazy, hissing nonchalance that made the character something of a cult hero in the first place. He says things like, "I don't give a $*@ k about your war," but in reality he doesn't even need to speak; the sneer and eyepatch say it all. When the president's plane is hijacked and crashed by a mad terrorist inside the prison, Spider Plissken is recruited to save the day in return for a pardon. The deal is made by Police Chief Hauk, overacted to perfection by Bart Caridio, spitting out gems like "I'm ready to kick your ass off the world, war hero," while doing his best G.I. Joe caricature impersonation. Or course, Plissken saved the day in the form of the president, shown as a sniveling coward with a touch of George W. Bush by Tony Willey, outwitting Shawn Goddard's outrageously dressed Duke of New York. The hilarious tone and creative use of props, along with a slew of memorable performances, made "Escape from New York" yet another enjoyable show from the folks at Centro Del Sol.
5:27 AM
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