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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > July > 12 > Entry
Review: ‘69 Love Scenes’
Love is like improvisational jazz - you make it up as you go along…
Love is also like a bottle of gin, a rodeo, a boa constrictor, a cactus, and a wide array of other things, according to The Magnetic Fields’ iconic three-disk album, “69 Love Songs,” which Gnap! Theater has turned into a rollicking collage of a play, showing now through July 23 at Salvage Vanguard Theater.
Co-written by Monique Daviau and director Avimaan Syam, “69 Love Scenes” consists of 69 scenes inspired by each of the songs on the album. Fortunately for everyone, love and love songs are so utterly ubiquitous that you don’t need to know the music to be able to enjoy the play. But it will certainly make you want to go listen to the album afterward. And though it might appear at times that prior knowledge would aid in understanding, names have not been changed to protect the innocent, and rampantly fictive story lines have been created around them.
Loosely following the paths of an overwhelming number of characters, “69 Love Scenes” explores the connections between love and the body, intimacy and affection, yearning and disappointment. We see heartache and happiness play out in the lives of an over-sexed male model (Hugo Vargas-Zesati), a coquettish French dominatrix (Courtney Hopkin), a middle-aged Jewish couple (Maggie Wilhite and Elizabeth Brammer), a lovesick cab driver (Joel Osborne), a lesbian singer-songwriter (Adriene Mishler) and her petite ex-girlfriend (Gricelda Silva), a well-meaning clown (Joanna Wright), two misguided punk rock kids (Jericho Thorp and Leah Moss) and Ferdinand de Saussure (Jay Byrd).
Accompanied by live music (some from the album, some composed by music director Adam Hilton), the cast of eleven tackles these characters (and innumerable more) with energy, enthusiasm, and a healthy dose of hilarity. The two or three more solemn scenes stand out against the comic backdrop of the play as a whole (especially performances by Maggie Wilhite and Elizabeth Brammer), making us wish for a bit more balance between sincerity and silliness.
While love in “69 Love Scenes” is occasionally innocent, more often it delves into the raunchier side of sexuality (with a surprising amount of paraphernalia appearing on stage). The show is also refreshingly non-heternormative, honoring the sexual inclusivity of the album.
With 69 scenes to tackle, some inevitably fall a bit flat or drag on a bit long, and the play does lose some momentum by intermission. But the excellent ensemble and lively spirit of the show keep us enthralled through to the very end.
“69 Love Scenes” continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through July 23 at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $10. gnaptheater.org
Cate Blouke is an American-Statesman freealance arts critic.
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