Orange County Premiere!

Hot 'N' Throbbing
by Paula Vogel
Directed by Magdalena Zira

PLEASE NOTE: This play contains adult language and subject matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THEATER ARTICLE

The Surreal Life
Fiction joins fact in provocative play
by Pat O'Brien, Riverside Press Enterprise

January 31, 2006

Provocative material doesn't scare The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills where Paula Vogel's "Hot 'N' Throbbing" opens Saturday.

In this drama, an abused woman gets a restraining order against her husband and tries to support herself and her children by writing erotica. The play becomes surrealistic as fictional characters in her stories take the stage, as well.

"It's an issue of her trying to take control - of his control over her and her trying to take control of her imagination and circumstances," said Annie Mezzacappa, spokeswoman for the theater.

Playwright Vogel, who won a Pulitzer Prize for "How I Learned to Drive," has said she wants audiences to question what sexual violence and pornography are and how they function in people's lives, rather than just question if something is right or wrong.

"These are important issues. I think the audience will be able to connect with the characters," said Magdalena Zira, who is directing the piece for The Chance. "It is a drama, but it is funny at moments. The ending came as a shock to me."

This play is obviously for mature audiences, who can expect to be amused, saddened and left with plenty to mull over.

"I think all theater should provoke you into thinking," said Zira, who is in her final year of the master's program in directing at UC Irvine. "This play does that well without being preachy or pedantic."

The show runs through March 12. Tickets are $20; $17 seniors, students. It alternates stage time with the musical, "The Last 5 Years," about a young couple who find they can no longer communicate. $22 - $25. Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. (800) 838-3006, www.chancetheater.com.

Contact Pat O'Brien at (952) 368-9561 or pobrien@pe.com.

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THEATER REVIEW

A look at sex, family dysfunction
Anaheim staging gives the O.C. premiere of the provocative 1992 play 'Hot 'N' Throbbing' a shot in the arm.
by Eric Marchese, Orange County Register

February 10, 2006

Dysfunction with a nuclear family, domestic violence and the pervasiveness of sexuality in mainstream culture may appear strange bedfellows for a play, but Paula Vogel has made a career of finding the often-bitter humor in subjects most would deem deadly earnest. That makes the potent, provocative "Hot 'N' Throbbing" par for the course for the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

Sure, Vogel dishes out laughs in her comedic drama - but each laugh is followed by the bitter recognition of hard truths about an unforgiving world.

The 1992 play's Orange County premiere has been a long time in coming, so it's nice to report that the Chance Theater's Evolving Stage production surpasses the script's challenges. The utmost of these forces us to see that the force of sex as part of society's fabric has become a double-edged sword - a liberating factor on one hand, a red flag for physical and psychological risks on the other.

Charlene Dwyer (Karen Webster) and Clyde (Warren Draper) are divorced. Charlene is now the breadwinner, writing erotic screenplays for women to support herself and her two children. Clyde can barely accept that his ex-wife doesn't need him, even while his physical abuse and alcoholism are what drove her away.

Their teen kids' hormones are in overdrive. Leslie Ann (Cheryl Texiera) is a daddy's girl who drowns her sorrows in beer while wearing the most revealing clothing she can get away with. Calvin (Casey Long) is a sullen, uptight A-student who gratifies himself sexually with the help of a catcher's mitt.

Dry of new ideas and struggling to meet a deadline, Charlene begins to hear the characters in her imagination (portrayed by Dimas Diaz and Alex Bueno). The two personas - one male, one female - act out Charlene's lurid sadomasochistic fantasies and fill her with creativity, yet they also distract her and break her focus. A bizarre, sexually charged Greek chorus, the pair roam the stage, mirroring and often mocking the words and actions of all four members of the family.

The dialogue of the Diaz and Bueno personas mirrors that of the Dwyers, and vice versa, creating a powerful resonance. As in "How I Learned to Drive," Vogel shows that two key ingredients within families - an utter disregard for boundaries and a lack of unselfish love - lead to dysfunction.

In "Hot," they also lead to sexual pathologies. Vogel makes Charlene's favorite novel, "Moby Dick," a centerpiece of the play, with its theme of obsession (and a title with an obscene double meaning). The Melville classic is referred to as "a Freudian tragedy," a description equally apt for "Hot 'N' Throbbing": The play's inevitably explosive climax is followed by a coda that resonates with tragic irony.

Director Magdalena Zira's staging is aptly tight, edgy and just a little bit kinky, the better with which to drive home the script's points. John Robinson's inventive scenic design allows the real and imaginary worlds of Vogel's text to mesh easily, while Jon Langrell's shifting lighting scheme and Dave Mickey's pulsing sound effects undergird the script's tension.

Webster's Charlene is a study in frustration, a woman desperate yet unable to be a positive force in her children's lives. She clings to her work, which she defends as "adult entertainment," as her only connection with sanity even while harboring nagging self-doubts about her creative skills and her willpower in keeping Clyde at bay.

Draper's Clyde is a surprisingly likable ne'er-do-well, alternately needy and abusive. Draper not only makes the character's love of booze and low regard for women seem almost a casual afterthought, he also lends Clyde pathos, modulating the level of his brutality. Clyde may regard Leslie Ann's prematurely adult behavior as normal, but around his ex-wife and son he has a hair-trigger temper.

With shaggy hair, thick eyeglasses and slumping shoulders (and self-confidence), Long's Calvin is a portrait of repression too tightly wound even for Mom's liking. Texiera reveals Leslie Ann's flirty sluttiness as a façade: She'd love nothing better than for Clyde to quit drinking, get a job and patch things up with Mom, and her anger at being the product of a broken home is explosive.

Bueno lends a kittenish, sensual presence to the show, her persona an impish minx whose words and movements mock the feminine self-reliance Charlene supposedly champions. Diaz is the Bueno persona's male counterpart - tough, gritty, sadistic and, like her, unquenchably randy. Costumed by Rachel Stivers in black, with red highlights, the pair bring a sizzling carnal energy to the staging.

Freelance writer Eric Marchese has covered entertainment for the Register since 1984. CONTACT US: emarchesewriter@gmail.com

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THEATER REVIEW

WHAT LIES BENEATH
Hot 'N' Throbbing Pulses Like An Open Wound
by Amanda Vande Brake, OC Weekly

February 17, 2006

If I were to design a symbol to represent Paula Vogel's suggestively titled play Hot 'N' Throbbing, now playing at The Chance Theater, I would use a raw flesh wound as my inspiration - something not serious enough to require emergency care but damaging enough to cause severe pain. A flesh wound can bear a curious and striking resemblance to female genitalia; it's also an explicit and satisfying element of Vogel's strangely lighthearted plot - which just happens to be driven by pornography, domestic violence, and a woman's struggle to control her body and life in a male-centric society.

Emerging from the 1990s NEA uproar that saw the Senate declaring that obscenity completely lacked artistic merit, Vogel's play was funded by a 1993 Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays production grant. She used her resources to their fullest potential, taking obscenity as her subject and coaxing it out of the fractured American family. The Chance's production of Hot 'N' Throbbing, carefully shaped by director Magdalena Zira, sets the bar high for OC's 2006 theater scene, with tight ensemble acting that balances strong individual performances with a staunch loyalty to Vogel's inspired script.

Set in the tiny home that soft-porn writer Charlene (Karen Webster) shares with her teenage son Calvin (Casey Long), who masturbates with a catcher's mitt given to him by his alcoholic father Clyde (Warren Draper), and daughter Leslie Ann (Cheryl Texiera), a nubile S&M daydreamer, the play covers a night in the life of a family grappling with sex and the violence that underlies it. Although I would have preferred a tougher, less defensive and less frazzled Charlene, the performances are consistent and captivating, especially Long's Calvin and Draper's portrayal of estranged father and abusive ex-husband Clyde, who is arguably the play's most complicated and difficult character.

Elevating the potentially cliched tableau to an imaginative and erotic level is the sultry and fiercely embodied voice-over of Alex Bueno, and her equally sensual male counterpart, Dimas Diaz, who are at times the characters' consciences, weaving in and out of the 2-by-4 framed set design by John Robinson - and at other times very willing players in the Red Shoe Diaries-like screenplay Charlene is writing. The lighting design, by Jon Langrell, is perfectly evocative.

Vogel's richly layered script makes this one of the most accessible "issue" plays around, and Zira's uncontrived treatment of it empowers The Chance's presentation of Hot 'N' Throbbing to explore the power of flesh wounds - the corporeal violations that fissure the appearance of things, to reveal the rawness of what lies beneath.

HOT 'N' THROBBING AT THE CHANCE THEATER, 5552 E. LA PALMA AVE., ANAHEIM, (800) 838-3006. SAT., 4 P.M.; SUN., 6 P.M. THROUGH MARCH 12. $17-$20; STUDENT & SENIOR DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE.

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THEATER REVIEW

HOT 'N' THROBBING
by Joyce Rosenthal, Fullerton Observer

March 3, 2006

Lights up; the play opens. Charlene, an author, sits in her living room alternately typing on her lap-top then stopping to think. Her son Calvin, a brooding teenager sits on the couch reading Moby Dick. Her teenaged daughter Leslie Ann soon enters. She is provocatively dressed and announces she is going out with her friend and intends to spend the night with her. A mother-daughter argument ensues.

Two characters from Charlene’s novel roam around outside the set, talking. The female is dressed in a skimpy, sexy outfit while the male is wearing a suit and tie and an overcoat; both their talk and actions are sexually explicit. Charlene says she is writing an erotic novel from a woman’s point of view to help women feel more in control of their bodies but her daughter calls it pornography. At what point does erotica become pornography? Is pornography in the eye of the beholder?

The play’s action shifts back and forth between reality and Charlene’s novel and these shifts are typically signaled by a change in lighting.

Sometimes the distinction is blurred, however, and dialog from Moby Dick read by Calvin and Leslie Ann finds its way into Charlene’s novel. Another instance is when Calvin tells his mother a lurid tale of what his sister and her friend actually do when they go out together at night. Charlene is horrified and her son finally admits that he made it up. But did he make it up? We see Leslie Ann in both roles. Charlene’s ex-husband suddenly shows up, forces his way into the house and tells a sad story of how his life has deteriorated since his and Charlene’s divorce ten years ago. He was an abusive husband and Charlene had taken out a restraining order against him but now he wants them to get together again. At this point the play becomes darker as it illustrates how sex, violence and power are intertwined, and events quickly get out of hand. Lights down. End of play? No—there is a surprisingly upbeat epilogue which references Moby Dick.

Despite the subject matter and some intense scenes, this play is not depressing. There are many funny moments and the entire cast is well-suited to their roles with a special nod to Warren Draper as the husband; Dimas Diaz as the Voice (I especially liked his Detective, a new character Charlene created for her current novel); and the intricate lighting by Lighting Designer Jon Langrell. This fast paced play by Paula Vogel runs 90 minutes without an intermission.

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THEATER REVIEW

HOT 'N' THROBBING
by Eric Marchese, Back Stage West

April 28, 2006

If anyone can skillfully connect the dots among domestic violence, family dysfunction, and the pervasiveness of sex in our society, it's Paula Vogel, whose take on even the most earnest of subjects is scathingly funny while tinged with hard truths about an often unforgiving world.

The Orange County premiere of Vogel's provocative 1992 comedic drama puts the suburban Dwyer family under the microscope. As the breadwinner, mom Charlene (Karen Webster) writes erotic screenplays for women. Her estranged husband, Clyde (Warren Draper), is none too happy with her new career, even while his physical abuse and alcoholism are what drove her away. Daddy's girl Leslie Ann (Cheryl Texiera) loves beer and parading around town in revealing clothing. Mama's boy Calvin (Casey Long) is an uptight A-student who masturbates into a catcher's mitt.

Vogel's atypical structure gives Hot 'N' Throbbing its shape: Fighting a deadline, a desperate Charlene is running dry of ideas. As the characters in her imagination (portrayed by Dimas Diaz and Alex Bueno) act out her lurid sadomasochistic fantasies, their dialogue mirrors that of the Dwyers, and vice versa, creating a powerful resonance. Like the playwright's How I Learned To Drive, a reckless disregard for boundaries and a lack of genuine, nurturing love are depicted as starting at home-in both plays, within dysfunctional families-and being the cause of sexual pathologies.

Helped by John Robinson's ingenious set design, Jon Langrell's shifting lighting, and Dave Mickey's pulsing sound, Magdalena Zira's tight, edgy, kinky staging drives the script's points home. Webster's Charlene is a study in frustration, driven to drawing on her own life to help spark her creativity and repeatedly willing, against her better judgment, to give her ex yet one more chance. Draper's Clyde is amazingly likeable-an unlucky schlub whose love of booze and regard for women as mere sex objects seem almost an afterthought. With, respectively, portrayals of sluttiness and repression, Texiera and Long complete the out-of-kilter family dynamic. Bueno's slinky minx is a sly imp whose words and movements mock the female self-reliance Charlene presumably champions. Diaz is the Bueno persona's male counterpart-tough, gritty, sadistic, and, like her, unquenchably horny.

Presented by and at the Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. Sat. 4 p.m., Sun. 6 p.m. Feb. 4-Mar. 12. (800) 838-3006.

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