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Butt Nekkid
By Laura Jacqmin
Produced by The Side Project
1439 W. Jarvis Ave.
Chicago, IL
Tickets: 773-973-2150 or www.thesideproject.net , $12
Sun. at 7:00 p.m., Mon.-Wed. at 8:00 p.m.
Running time is about 1 hour 40 minutes with no intermission
Through December 16th
Butt Nekkid Production is Too Bare
The Side Project’s penchant for bringing new works to their tiny black-box setting has resulted in some great small productions in recent years. Unfortunately their new show, billed as the world premiere of Laura Jacqmin’s Butt Nekkid, will not be remembered as one of them. The show was developed at a playwrights’ workshop last year and a portion of it was read in Chicago Dramatists’ Resident Playwright showcase earlier this year. There are elements of the script that are quite good, but it is an unfinished work that suffers from being rushed to production in this extremely low-budget presentation.
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Butt Nekkid is a contemporary romance that involves a young hip-hop producer and the 20-year-old daughter of the Jewish owner of the record-label he works for. There are some good beats from local hip-hop and theatre artist Idris Goodwin and the play’s frank exploration of culture, race and religion is engaging. I came into the theatre totally prepared to like this play, but after a powerful opening scene, I quickly lost interest as the cast moved through what seemed like endless scene changes on the bare Side Project floor. There was so much moving of the few pieces of furniture that comprise Grant Sabin’s non-set that even a more seasoned cast would have had difficulty recovering character from their cumbersome chores. Michael Pogue and Naomi Hummel each had some good moments as the young lovers, but the chemistry between them never rang true. The more experienced Will Kinnear was overall quite good as the manipulative record mogul dad, but he also dropped some lines on opening night which further contributed to eradicating the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Being jolted into reality provided this theatergoer the opportunity to notice that others in the audience were equally uninterested.
Some credit is due Side Project, however, for seeking out original and meaningful material. At $12 in a space that doesn’t seat 50, one cannot expect a lot in the way of production values and the cast certainly isn’t planning retirement from this effort. If I were to see that another production of this play hits the boards a year from now, I would probably go because there is promise to the script. If you choose to see Butt Nekkid this time around, you might feel it’s worth the meager admission, but if you do so, I suggest that you wait until later in the run because it wasn’t ready opening night.
SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED
Randy Hardwick
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comments
Date Reviewed: November 13, 2007
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