| Written by Ian Allen Directed by Chris Griffin April 4 - May 10, 1997 D.C. Arts Center For info regarding rights to "Natural Duck," please visit our "Script Service" page. |  |
Featuring a table with duck feet and memorable performances by early Cherry Red faves (Wendy Giggler laying under a table, scratching her pussy as a whore, Jason Bell as a disgusting drunk in panties), Natural Duck, was written when Allen was 16. This tragicomedy follows Douglas ("Ducky") on a trek from good Mormon boy to faggot degenerate and beyond.
The play was met with the same scant and mostly hostile reviews as its predecessors, but, did well despite them. Check out the nasty bit below from now-Post critic Nelson Pressley. (He was much more bitter in his Washington Times years, understandably.) Was the firt Cherry Red show to feature blood spurting from a gunshot wound to the head. In fact there's still a blood stain on the first row of chairs.
The play's run also featured a couple classic Cherry Red moments you may have missed...
1. The night Sami Gangi, who was playing Ducky's older, lecherous lover, in a fit of hysterical method acting, accidentally smacked himself in the face so hard with his prop gun that blood shot from it. His face that is. The audience of about five laughed.
2. The night that the duck-footed table broke. There were only two people in the audience and, it being the only set piece... that was pretty much that. When it broke, the actors, who you'd think might try improvising ("the show must go on"?), instead got up, walked backstage, and sat down. Awkward pause. Director/board op Chris Griffin climbs down the ladder from the crows nest, and slinks backstage. He emerges in a couple seconds to offer our two guests comp tickets to another night.
The Washington Times
by Nelson Pressley
April 22, 1997
...Cherry Red Productions lays an egg with "Natural Duck." Ian Allen's play, directed by Chris Griffin, follows the descent of a young man from Utah who refuses his parents' wishes to become a missionary. Instead, he takes up smoking. Then drinking. Then drugs, prostitution and murder. The play is a comedy, of course.
Not that it's funny or well-staged or as rude a slap in theatre's face as the company's mission statement proclaims. Apparently the Cherry Red folks -- who obviously haven't heard about such mainstream shows as "Angels in America," or "Rent" and "Chicago" -- think they are rebelliosly violating the genteel, cloistered habits of the stage. Heck, futurism did all that back at the turn of the century -- and did it with wit and style.
Intermission
by Talia Greenberg
May, 1997
Cherry Red Productions, Washington's newest kid on th block, debuted "Natural Duck" at the D.C. Arts Center. Producer Ian Allen wrote the self-described fowl comedy, in which Douglas, or "Ducky" ducks the path mapped out by his Religious Right parents to smoke, cuurse, fondle girls, and journey even further down the road of depravity.
David Hammerstad as Ducky is a perfect blond-blue-eyed Mormon specimen --an effective foil to the Indian and Hispanic men who--among others--become his lust interests; Hector Jimenez is outrageously funny as his straight-laced father (and, in another role, lust-crazed psychologist); and Catherine Aselford shines in a couple of "bad girl" roles in which she prods and teases Ducky into a number of reprehensible--and delicious--debaucheries.
The Review
by Cynthia Darling
May, 1997
The theater at D.C. Arts Center is not elegant, but it does provide an excellent venus for small groups with productions outside the mainstream -- like Cherry Red productions, whose "mission is to give theatregoers a good sharp kick in the ass (and a kiss on the cheek)." With Ian Allen's "Natural Duck", a comedy about a young man who ducks the path set out by his parents, they have succeeded in their mission.
Director Chris Griffin wisely decided to keep the set simple. On stage is a table covered in feathers with large, colorful duck feet attached to its legs. Instead of scenery, pre-scene music sets the tone for upcoming action....
