October 9-November 10, 2002
D.C. Arts Center, 2438 18th St, N.W.
written, directed by Ian Allen
assist. directed by Monique Laforce
Featuring Judith Baicich, Carlos Bustamante,
Rachyl Felty, Sarah Hochkeppel, Josh McCarthy,
Patricia Penn, and Yasmin Tuazon.
Click HERE for photos.
Washington Blade
Oct. 18, 2002
--Patrick Folliard
Those even casually familiar with Cherry Red Productions might expect its most recent offering, "Thumbsucker," to feature a man who wears a diaper and spends a lot of time wallowing in a playpen, or possibly be something in the vein of John Watersı "Crybaby."
That's what they've come to expect from this sort of slightly warped but amusing theater. Well, theyıd be wrong.
Instead with "Thumbsucker," writer and director Ian Allen presents one act of numbing, plausible horror, [seemingly] inspired by the matter-of-fact blood and gore of "American Psycho," by gay author Brett Easton Ellis. (See Ellis interview, Page 53).
The action begins in a dimly lit hotel room. Jack is dressed and sitting on the edge of a high, comfy bed. Heıs sucking his thumb. Wrapped in a towel, Gwen enters the room. An obvious black fright wig obscures most of her face.
The two begin to talk, almost monosyllabically. It seems that Jack is coaxing Gwen to try a new sexual position. She climbs atop the bed and lies nervously on her stomach.
With little feeling, Gwen complains, ³Iım scared, Iım nervous.²
³Use it,² Jack dully replies as he strips down to a jockstrap. Without warning, Jack drags a battered nude woman out from behind the bed. Sheıs unconscious. She also wears a fright wig (thereıs a reason for this). Jack revives the nearly dead woman with a kiss.
Clearly, weıve interrupted the middle of some sort of sexual torture session, and itıs round two for Jack and Gwen with their victim, Sam. Jack drags Sam back onto the bed and plops her facedown, Gwen climbs on, and Jack gets on top.
A pretty rough three-way ensues and climaxes with Jack forcing Sam to blow him as he scalps her. Yes, scalps her. Just when we think sheıs dead, a now bald and bloodier Sam makes a run for the door. Jack finishes her off, and then playfully draws a bath for his dirty accomplice.
Sheıs Meg. Itıs a clammy déjà vu. The play restarts: the dialogue, blocking, everything is repeated exactly from the beginning of the play only this time Gwen is the victim. Jack orders Meg to join in what seems a serial killing.
After the action is played through completely and Gwen is murdered and Meg exits to take a bath, yet another woman emerges from the bathroom, and just when we think this odious orgy is about to be repeated once more, the play ends.
As Jack, who looks like the boy next door, but mercifully is not, Carlos Bustamante gives an aptly stolid performance. Judith Baicich is suitably shutdown as the robotic sex and murder slave, Gwen. Yasmin Tuazon as Meg is a hair more animated than Gwen, and whether this is from direction or force of personality, itıs unsure. As Sam, the first victim, Sarah Hochkeppel is frighteningly real.
All actors are nude for most of the 45-minute play. After noticing who shaves where, and who has a dimpled ass, itıs not a distraction.
In "Thumbsucker," Allen creates a coldly callous microcosm. Itıs misogynistic, violent, scary, and gruesome; and even more chilling, "Thumbsucker" just as easily could be a true story as a fantasy or metaphor.
Digital City
Oct. 13, 2002
--Bannon Pucket
Two lovers, Gwen and Jack, meet each other among the stark shadows of a gloomy hotel room. As the clothes peel away, he's a little forceful and demanding, she's a tad apprehensive and self-deprecating. But what begins as a relatively innocent late-night tryst quickly transforms into a bizarre slaughterfest that proceeds to blur the line between love and hate, sex and violence, humor and horror. It all hits the fan when it's suddenly clear that Gwen and Jack are not alone.
"Cherry Red's artistic director Ian Allen, [writer of] Angel Shit and Baked Baby, delivers a script that slices, dices, and overlaps dialogue ... warps time, recasts characters, and leaves an unsettling denouement with more severed body parts than clear answers. Thumbsucker will whet your whistle for a blood-smeared encore!
GWU Hatchet
Oct. 17, 2002
--Magali Armillas-Tiseyra
Pale, ashen faces, hunched shoulders, trembling hands and crumpled programs. This is the scene as the audience emerges from the theater. One weeping woman turns abruptly from her date and walks quickly in the opposite direction. He is left standing alone on the sidewalk. I need to sit down while I wait for my knees to stop shaking.
"Thumbsucker" is the new play from D.C.'s Cherry Red Productions, a group heralded for their grotesque brand of theatrics. Written and directed by Ian Allen ("Baked Baby," "Angel Shit"), the play showcases a vicious and twisted view of sex, violence and deep-buried psychological pathologies.
Following Jack (Carlos Bustamante), Gwen (Judith Baicich), Meg (Yasmin Tuazon) and Sam (Sarah Hochkeppel), "Thumbsucker" Jack jumps from woman to woman, pulling each into his cyclical web of bloody horror.
The piece is characterized by a level of carnage and terror that is atypical of even the most gruesome of recent performances. Disgusting, jarring and gut-wrenching are the best words to describe the production. "Thumbsucker" brought about strong urges to cover up both eyes and ears and curl into fetal position and weep.
Not only was the subject matter horrific, the sheer visceral experience of watching the rape of a half-dead body acted out in a room containing no more than 40 people places grave weight on the mind and body of the viewer. Naked, blood-spattered actors are no more than five feet from the audience, so close that one feels a part of the gory scene.
"Thumbsucker" presents the well-explored deep dark of the human mind in such an unrelenting and unpitying manner that the audience is left cowering and crying.
But the play must be understood differently if it is to be taken as anything but a ghastly expression of a warped mind. It is presented and executed with remarkable skill. The lighting, blocking and acting are stunning, projecting an eerie realism.
Thematically, the play has to be understood as an exercise in effect. It is meant to jar even the most stoic and abstract of minds. The show is an undeniable force pressing emotion and consideration upon a jaded audience. For that it deserves respect.
Though it is a difficult play to watch because it displays scenarios unimaginable even in the most twisted of minds, as proven by audience members who left during the show, "Thumbsucker" is worth checking out if you're feeling insensitive to contemporary American culture. Bring a friend and your favorite stuffed animal though, because you will be crying for your mother by the time the show's over.
Bob Anthony
Oct., 2002
Cherry Red Productions is now not only the smuttiest adult-targeted theater in town but also the first to present a simulated orgiastic "snuff" stage show. It has no redeeming values except to fulfill the sadistic sexual pleasures of an audience. This production may well bring forth the censors as it gets close to the brink of stage pornography. If nudity is your demand for stage productions, this fits the bill as the four women are nude throughout the 45 minute show (thank god for the short time!) and the one male is nude half of the time. One can hardly compliment the acting since primitive humping does not lead to quality of stage movement. It is a pity that Ian Allen, who directed this indecency, doesn't write a more fulfilling script since he shows in this show, as well as his scripts of the past, that he has a good sense of natural dialogue.
Washington Post
[Silencio.]
