Review: AUDITION SIDES at Riot Productions

“Audition Sides” understands a specific kind of theatrical purgatory: the audition room, where you are expected to be calm, charming, and emotionally available for an undetermined amount of time that is decided by other people, all while your anxiety climbs. Written by Sarah Alida LeClair, this short play drops us into that heightened, absurd space and then twists the knife by adding one crucial complication—your scene partner is also your ex, an ex-costar, and a relationship that ended without closure. What’s supposed to be a simple callback becomes an uncomfortably intimate reckoning that refuses to end. “Audition Sides” by Riot Productions is playing through February 1st at the MOXIE Theatre.

LeClair plays The Woman, a performer deep into the callback process for a role she has prepared forwards and backwards. She arrives armed with preparation, confidence, and a pleasant smile for the proctor’s table. That smile falters, just briefly, when she sees The Man (Timothy Benson), then snaps back into place; she is a professional, after all. 

He’s everything she’s trying not to think about: former collaborator, former lover, and now the person she has to run an intensely romantic scene with to land her dream job. The play smartly leans into the performative nature of auditions, the layers of mask-wearing we all do to appear “fine,” employable, and in control, while letting the stress underneath boil over in surprising, often hilarious ways. 

Each time the audition scene is read, it becomes a kind of duel. Emotional points are scored, old wounds are reopened, and professional courtesy slowly erodes. This isn’t a nostalgic or sentimental breakup story; it’s an adult relationship full of contradictions, where these two people may understand each other more deeply than anyone else and still know they can’t stay together without destroying themselves. LeClair charts The Woman’s unraveling from controlled irritation at the unfairness of the process, to jealousy, vulnerability, and the brittle smile she keeps offering the relentlessly cheerful Proctor.

Benson matches her beat for beat, creating a relationship that is intimate one moment, defensive the next, and always charged. Josalyn Johnson lands big laughs as the Proctor, with her bubbly obliviousness and a Starbucks coffee that should have an airtag on it, while subtly revealing the scars of someone who has also been shaped and damaged by this industry. It’s a reminder that even the people who “run the room” are performing their own survival strategies.

Directed by Rhiannon McAfee, the piece moves briskly, balancing laugh-out-loud moments with emotionally hitting turns. Hayden St. Clair’s visual and sound design completes the world without distracting from the performances, keeping the pressure cooker tight. 

Ultimately, “Audition Sides” is about the relationships people have—between people, and between their work. How much can you love without breaking? What does it mean to be seen, heard, chosen, or rejected? Riot Productions delivers a sharply observed and relatable play - it’s exciting to imagine what they’ll tackle next. 

How To Get Tickets

“Audition Sides” by Riot Productions is playing through Sunday, February 1st. Performances will run Saturday at 7 pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 2 pm. All shows will be presented at the MOXIE Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego. Tickets for this production are $20 and can be purchased at https://buytickets.at/riotproductionsinc/1947096.

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