Off-Off Broadway Aug 25, 2005

Venezuela
Reviewed By Adam Klasfeld

Although the Impetuous Theater Company is New York-based, the ensemble should be considered among the international picks of this year's FringeNYC for its staging of VENEZUELA by German scribe Guy Helminger. Set in a Berlin subway, the play begins with the revelation that a subway surfer named Fragel has fallen off a train. His friends don't want his sensitive pal Olif to know what happened, so they euphemistically tell Olif that Fragel went to the undiscovered country. Death? No, Venezuela.

Their stories grow more elaborate as the play progresses and fiction blurs with reality: The boys send Olif faked letters from Fragel that contain stories about Venezuela being a train-surfer's paradise. According to their accounts, the country has high-speed trains that whiz by at more than 200km/h, and its main city is surrounded by gold. But Olif soon begins to wonder why his tourism books indicate that Venezuela has no civilian mass transit system, and why the letters he receives have German stamps on them.

This worldly play confronts what is apparently a growing trend among Berlin youth; it illustrates the delusional mindset of those who choose not to ride subways the old-fashioned way. Venezuela's absurdist leanings disguise what's essentially a straightforward, heartwarming drama about confronting uncomfortable facts. The five cast members fill their roles well, ably handling the quirky dialect that the playwright invents -- which, if Penny Black's translation is faithful, combines Yoda-like syntax with cutesy street-slang. (Fear not, young one; the program a glossary has.) Graffiti is sprayed and DJ-type music is heard during the show, reminding us that this is a young, emerging, impetuous theater company.