Go see "Arrowhead" | A patient trip to a 'Tiny Little Town'

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Something to laugh about.

Before I went to see Arrowhead, I didn’t know that I needed the climax of a comedy to be the incineration of a cat condo (no cats) –– but, oh my god, did I!

You need to go see Arrowhead, playwright Catya McMullen’s world premiere comedy at IAMA Theatre Company.

First, it’s hysterical (literally laugh out loud, tears in your eyes funny). How it gets to that comedy is what makes it special. This is a play with some really outrageous bits but it isn’t being played or directed for the laughs.

The setup speaks to that. Gen is a lesbian and she’s pregnant... after surprisingly sleeping with a dude. This is an issue for Gen in so many ways. To deal with all this, she’s headed to a friend’s house in Lake Arrowhead for a friend's weekend where, like any good comedy, things just get more complicated. It’s hard to say more than that without spoiling the plot.

The characters, who are all beautifully cast, are people you know in LA, or at least, people you’ve stood behind while waiting for a coffee. This isn’t a New York play. This is an LA play –– and that makes a difference not just because of the setting, but because it’s so deeply recognizable. The characters are all folks at that early crossroads of life and relationships where it’s time to figure out what you’re really doing. Those questions are more complicated than simply "is it time to settle down?" In fact, the straight woman with kids is the least important character in the play (refreshing for a change). This diverse cast of characters is asking "what does it mean to be a lesbian," "can a bisexual ever really be trusted?" and "what does it mean when who I love doesn’t match my strict set of rules for who I can love?"

It’s the sincerity of the questioning that leads to the comedy. Ms. McMullen is writing an ensemble comedy with complex distinct characters. Jenna Worsham, who directs, finds a deep honesty that helps the comedy stay grounded, allowing the audience to find the humor both in the writing and in the physicality. For me, it’s always a good sign when you hear different audience members laughing at different moments –– not that one annoying guy who laughs to be heard –– but pockets of recognition at the absurdity of our own lives. This is one of those plays where the comedy is so specific it resonates differently in the audience. It’s a confident playwright, director, and cast who gives an audience that freedom.

Don’t miss this one. It’s an LA intimate theater gem. I find it hard to imagine a better production of this script. You won’t see acting this good in a theater this small anywhere else.

Arrowhead plays at the IAMA Theatre Company in Atwater Village through March 4th.

This is Anthony Byrnes Opening the Curtain on LA Theater for KCRW.

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Oh to have seen this in 2018!

Farce is a particular tool in the playwright's bag of tricks. It’s often a rough tool, less scalpel more sledgehammer, but the best farces have a razor’s edge specificity that helps them cut to the core quickly and with such a force as to topple the subject.

Playwright Selina Fillinger’s farce POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, currently playing at the Geffen Playhouse has elements of that specificity but is a bit removed from its moment (or perhaps, worse still, a bit early).

The setup is we’re in the West Wing. Befitting a farce, we’re always surrounded by doors where important presidential stuff is happening (and boy, does this set do a lot of work). The anchors of this all-women play are the Chief of Staff and Press Secretary, who are both trying to run interference for the president and keep him out of trouble. Surrounding them are a series of confounding characters who make their jobs even harder. At their best, those characters are specific and fully formed — the breast-pumping-at-work-reporter, the timid assistant timidly trying to claim space through bitch beats, and the blue-slurpy-guzzling-spirit-squad-dancing ingenue all come to mind. The others... not so much.

That’s really the challenge with the play. At the heart, there’s a fierce burning core of anger that wants to expose how wrong it all is. That center is powerful both as fuel for comedy and political commentary. But that center loses focus. Once we get into act two and the necessary machinery of farce, it starts to feel more plotting than cutting. As it starts to unravel, as it must, the play tries to find a meaningful soft landing that it hasn’t earned and doesn’t follow through on.

Ms. Fillinger, in a program note, says she wrote the first act in two weeks in 2016, fueled by a soon-to-be president who bragged about grabbing women by the genitals. It’s hard not to wish this current production had come to the stage at that moment.

It’s even harder to understand why the regional theaters passed on this play until it premiered on Broadway in 2022. As much as POTUS is an amalgamation of presidencies drawing from the ripe-for-ridicule history of presidential siblings and half-siblings, there’s no question this is a play suited to our 45th president.

It’s through this time-shifted lens that the edges of this farce become not bitingly precise but more vaguely dull. To have seen this play in 2018 would have been a completely different experience and an audience would forgive the flaws for the chance to laugh viciously.

Now, in 2024, it’s funny. It’s an easy night in the theater. Strong performances at the core. A few good laughs. But oh how I wish the Geffen had had the guts to do this play in 2018.

POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive plays at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood through February 25th.

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