Theater Review: TOPSY TURVY: A MUSICAL GREEK VAUDEVILLE (World Premiere at The Actors’ Gang)

YOU’RE THE TOPSY TURVY

During the forced shutdown of theaters due to the COVID pandemic, The Actors’ Gang in Culver City kept its employees on salary and health insurance, adapted their outreach programs in schools and prisons to a virtual format, and continued workshops with its actors online. The group’s Artistic Director Tim Robbins shared, “But what was missing was what theater reliably provides: a place of gathering and community. I began writing Topsy Turvy as a response to the seeming disintegration of community and the widening chasms between all of us that were exacerbated by the lack of human contact during lockdown. This turmoil was indeed the stuff of Greek tragedy and comedy.”

Fazeelat Aslam, Molly Kirschenbaum, Mary Eileen O’Donnell,
Jimmy Berry, and Charlotte Hacke

To that end, the world premiere of Topsy Turvy: A Musical Greek Vaudeville, written and directed by Robbins, is set in a humorous and comedic hybrid world of classical Greek theater and a raucous vaudeville show. The unity of a mortal Greek Chorus is suddenly shattered when they can no longer meet in person due to an unseen, mysterious illness. Desperate for a solution to end their imposed isolation, the Chorus invokes the Gods, seeking divine intervention to help mend their divisiveness and restore their ability to get together in person to sing.

Scott Harris, Luis Quintana, and Ayinde Howell

There are thought-provoking visits from a Vegas-inspired Bacchus and Cupid (Scott Harris and Luis Quintana), the Aztec goddess Coatlique (Maga Shukar stepping in for Stephanie Galindo), the biblical character Onan (Scott Harris), and Dionysus and Aphrodite (Harris and a resplendent Guebri Van Over). Mixed in with the Gods are magicians, hypnotists, Mongo the acrobatic monkey (played to the hilt by Megan Stogner), and The Great Distracto, portrayed by five energetic actors as the Master of Ceremonies determined to disrupt The Chorus from getting back together. Chaos (Quintana) ensues.

Fazeelat Aslam, Molly Kirschenbaum, Mary Eileen O'Donnell,
Jimmy Berry, Charlotte Hacke, Adam J. Jefferis,
Adele Robbins, Mariana Jaccazio, and J. Claude Deering

Lessons are learned and forgotten, the Gods lose patience and leave, while The Chorus ponders how to get back out into the world despite the warnings of death awaiting just outside their doors, something we’ve all experienced. After much soul searching, The Chorus accepts the only solution which will reunite the world’s people. You may think that is love, but according to Aphrodite, it’s so much more than that.

Willa Fossum, Chas Harvey, Megan Stogner, and Ayinde Howell

Topsy Turvy is among the earliest stage works in response to the distress of the last four years. And everyone, Gods and mortals alike, gets to have their say before the evening is over. Robbins continues, “We’ve all just lived through a big, dramatic life event and people responded in different ways. I traveled between one end and the other. The play is intended to be a catalyst for a conversation. It’s really about a society in chaos, a society that has lost its sense of up and down, a world gone topsy turvy. And in classic Greek plays, that is when the Chorus calls on the Gods for help.”

Megan Stogner, Luis Quintana, Chas Harvey, Willa Fossum, and Stephanie G. Galindo

Six original songs written by Robbins, and original music by David Robbins and Mikala Schmitz — enhance the emotion-packed scenes, featuring projections by Cihan Sahin and evocative lighting design by Bosco Flanagan. The small, onstage orchestra, who take a much-deserved curtain call, perfectly mesh with the magnificent choral harmonies of fifteen actors whose soaring voices will wrap you up in thinking about how you personally handled your own isolation as well as how you felt about others who chose to follow a different path.