Reporter Alexis (Dayna Morales) questions company CEO Sarah (Nicole Hulett) while scientist Jennifer (Mary Gundlach) tries to evade the questioning in Rachel Bublitz’s Burst at New City Players. ((Photo by Kevin Ondarza)
By Bill Hirschman
Fury, frustration, deception, integrity, ambition and amorality combine and collide in a super-charged spiral downward that cements a cuttingly wry satire liberally seasoned with chuckles and giggles in New City Players’ all-too-well-titled Burst.
Savor the intersection of Rachel Bublitz’s insightful script, three actresses’ tireless high-energy performances and Elizabeth Price’s superb direction that defines the adjectives vital and kinetic.
This tongue-in-cheek rebuking tells of a company that contends it has discovered a way to create fully biodegradable plastic – thereby revolutionizing the ecology of our future.
The problem is that the two ceiling-shattering women who created the fast-rising company actually haven’t quite got the problem licked. But the hard-charging CEO Sarah not only publicizes the success but is close to a major deal with Colgate-Palmolive – while suing their mentor claiming widespread use is impossible. Jennifer, the technology wizard, has no desire to lie about any of it in the lawsuit hearing tomorrow or to hard-charging journalist Alexis who is coming to interrogate them in their office late tonight.
Relationships and situations are not what they seem, and several secrets slip toward revelation – leading to various definitions of “burst.”
The pertinence reflects our 21st Century because of the technological and ecological aspects. But the punch is further applicable for its indictment of how greed and ambition have eroded and even erased integrity. And still, the journey is punctuated by audience laughter. And further still, appropriately muddling the criticism, Sarah is partly motivated by hopes and dreams for the benefit of mankind.
Obviously, the citation of plastic delightfully resonates beyond the polymer into a rebuke of modern American shallow disposable ethos. To ensure its thematic prominence, the set of Sarah’s office is eloquently backed by an overwhelming stage-length wall crammed, jammed by the millimeter with what must be a couple of thousand soda bottles, detergent packages, pill bottles and water jugs. (During the production run-up, New City Players asked people on Facebook to help provide enough items to finish filling up the enclosures for opening night.)
Two aspects are especially memorable: One is the regularly recurring fusion of playwright, actress and director that frequently has Sarah instantly – and we mean instantly – snapping from one personality to another, one voice to another, and then to yet another with barely a twist of her body, underscoring the shallow insincerity of everything she says and does. All three actresses skillfully do this, but Hulett’s diva-worthy transmuting is mouth-dropping as the tightly-wound borderline monster ricochets from Jekyll to Hyde to Sybil in a moment. She can be chummy then vindictive, iron-willed to plaintive, faux earnest in her polished practice speeches for the coming court hearing, then chillingly pragmatic.
Mary Gundlach nails a devoted scientist who is not socially smooth nor receptive to the clues of Sarah’s duplicity. Dayana Morales is the investigative reporter who coats her interrogation with manufactured charm and smiles.
Interestingly, the cast is diverse, as the playwright endorses in her script. Hulett still has her Australian accent; Morales and her character are audibly Hispanic. Gundlach sounds like your Anglo-Saxon neighbor.
The other engine on this admirably paced bullet train is how Price has instilled a bottomlessly inventive use of physical movement. Many patrons won’t consciously register it, but she has her actresses propel their flexible bodies, flying arms, kicking legs and — more than anything — their hands to illustrate an ever-driving flow.
Just a tiny character-revealing example: Jennifer stretches out her arms to embrace Sarah in a genuine attempt at reconciliation. But in a split-second move, Sarah steps aside to avoid it like a charging bull — and here’s the wile – she grasps Jennifer’s left arm from the side. She is simultaneously avoiding the human embrace, but at the last second realizing that perfunctory civility requires her to acknowledge it somehow to keep the lucrative liaison intact.
Such inventive staging is all Price or Price-approved because the excellent script is primarily dialogue.
But Bublitz’s script skillfully stabs straight into the guts of the modern miasma, crystalizing in Sarah’s diatribes the dismay so many of us are struggling with. For example:
“You still don’t get it, do you? It doesn’t — -IT DOES NOT MATTER THAT I CAN’T CHANGE PLASTIC! It doesn’t fucking matter. What matters is that people can feel better about themselves. That’s all anyone wants these days. Our world is literally falling to pieces, but everyone is too isolated and fucking lazy to do a damn thing about it so I sell them the appearance of change. It’s all anyone really wants. That’s it. So they can use their fifty million straws from their drive-thru and not feel the guilt that they are a part of the problem.
“No one actually cares if it works or not. NOT ONE PERSON CARES! I tell a good story, I sell a good package and that’s all that matters. This isn’t the age of innovation, it’s the age of marketing and I’m the marketing motherfucking master. …. No one wants to hear that my miraculous cure that’s going to save us all from the apocalypse doesn’t quite work yet…. because if there’s one thing people hate these days more than anything, it’s the truth.”
Granted that the clashing forces in the last fourth of the evening get to be a trifle hard to track, but by then many of us are happily along for the ride.
Kudos are due Annabel Herrera’s lighting underscoring changes, Aubrey Rodriguez’s plastic set and Casey Sacco’s costumes that include the company’s logo on vests and socks the company uses as a marketing ploy.
The southeastern premiere of Burst marks the closing offering of New City Players 10th season as a company that simultaneously favors new works you’ve not heard of and revitalized classics like All My Sons.
Burst from New City Players July 11–26 at Island City Stage (2304 N. Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday & Sunday. Running time 1 hour 45 minutes, no intermissions. Tickets $40-45 purchased online at newcityplayers.org. For student and group discounts, email boxoffice@newcityplayers.org or call (954) 376-6114.
Sunday Talkbacks! Interactive post-show discussions with the cast and creative team connecting the themes of Burst to real community voices all three Sundays following the performance. July 12 features a special talkback with visiting playwright Rachel Bublitz. July 26 is co-presented with NAWBO South Florida, bringing women in business leaders into conversation with the artists.
Weekend Wine Downs! Casual conversations and libations after Friday and Saturday night performances where patrons can discuss the play with each other and members of the creative team. July 17, 18, and 25.
Poets in the Public Square A one-night-only live poetry performance after the July 25 performance during the aftershow Wine Down where the featured poets from the exhibition bring their original works from the lobby walls to the stage. Curated by Wild Bloom Society.
Playwright Visit Bublitz will participate in a post-show talkback July 12 and lead a playwriting masterclass.
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