Boccaccio’s world of The Decameron continues as cyber-theater for two more rounds of short videos by Synetic Theater’s company members and close associates. Imbedded in the program is one of the best short works in the series.
Joseph McAlanan has found a nugget of a story to display his stage combat talents. Boccaccio’s third story in the final day of ten tales to pass the time in a pandemic features a man who is so overcome by greed and envy that he plots to murder a man known for his generosity.
He wastes no time in establishing either the motive of the young man (whom he plays) or the character of the other gentleman. We catch a man in mid-action in a cluttered shed that just happens to have, lying around, ropes, long knives, cudgels and snow shovels. One by one, he takes them up and goes after his nemesis only to be whopped. The neat comic trick is that each weapon of revenge and fight turns out to be in his imagination.
Most men would want to be featured as the kick-ass victor. McAlanan shows us how much fun it all is to play the vanquished villain and how good he is at being punched, flipped, put in a vise, and generally roughed up. It all ends up with an amusing turnaround. If you like action films that don’t take themselves too seriously, this is the one for you.
Catherine Nunez does one better in her short video by making both combat and romance enacted by one human being. She is both the “combator” and “combatee” so to speak, though her voluptuous hair seems to have a mind and personality of its own. She also has imaginatively used several common household items, including vacuum cleaner, metal trash-can with lid, and a most curious candy-pink mop to “people” her private world.
Nunez is a Native Cuban actress I have seen around town and is frequently featured in Gala Hispanic Theatre productions. She uses for music to underscore her video the decidedly Latin sound of a solo guitar. She clearly has a deep feeling for music and has taken great pains to craft and edit the work to pull out and feature musical motifs and textures. I loved the details, such as in close up running on tiptoes to give focus to the fast pizzicato on guitar.
Underneath its entertainment value, the video conveys well the theme of both Boccaccio’s original premise and that of the Synetic’s series: when we are forced by a plague or pandemic to self-isolate by sheltering in place, we must fight our own lethargic and self-destructive impulses and rather make our own entertainment as best we may.
Scott Brown has been a company member of Synetic for over thirteen years, and you will remember him from several of their award-winning, big production hits. Who knew he was also an accomplished videographer? He and his cinematographer, Peter Pereyra, show in this work they have the talent, the right crew, and high-end equipment to pull off this short form video as a highly polished work of art.
It’s all in the details. Titled “The Gardener,” Brown’s establishing close-up shots of azaleas and other spring flowers in riotous bloom bring us right into the world of a man who becomes a gardener. Brown and Co. show us with every carefully planned shot that they have the stuff, and because of this, they put us, the viewers, at ease. Everything is clean, framed well, and in good light.
Some of the story elements will be familiar to those who have been following the Synetic series. Living solitary in a pandemic, man or woman faces loneliness, boredom, survival fears, and panic. Sometimes one is driven to desperate measures. Brown as Kevin proceeds through all these phases, and we watch him as we did several other artists caught in their daily routines.
The repetition here always adds just enough variation to keep one’s interest and push the story forward. Our man Kevin showers, brushes his teeth, combs his hair but may or may not shave, for instance, because things have got just a little worse. Kevin has lost his job and maybe his wife/partner.
But if you think this is going to be a down-in-the-dumps, life-in-the-time-of-corona tragedy, the dude is just too smart for that. As Hamilton says to Thomas Jefferson the agrarian farmer in Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical, “Yeah, we know who does the planting!” The Gardener in this film finds himself “in demand” in the neighborhood where he works as a gardener. This in turn builds back his confidence and sense of optimism. The message of Brown’s video seems to be, “We shall survive this time.” And meantime, smell the roses.
Anne Flowers’ piece is darker in all ways. This last video on the day’s program announces we can’t escape the reality for long and that “separation and longing make for a dangerous recipe in desperate times.”
Flowers captures the loneliness of a woman who once had found happiness with a great love. She is surrounded by memories of this love. She tries unsuccessfully to escape into TV viewing but all she gets is mind-numbing news of the pandemic. It is not clear if the man who re-appears is in her dreams. If so, she relives an updated Romeo & Juliet tragic ending.
Flowers is an expressive actress. We feel for her as her mood shifts, and it is sad to watch someone so at the mercy of someone else’s feelings and actions.
The videos today are varietal in feeling-tone and stamped clearly by the individual artists who made them. They represent the individual imagination and what is possible to create in the short form of video.
Day 9 of Synetic Theater’s The Decameron debuted July 18, 2020.
Tickets to watch The Decameron start at just $10 for the entire series and are available now.
DCTS reviews The Decameron
Isn’t Day 9 the next to last day? There are three more tomorrow, I believe.