Double Your Pleasure

CP Theater Reviews

by Mark Cofta

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Published: Nov 11, 2009

Hunter Gatherers

Jump on the Peter Sinn Nachtrieb bandwagon with Theatre Exile and Flashpoint Theatre Co., who serendipitously present two of the young San Francisco playwright's works in the same building at the same time.

Hunter Gatherers explores primal needs lurking just below our civilized surfaces. Mismatched couples Pam/Richard (Amanda Schoonover/Ross Beschler) and Tom/Wendy (Matt Pfeiffer/Sarah Sanford) meet for their shared anniversaries, an annual event grown increasingly tense because Richard insists on slaughtering dinner, wrestling nebbishy doctor Tom, and banging Wendy ("Nature's clock is deafening in my ears!") in the kitchen. Why? Because Wendy and Richard are passionate, self-absorbed alpha personalities, ruled by basic urges.

Pam and Tom seem weak and aimless in comparison, but we soon realize that their impulsive partners need their caution and skills. (Judging one side or the other superior may reveal something about your own proclivities.) Through heightened, clever language and committed, sincere performances, their warring needs build to a disturbing and funny climax of food, sex and violence, expertly orchestrated by director Deborah Block and fight choreographer John Bellomo.

Upstairs at Second Stage, Nachtrieb's boom likewise features incompatible lovers colliding: Cynical journalism major Jo (Melissa Lynch) joins reclusive marine biologist Jules (Derick Loafmann) in his basement lab after answering a Craigslist solicitation for "intensely significant coupling" — by which Jules means repopulating the world after a cataclysm predicted by fish. Why Barbara (droll Susan Giddings) narrates — with punctuating drum thumps — is a mind-blowing surprise.

Both plays explore evolution and human nature in personal ways that don't clash with Nachtrieb's deliciously savage wit, which both productions perfectly expand upon. (Jo pursues a television career to obtain "newscaster hair," and later, Lynch brilliantly captures standard anchor cadence.) Both are also impeccably produced, with inventive sets by Meghan Jones (Exile) and Christian Pedone (Flashpoint) — large accomplishments in small spaces — and subtle sound design by John Glaubitz (boom) and Mikaal Sulaiman (Hunter Gatherers).

Together, Hunter Gatherers and boom make for an impromptu Nachtrieb festival that explores his big ideas about human nature in devilishly entertaining comedies, a result greater than the sum of its wonderful parts.

Hunter Gatherers, through Nov. 22, $25-$30, Theatre Exile, 215-218-4022, theatreexile.org; boom, through Nov. 21, $15-$18, Flashpoint Theatre Co., 215-665-9720, flashpointtheatre.org; The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St.

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