Ideation

Magical Mayhem

I got drunk at The California again and watched a Snoopy illustrator, a retiree, a psych major and a housewife make theater magic.  And yeah, that many bourbons can bring the magic to just about anything.  But this is about community theater magic.

I recently saw Left Edge Theater’s production of Ideation at The California.  A nice place to party.  Obviously a fan of the drinks.  But plays? In Santa Rosa’s nightclub district with the thumping bass line from the club next door bleeding through the walls?   This was a whole other take-out box of hot wings.  Which the people seated in front of me spent the entire performance gently sucking on.  Really got their money’s worth.  I mean, game recognizes game.  But still.  Or maybe I am being too reverent about the sacred art of live theater because really – the chicken bones and the muted sounds of the neighboring Limp Bizkit cover band faded away when Aaron Loeb’s killer script and the cast of Ideation yanked me into their vortex of frenzied, nasty, uproariously funny conspiracy theories. 

Directed by David Yen, this production is a banger.  A management consultant firm takes on an ugly task with the cool swagger of career professionals.  But it all goes deliciously to hell.  Justin Thompson and Mike Pavone as corporate zaddies Ted and Brock shoulder Loeb’s intensely complicated text while drawing concept diagrams on a big whiteboard while being hilarious while keeping the plot clipping along in real time as the clock ticks down before their boss skypes them at the end of 90 minutes.  Their work is gold, but it is Phi Tran (Minh) who slams the emotional gauntlet down and elevates this play into something entirely more sad and sinister.  Tran is devastating.   Gina Alvarado (Hannah) is fine.   Lauren DePass (Scooter) in male drag as the office wasteoid is odd as hell and I am here for it.  Scooter is a trans man and a total jagoff.   Awesome.  Why the hell not?   

I left Ideation humbled in a way, because there is something important about people coming together in their spare time to work their asses off and create a wild piece of art that explodes on a bare nightclub stage.  It was magic.  Community theater occupies an essential seat at the American theater table.  The wings, the panic, the emotion, the Bizkit -- it was weird and it was inspiring, and I was stunned by how hard I laughed at jokes about genocide and a hypothetical apocalypse.  Or was it hypothetical??  Enough said.  You should go. 

Ideation has three performances left.  Thursday Oct 26 and Friday Oct 27 at 7:30 pm.  Saturday Oct 28 at 1:00 pm.  https://www.leftedgetheatre.com/ideation