Review: AMERICAN STAGE SESSIONS – HISTORY OF WORLD DRAMA PART 2,666: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE WORK OF BRYCELAND DAVIES DAVID at High Low Coffee Shop

Glass Elevator, a new theatre company in St. Louis, staged its inaugural production of AMERICAN STAGE SESSIONS – HISTORY OF WORLD DRAMA PART 2,666: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE WORK OF BRYCELAND DAVIES DAVID on Wednesday evening. The one-night production, in the performance space at the High Low Coffee Shop, was part of STL Fringe FEST ’23 that runs from August 14 -20th in the Grand Center Theatre District in midtown St. Louis.

STL Fringe FEST is a theatrical arts festival that is open to both professional and amateur theater companies with a focus on presenting brief shows with minor technical requirements. Rehearsal time, set pieces, and props are kept to a minimum. Glass Elevator's production relied on the actors telling the story with only a single set piece, an overstuffed chair, and a handful of props. The laughs from this production were derived from the exaggerated performances of the actors.

Directed by Nick Freed, AMERICAN STAGE SESSIONS – HISTORY OF WORLD DRAMA PART 2,666: A CLOSER LOOK AT THE WORK OF BRYCELAND DAVIES DAVID is a series of three small vignettes that are introduced by a suited ‘Masterpiece Theater-esque’ narrator in an overstuffed leather chair complemented by Mouret’s ‘Rondeau’ playing in the background. Each satirical vignette is an unapologetically crass view of a man’s perspective that is dripping with acerbic toxic masculinity. Written and originally produced by The Plagiarists, AMERICAN STAGE SESSIONS relies on caustic and ridiculous dialogue using vulgar descriptions for sex, penile injuries, raising a boy into a man, women’s lib and menstruation all from a male perspective of dominance, sexual entitlement, and hostility toward feminism.

The cast committed fearlessly to their characters without hesitation. Aaron Orion Baker as The Professor (think Alistair Cook) was hysterically dry, as he described each of the short sketches that were part of Bryceland Davies David’s writings. The other five actors, Summer Baer, Frankie Ferrari, Sarah Lantsberger, Victor Mendez and Ben Ritchie filled multiple roles that required oration of an abundance of scripted dialogue and narration. Each skit worked thanks to the cast’s gutsy performances and Freed’s crisp direction.

Glass Elevator’s inaugural production of a 60-minute play of caustic humor showed that this company has an artistic vision that needs to be explored further. The St. Louis arts community may have a budding theatre group to add to the robust and growing number of companies that produce plays and musicals of high quality.