BWW Reviews: Arizona Women's Theatre's PANDORA FESTIVAL Brews A Potpourri of Potent Perspectives

Three short plays, staged readings of works in progress by women playwrights, are the centerpiece of Arizona Women's Theatre Company's Eighth Annual Pandora Festival ~ a rich and much-needed opportunity to channel their creative voices.

Vegetal Salvaje (transl. Wild Vegetables), written by Bernadette LaMazza and directed by Deborah Lee Hall, is an over-the-top spoof on a madcap telenovela, rooted in a sexy, vegetarian, romantic cooking show and featuring a wildly engaging cast of bravado characters, each a celebrity in his/her own mind: the sexy self-possessed magnetic Charo-like actress,Consuela; Mark Jones, the buff promoter of Ninja-cise products; Don Felipe, the paunchy and contrary-to-belief-still-alive lothario; Char, the willowy food model; It is a kitchen divided with a crew that is maddeningly off script and contriving aubergine dishes with the wildest of ingedients. Rosaria, the show's producer, and Larry, her assistant, are beyond flustered as they herd this brood of errant stars, prompt them to mention the sponsors' products before time runs out, and constantly reminding the cast that it is, after all, a family show.

Hira Ismail's Minute Decisions, directed by Bryanna Patrick, is a delicately balanced dialogue between the prospective partners in an arranged marriage. Maira (Corina Guerrero) and Imran (Matthew Contreras) have twenty minutes in which to probe the questions that are at the heart of enduring relationships ~ the questions that, in the normal course of typical courtships are rarely asked and may not, until much later in the game, ever be asked.

Questions abound from the mundane to the sublime. Maira believes that the God of the Koran is a romantic god. So, she wonders, does romance matter in a partnership of beliefs when God is a witness? A heady question, indeed, for a wedding of kindred spirits! How does each feel about raising children? Can changing diapers be a spiritual experience? What do you do when mistakes are made?

By taking the audience out of its traditional element and placing it in the context of another tradition, we may be reminded about how little we assume about each other and how little we may truly know about the ones we're with. Ms. Ismail is on to an elegantly simple but profoundly important concept, and it will be a delight to see it fully played out.

Wrapping up the trio of plays is The Interview, written by Mary Caroline Rogers and directed by Carolyn McBurney. The dramedy is a painfully honest profile of an applicant for an administrative position being callously and dismissively assaulted with a barrage of questions clearly designed to be discriminatory and exclusionary. To too many this is too familiar a protocol. In a series of asides, Judith the stoic applicant (forcefully played by Melody Knudson) and Aaron, the smarmy poseur (Brian Maticic) reveal their true feelings and intentions. The dance continues with a sharp and surprising denouement that proves that what goes around comes around.

This important set of offerings continues its Festival run at the Phoenix Center for the Arts (Third Street Theatre) through February 1st.

Photo credit to Marta Dahlig