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REVIEW: UNDER 30

Posted by arts_reviews

Posted: January 11, 2008 - 4:16 pm

Allison Warden in Under 30

By MAIA NOLAN

Out North's "Under 30" opened Friday night, and while this year's theme is "Changes," one thing has stayed the same: The annual collection of performances is as quirky and original as "Under 30" fans have come to expect. This year's installment includes four pieces by local writers and performers; each, as the title suggests, is less than 30 minutes long.

The evening opens with "20th Century Man and Other Stories," written and performed by "Under 30" veteran B. Hutton. A series of "musings" on the nature of time, "20th Century Man" is extremely aural, with a rolling, poetic cadence. Hutton puts his sound technician through the wringer, makes his own vocal effects and draws on a pair of violinists to produce everything from horror movie music to traffic noise. There's visual spectacle, too; Hutton constructs a time machine onstage and makes good use of his own physical presence (including dance moves that would turn Ted Sadtler green with envy).

Hutton's piece is followed by "Ground Zero," Gabrielle Barnett's take on post-9/11 American values. Barnett is engaging as Miss American Pie, a well-intentioned but misguided symbol of the American spirit with a few thoughts on environmental sustainability, patriotism and American heritage. Barnett's doe-eyed Lady Liberty comes across as innocuous, but like a teenage "mean girl," her bubbly exterior is camouflage for a few well-aimed barbs. The piece is both ruthless and endearing, although it could have ended a few lines earlier; the end felt a little too pat.

The second act opens with Allison Warden's "Ode to the Polar Bear," by far the most polished performance on the program. Warden is a captivating storyteller in this piece that personalizes the problem of disappearing Arctic ice by emphasizing the connection between Alaska Natives and polar bears. During a question and answer session Friday night, Warden mentioned that she "wrote" her piece by videotaping herself talking rather than typing it out, and the result is a piece that feels drawn from an oral tradition, not memorized off a page.

During intermission, audience members were given ice cubes to hold, and while there is a passing reference to the ice early in the piece, it is never revisited; hopefully, as Warden revises the script, she will incorporate the ice more fully, as it has the potential to add another layer to the experience.

The final piece, "Finding My Voice," is Wendy Withrow's reminiscence about the coffeehouse she founded at her Southern Baptist women's college in the 1960s. Withrow tells the story naturally — there is no pretense that this is a fictional character — and even coaxes the audience into a sing-along. The story is nice and Withrow is engaging, although the piece would be a little more effective if there were a stronger connection between the opening anecdotes about singing hymns as a little girl, and the later material about the fulfillment Withrow got out of bringing music to her college campus.

All four pieces in "Under 30" are strong, although they could stand to be reordered to split up the more high-concept pieces, both of which are currently presented before the intermission. Moving "Ode to the Polar Bear," which feels like the anchor of the evening, to the final spot, would close "Under 30" on the highest of notes.

Maia Nolan lives and writes in Anchorage.

IF YOU GO: "Under 30," Friday-Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday 4 p.m. through Jan. 20 at Out North, 3800 DeBarr Road. Tickets are $15.75 online at www.outnorth.org or $18 at the door.