Los Angeles Theater Review: FIRST ELDERS (APT 3F at Asylum Theatre / Hollywood Fringe Festival)

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by Tony Frankel on June 19, 2014

in Theater-Los Angeles

FAR FROM FABULOUS

“First Elders” by David LeBarron; APT 3F, part of the Hollywood Fringe FestivalA young gay man named Charlie has had a breakup. Feeling despondent, he enters an empty theater and performs a ritual aided by a copy of Witchcraft for Dummies. He conjures an erstwhile college professor, Armand, to be his guide to the other world. Armand summons five older archetypal gay men (the bitch, the slut, the “First Elders” by David LeBarron; APT 3F, part of the Hollywood Fringe Festivalactivist, etc.) known as “Elders.” For the next hour writer David LeBarron vacillates between pseudo-poetics and bitchy cocktail conversation to create arc-less storytelling, gaping plot-holes, and a pretentious treatise on the importance to hot young boys that they remember what came before. Hampered by Andrew Henkes’ stilted, chorus-line direction and mostly amateur, immature performances, the spirit of gay elders who paved the way for today’s liberation deserves far better “fabulosity” than this slog. It’s a shame the Elder of the Arts wasn’t summoned; this is the type of theater he would have warned us about.

“First Elders” by David LeBarron; APT 3F, part of the Hollywood Fringe FestivalFirst Elders
APT 3F
part of the Hollywood Fringe
Asylum Theatre
6320 Santa Monica Blvd.
for tickets, visit Hollywood Fringe
scheduled to end on June 28, 2014

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