Standards of Decency Project
Swung by the Access Theatre last night to check out the intriguing sounding Standards of Decency Project “a program of nine new short plays that collectively challenge the notions of decency and obscenity.” Basically, a bunch of playwrights were asked to write short 10-15 minute plays “that included at least one of these elements—nudity, blasphemy, and violence—in a manner that is fully warranted and justified (that is, that avoids mere gratuitousness or sensationalism), while also intended to offend conventional standards of decency.”
Although the plays ranged from serious to hilarious and artsy to silly, there was a lot of good stuff there. Blasphemy seemed like the favorite of the night with the last piece about three southern girls having a bachelorette party for themselves because the next day they were going to marry Jesus being extremely funny and amazingly well cast. Coming (uhm…) in second was nudity which found nude guys spending an awful lot of time on stage in two of the plays both times discussing religion and a fantastic piece with a boy’s school professor discussing the “three parts of a woman” with an appealing nude, female assistant. Violence was less well presented and the only one which I thought fell flat.
I actually had very low expectations and was going on more of a whim than anything else, but I have to admit, aside from a couple shorts which I could have done without, it was a great little (no pun intended) show.
