Monkey Wrench Comes to Fullerton
By Stan Jenson
Orange County theatergoers were sad last year to see the closing of Santa Ana’s Rude Guerrilla Theatre Co. after a dozen years of challenging and wonderful productions. Many of the members of that company have resurfaced in Fullerton, and have re-christened themselves as the Monkey Wrench Collective. Artistic Director Dave Barton explained that Rude Guerrilla was a company of almost 40 members, each of whom had an opinion about how the company should be run. Many felt that they were alienating audiences by being too experimental in their productions, and wanted more traditional works to ensure larger mainstream audiences. Barton and several of the founding members decided to close the company rather than give in to commercialism.
However, the founding members realized they still had plenty to say and explore, and so the Monkey Wrench Collective was formed, and an intimate 30-seat theatre developed in Fullerton. The company selected Fullerton because it already has several active theatre companies, and with half a dozen colleges, the community residents can embrace intellectual productions. They were also thrilled by how they were embraced by the City of Fullerton. “Fullerton has already done more for us than the City of Santa Ana did in 12 years,” Barton stated.
This month, many of the former company’s familiar faces will be seen in Fullerton with Monkey Wrench’s opening work, “Pool (No Water)” by Mark Ravenhill. This will be the US premier of the play, just as Rude G premiered many of his earlier works. In fact, Barton has directed more of Ravenhill’s works than any other director in the world, and the men exchange a steady stream of e-mails and phone calls.
Barton describes “Pool (No Water)” as the most challenging work he has ever directed. It was originally written for four voices, simply known as A, B, C and D. Barton has spread the dialogue out over seven actors, and envisioned the play as a movement piece, working in conjunction with choreographers Melita Ann Sagar and Sam Tanng. The plot involves a famous artist who invites her old friends out to her luxurious new home and, for one night only, the group is back together again. Celebrations come to an abrupt end when the host suffers a horrific accident and an almost unthinkable plan starts to take shape: could her suffering be their next work of art? As with most Ravenhill scripts, the production involves considerable sex, nudity, violence, profanity, gay and sexually ambiguous characters. Barton knows the work is a gamble – audiences might love it, or might not. It is certainly unlike anything he has ever seen produced in the southland, and that’s one of his goals with Monkey Wrench Collective: to explore without demands of box office.
The company has decided to embrace a concept espoused by British director Max Stafford-Clark where simultaneously productions of two plays with similar themes – one classic, one new – invites audiences to contrast and compare the two works. For their classic piece, the company has selected “The Revenger’s Tragedy,” by Thomas Middleton, first produced in 1607. It is a Jacobean tragedy, which means that virtually everyone in the production gets killed. Barton chuckles that the show has “Lots of sex, lots of nudity, and lots and lots of dead bodies!” Despite the bodies, the play is really a black comedy, and very cinematic. In the hands of these competent performers, audiences won’t challenged by the Shakespearean language, and once again, there are sexually ambiguous characters, and a trio of incestuous brothers.
“Pool (No Water” plays from February 26 through April 11. “The Revenger’s Tragedy” plays from March 6 through April 11. Monkey Wrench Collective is located at 204 N. Harbor, Fullerton. All seats are $10 each, less than a typical cinema ticket. Reservations can be made at 714-547-4688.