2000-05-03 - 16:18:25

A THOUGHTFUL REVIEW BY FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (SAN FRANCISCO)

FRANZ BRETT WEIGL, FREE THINKER

While I was growing up, my father had a manner of speaking during discussions that left me in no doubt of the direction of his thoughts. �But the POINT is�,� he would exclaim, gesticulating wildly as he delivered the guts of the matter at hand to us on a plate. As I have grown in years and hopefully in powers of comprehension, I realize now that �the point� often was a thinly disguised opinion and not every discussion boils down neatly to a single irreducible truth.

If my father saw David�s Mandel�s two-act XENAMENOFRITO, I wonder what he would say the point was. For the theatergoer in search of simple themes, easy-to-follow plots and tidy resolutions, the play is bound to be a big disappointment. Yet this off-kilter journey through twenty-five slightly sequential scenes proves an entertaining and insightful exploration into the difficulties of communication in modern relationships.

Here�s the recipe: take a couple, any couple. Train a video camera on them from their initial meeting till their last goodbye, only pressing record intermittently. Then�take these choppy scenes, jumble randomly, and voila!

XENAMENOFRITO features Meno, played by Mandel, who is involved with Xena (Courtney Scrabeck). Frito (Shiloh Levine) flits on the edges of their relationship, serving as id, counterpoint, intrusion, distraction and spoiler. Throughout the scenes, the dialogue is shot through with non-sequiturs and sudden shifts, keeping the audience, and occasionally the actors, permanently off-kilter.

We see the dynamic between these characters shift between initial flirtation to the heaviness of the final breakup, yet because the breakup occurs in the initial scenes, the innocence of the flirtation in the �Work� scene is more apparent and stands out in sharp relief against the general cynicism about relationships that imbues the rest of the play.

Mandel plays with language in order to show us the meaninglessness of our own utterances. Phrases common between couples take on ironic twists and are exposed as either pure manipulation or, in some cases, desperation. In �Cold� one of the opening scenes, Meno seeks to coax an increasingly sullen Xena out of a funk clearly caused by the relationship itself. His attempt to change her mood by offering a trip to a restaurant she likes is an obvious manipulation. The unwillingness of Xena and Meno to uncover the truths of their relationship is a theme throughout the play. Frito not only introduces environmental pressure on Xena and Meno, but also serves to remind the audience of the unconscious aspect of the relationship: what isn�t being said, what�s hidden from view, what the truth is.

Fittingly, the set, designed by Dax van Aalten, consists of a fence. And a window, through which one can see another fence.

An especially effective device is that of Frito used as a symbol for the unconscious desires of the protagonists. As Xena gets to know Frito better, she gets to know herself and what she really feels. While doing laundry with Xena, Frito casually reveals she has a three year old, three-hundred pound, 40 ounce son. Xena, disbelieving, becomes slightly abusive and scoffs at Frito�s assertion. Yet later, at Frito�s funeral, the silhouette of the child, complete with gargantuan lollipop, is shown to Meno and Xena. The tension of Frito�s presence in Xena and Meno�s relationship temporarily dissipates, and there is a moment of clarity, as if Xena and Meno will finally acknowledge the truths between them. A flip comment from Meno, and we�re off to the races again.

�XENAMENOFRITO� swings from exploration of relationships to the depiction of moderm themes and back again, stopping often in the realm of pure entertainment. Most enjoyable is the dance number in the second act. In �Morning Beverage� Mandel puts on his marketer�s cap, and as Meno tells us how he and his colleagues have devised a �morning beverage that will revolutionize the way people wake up in the future��COFFEE�. The scene takes us out of the milieu of the characters and shows us how the muddled, unclear feelings that hamper their relationships are informed, if not caused, by a marketing culture in which the mass media alters behavior unconsciously. How many of us have spouted a slogan we heard in a commercial, not entirely sure how the words had weaved themselves into our brains so neatly? I have. My girlfriend is convinced I am a �marketer�s dream.�

If you go to see �XENAMENOFRITO,� make sure to peruse the table of souvenirs outside the theatre after the show. And a soundtrack is a available featuring the talents of Michael John Porter, Big N�Yerp, the 3ds, set designer Dax van Aalten, Kevin Beyers and Ryan Engler.

If there is a point to �XENAMENOFRITO,� it�s simply that communication is growing frayed, fragmented and shredded. And it�s an exploration of the problems that occur in relationships. And it�s also, more than anything, just entertaining.

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