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Photo Credit Grettel Cortes
Lisa Sanaye Dring's HUNGRY GHOST turns partly on a famous artwork: Gaki-zoshi (Scroll of the Hungry Ghosts). Japanese mythology discusses the arrival of ghosts who arrive with issues. Cue the hermit!
Just who's who and what's what in Hungry Ghost ekes out in scenes with lapses of time imagined. Sounds and lights are almost characters throughout. The advancement of the forest into the house remains a mystery.
We meet Amanda and Dean (Tasha Ames and Jenny Soo) who have come to Lake Stevens, Washington in the wake of the death of Dean's mother. In the current trend of mixing and matching pronouns, this lesbian couple presents in a way that may turn heads in Lake Stevens.
Dring shepherds us through the idea that this couple will move forward as partners. It is unclear if Amanda and Dean are officially married. It's 2022, so what the heck?
After a rollicking session of oral sex, Amanda impregnates Dean with donor sperm. Soon after, Dean collides with Hermit (Ben Messmer). He is, evidently, based on a real hermit whom Dring discovered in her research. The mystery of this messy guy and Dean's pregnancy unfolds. Far out.
Thanks to Gary Grossmean and the development goals of The Skylight, this World Premiere follows current trends of support for the LGT,etc. community. The full length one act unfolds on Yuri Okahana-Benson's beautiful set.
The Skylight has abandoned physical / in hand programs, for that little square thing, so it took me a minute to find this information:
Creative Team: Yuri Okahana-Benson (Scenic Design), Brandon Baruch (Lighting), Mylette
Nora (Costume Design), Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski (Sound Design), Nick Santiago (Projection
Design), Benjamin Rawls (Technical Director), Victoria Hoffman (Casting), Cedes Sifuentes
(Production Manager).
Good work technically. One audience shake may have been an actual after shock, but all in all. The tech holds up very well.
All of the metaphors between the advancement of a lesbian couple in a fairly remote part of Washington escape me, but, as Amanda says to Dean, "We have a house!" So love is where you find it?
It should be exciting to see a genuine World Premiere. This show must hold something for the folks who chose to put it up. Go see for yourself and get back to me.
HUNGRY GHOST
Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring
Directed by Jessica Hanna
Opening at 8:30pm on Saturday, August 26, 2023 with reception to follow
8:30pm Fridays & Saturday, 3:00pm Sunday, 7:30pm Monday through October 1, 2023
(No performance Mondays August 28 and September 4)
Skylight Theatre,
1816 ½ North Vermont,
Los Angeles, CA 90027
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