An eccentric, sometimes unsettling, series of digital video productions make up Pear Theatre’s new hodgepodge of vignettes called “This Street and the Next.” Directed by the company’s artistic director, Sinjin Jones, it’s now streaming via the Pear’s website.
Written by seven members of the Pear’s Playwrights Guild, the collection can be watched in whatever order a viewer wants to see them. Most run 10-15 minutes, although some are longer and several last just a minute or two.
Not surprisingly, a great many of the videos have themes that resonate with the most important matters happening today: COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and loneliness.
Clearly, these are not trifles, so don’t expect a lot of comedy. Yet there are times when the images and actions will cause a few chuckles.
The music, written and performed by local musicians Derek Bernard on piano and Drew Weber on guitar, adds a much-needed dimension to many of the videos and helps viewers get into the right mood.
Jones says the collection was put together because “we knew we weren’t going to be able to mount ‘Side by Side by Sondheim’ in a digital format. Instead, this collage presents overlapping narratives that explore the strength of the human spirit even in the most difficult of times.”
Some succeed better than others, and a couple can best be described as weird. That’s what “Mother Nature” feels like. It’s mostly loud music, a jumble of photos and a relentlessly irritating Mother Nature (an overacting Betsy Kruse Craig) who repeatedly calls the people on planet Earth “my children.” This nine-minute clip written by Robin Booth often feels cloying, artificial and endless.
Booth’s other contribution is equally as irritating. What’s interesting in looking at an all-white room with a headless man dressed in white for eight minutes? No, no and no. The man (movements and voiceover by Marco Neves) is talking to his brother, Christian. But it’s mostly a boring ramble as viewers watch the headless body move about the room, sit on a black chair and sometimes pound his fist.
It’s likely most viewers will start with “In the Dark, An Introduction,” a 10-minute phantasmagorical panorama of images by Douglas Rees that attempts to set the stage for what’s to follow. At times the visuals hold a person’s attention, while other passages are just a mishmash. But the music is magical and makes this section worthwhile.
Both parts of “The Wedding” by Barbara Anderson are interesting and much easier to follow because real people are doing real things in their homes. Juliet Green makes an appealing Mandy, a young bride-to-be who is so eager to be married that she’s committed to having her fairytale wedding over Zoom, even though she’ll be socially distanced from her betrothed.
This piece and “The Wedding, Part 2” are both good and they connect with others, particularly “Take the Cake, Part 2” by Leah Halper, when Mandy is learning how to make her own wedding cake under the tutelage of Callie (Kruse Craig), a passionate chef introduced in “Take the Cake, Part 1” who has tons of social network followers and who now spends her life in the kitchen. The baking sessions unexpectedly take a 360-degree turn, and the piece gets deadly serious about police brutality, Black Lives Matter and solidarity.
In “First Date” and “Another Date” by Peggy Powell, actors Mike Rhone and Dave Leon make a likable pair of lonely gay men who have set up a Zoom date and are both feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of having a virtual date. They have become much more casual and friendly by their second date, which is helped along with good music and a very touching ending.
“This Street and the Next” is available at www.thepear.org through July 19; streaming fee is $15.
