Darcy Halsey in "What I Heard About Iraq"

Darcy Halsey (The Birds, Hellcab) is currently appearing in What I Heard About Iraq at the Fountain Theater, and here is a review from Variety.

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What I Heard About Iraq (A Cry for 5 Voices)

(Fountain Theater, Los Angeles; 99 seats; $25 top)

By JOEL HIRSCHHORN

A Fountain Theater presentation of a play in one act, adapted by Simon Levy from an article by Eliot Weinberger. Directed by Levy.

With: Marc Casabani, Darcy Halsey, Tony Pasqualini, Bernadette Speakes, Ryun Yu.

"What I Heard About Iraq," a Fountain Theater world premiere adapted for the stage and directed by Simon Levy, isn't really a play: It's a rant, a cry of outrage delivered by five actors, exposing the deceptive strategies and heartless acts of violence perpetrated by the Bush administration. Taking its inspiration from an article by Eliot Weinberger in the London Review of Books, Levy's drama, which he claims is "neither speculation or fiction," utilizes comments from politicians, military chiefs, Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers.

The material, planned for presentation in parts of the world ranging from Boston and Connecticut to Luxembourg and Berlin, won't be news to those who pore over politics. Sometimes details are sprung so rapidly that the content begins to blur in the spectator's mind.

What makes Levy's show more than traditional Rumsfeld- or Bush-bashing are startling quotes, less familiar than Dick Cheney's pronouncement: "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

It's spine-chilling to hear body bags euphemistically called "transfer tubes," or to hear Barbara Bush's appallingly out-of-touch remark, "Why should we care about body bags, or deaths? Why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

The multiethnic cast -- African-American Bernadette Speakes, Asian Ryun Yu, Caucasians Tony Pasqualini and Darcy Halsey, Middle Eastern Marc Casabani -- comprises extraordinary performers. Their fluidly directed interplay encompasses overlapping dialogue as they pitch lines to each other with the precision of baseball stars, slam down chairs in despair and dance frenziedly to the accompaniment of a satirical animated video ridiculing the president and his cohorts.

Levy follows a smooth progression from Colin Powell's statement that Hussein posed no weapons threat and that he was "unable to project conventional power against his neighbors," to a totally opposite point of view. After the U.S. attack, Rumsfeld declares optimistically, "I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators" and Bush comments to Pat Robertson, "We're not going to have any casualties."

The human element is hellishly highlighted when a Marine describes "dead-checking," a process by which soldiers examine the bodies of the wounded and press on each one's eye with a boot, so that anyone faking death can be dispatched with a bullet to his brain. This procedure, along with torture techniques that cover rape and sodomy, has been well documented, although it would be helpful to balance the Abu Ghraib atrocities with other details so U.S. soldiers aren't sweepingly summed up as savages.

Dave Marling's outstanding sound effects -- explosive noises of bombs, automatic weapons and helicopters -- build a jarring atmosphere, making the aud feel we're part of the war, and Daniel Seidner's multimedia contributions are invaluable. The speeches grow increasingly intense, aided by a clip of a routine Hollywood action film, a shot of soldiers joyously applauding Bush's promises and a painful picture of a bleeding child.

Rumsfeld, the chief villain of the piece, offers ideal fodder for Jon Stewart and other political comics with his remark, "Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." But there's nothing remotely funny about Weinberger's quotes from a commander in chief who, at different times, declares himself a war president and a peace president.

As support vanishes from 16 countries, Bush concludes, "Two years from now, only the Brits may be with us. At some point, we may be the only ones left. That's OK with me. We are America."

Sets, Scott Siedman; lighting, Kathi O'Donohue; sound, Dave Marling; production stage manager, Nina Soukasian; multimedia, Daniel Seidner; creative media consultant, Brad Schreiber. Opened, reviewed Sept. 11, 2005; runs through Oct. 9. Running time: 1 HOUR, 15 MIN.

"Birds" Playwright David Cerda on our show

David Cerda, one of the co-writers of The Birds came in from Chicago to see our show at the McCadden Theater over the weekend, and posted his take on it on his blog, and here's what he had to say:

So you're all dying to know...How was it? Saturday night, Chris myself and the Yourex lot attended 'The Birds- A Tail of Ornithic Proportions' (they chose that subtitle) at the McCadden Place Theater in Hollywood, California, baby. The theater was small, holding about 55, which adds to the claustrophobic effect that suits this play so well.

For those of you out of the loop , or for those who weren't in Chicago during the fall of 2001, I'll fill you in about what 'The Birds' is all about. The Birds is a combination, parody and backstory of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'. But wait, there's more..., It's also a feminist drag deconstruction of the film with 90's pop culture icon Camille Paglia serving as the tour guide to the inner sanctum of Tippi Hedren's journey into the darkness created by the HUGE shadow Alfred Hitchcock cast once he decided Tippi was to be his personal property. Unfortunately for Ms. Hedren, this is all true, and the making of 'The Birds' was quite an experience for her.

The feminist deconstruction part was inspired by many things a, including my own take on the film but the nail that solidified this view was Camille Paglia's brilliant, and compulsively over the top essay on the film for British Films Institute. When Camille, like myself, likes something, she doesn't 'sort of' like it, she embraces it, swallows it whole, much like myself.

Soooo..., this is not an easy show to do. There's the problem of bird attacks.There's the mimicking of the film style of the period, there's the very silly jokes and double takes mixed with the very real and disturbing systematic 'pecking' at Tippi Hedren's psyche, and there's a Camille Paglia interrupting and interacting with the cast. Particularly Tippi and Suzanne Pleshette. I read a review that says 'Alfred Hitchcock asks Camille Paglia to travel back in time to help psychologically dismember Tippi Hedren'. Okay..., The wonderful thing about theater is that I don't have to explainthingslike the fact that Camille Paglia pops up out of nowhere. She's just there. If people want to think she traveled back in time, then I guess that's okay, but for the record, Pauline Pang and I didn't really think that when we wrote it.

Where was I? Oh, yes, how were they? They were wonderful. They made bold choices, they were funny, they were scary, they were committed- they obviously loved the piece, and it shows. Did I like every single thing they did? No. But they made their choices, and director Kelly Ann Ford did some amazing things and staged the show beautifully and smoothly, and that is NOT an easy thing to do with the size of the cast, the scenes and the space. Everybody knows I love my Tracy Repep (Chicago Tippi) , but Lori Evans kicked ass as Tippi/Melanie, and I was so pleased with her performance I was like a smitten little school boy with her after the show. She even held the cotton swab the correct way, and in my world, things like that really matter. LA Suzanne was a feisty, lusty woman with a commanding stage presence, and her powerful take on the role was different then mine, but it worked, and the actress, Maria Tomas plays it it to the hilt. Brett Hren as Mitch is cute as hell, and has this Ewan McGregor thing going on, that literally charms the pants off of you when he smiles; and LYDIA...., Well, that would be the handsome Eric Bunton, who immerses himself in the role and is dressed to the nines and is a little more affectionate with Mitch then the movie or Chicago version. He's hilarious, and he's also the man to go to when you need to learn about any of the cast members. Peggy Robinson took the Natasha Fatale route with the beautifully sadistic Marina Mouhibian and Mrs. Bundy was played by (gasp) a WOMAN, the dead on Randi Pareira. Darcy Halsey was a smart and sexy ass Camille Paglia and gee, I can't mention everybody, but they were wonderful and so nice. Kim Estes was an incredibly scary and sexy Birdman in wings made by Brett Hren! Mrs. MacGruder was played by Patrik Carlok who was in the original cast of HAIR- he was wonderful, and it was such a blast feeling that theatrical connection. Oops, let's not forget the ugliest little girl in Bodega Bay, the darling Hal Perry as Cathy Brenner.

Like I said, it's difficult for me to gauge anything I've written, but Christopher thought the show was great and he's always brutally honest with me, so there. Go see it! The LA Times was there the night I went and if the review comes out it will be Thursday I'm told, so keep your fingers and toes crossed that she 'got' it.