3m1w, or Very Small Things by Jesse Kellerman
One of the delightful aspects of live theater today is that there is such a broad range of organizations with such a broad range of performance specializations.
While there are plenty of Arsenic and Old Lace and Harvey's to maintain and entertain community theater audiences (and mind, I adore both those shows), regional and black box theater companies frequently search for shows that are edgier and less well-known. For a small theater whose audience has a taste for the absurd, Jesse Kellerman's 3m1w is sure to fit the bill.
The title, taken from play listings that communicate how many men and how many women are needed for each show, ties together each of the six short playlets found in this Playscripts, Inc. volume.
It's a collection of comedies that mock science, bureaucracy, poker, room service, literature/academia, and fashion. They're all meant to be fun sketches, ones that put together run between 100 minutes and 2 hours.
In the tradition of modern theater, it makes liberal use of explicit language — in part because the characters are explicit and true to the language they would speak. Jesse Kellerman provides a fair amount of stage direction that encourages directors to keep the play flowing. There are pauses in his plays, but more importantly, there is overlapping speech that characterizes high-energy productions.
It is also possible to do all of these sketches one right after another with minimal set requirements.
3m1w is a great exhibition piece for actors with some delightful and challenging lines to dig their teeth into. All six of the sketches are intelligent affairs that trust the audience to keep up on a madcap journey. For the most part, the one woman in each sketch has some of the least interesting roles.
Crossed Wires is the name of the first sketch. It's a fun little piece that skewers the pompousness of researchers as well as the enthusiasm of many in the field. Two scientists approach a light switch and must decide what it does and, absent any evidence, whether it is worth the risk to throw the switch. Meanwhile, an innocent couple argues over soda water and domestic help. They become the innocent victims to scientific experimentation with amusingly absurd results.
The Formidable Task of Execution will gain roars of appreciation from anyone fed up with governmental stagnation or bureaucracy. One bureaucrat brings his cousin in to observe the exciting work that is done for the government. He's soon awash with enthusiastic words when disaster hits and he sees governmental response at its finest. Or darkest. Reading this the year after Katrina made The Formidable Task of Execution resonate with particular irony.
Poker and the Declaration of the Rights of Man was perhaps the most disappointing sketch in the lot. It seems a little anachronistic. Perhaps it would function as a period piece, but modern audiences may have difficulty relating to the highly sexist male poker player and the overly subservient wife. It's not surprising that he gets his comeuppance — what other possible outcome could there be in today's world?
Whatever, Whenever is one of the funnest plays in the book. This hilarious sketch features a blustering salesman who is impressed with the high level of service from the bellhop at the luxury hotel where he is staying. His unreasonable demands are met with aplomb by the bellhop who is always glad to provide whatever the guest demands. When the demands start to backfire on the guest, he certainly can't point any fingers at the bellhop.
A Metaphor is just the play that graduate students will have a great appreciation for. It parodies the literary gobbledygook of people who are supposed to be experts in the native language. Three grad students are led by their seminar professor in an analysis of the phone book. While the names of the characters can seem a mouthful, they are taken directly from the actors who first created them in the original cast. Only the professor's name has been changed. Perhaps to protect the innocent?
Moda is the final play, one that skewers the fashion world. In some ways, it's a long way to go for the punchline at the end, but the dialogue is snappy and the characters could be a lot of fun to play.
3m1w was originally performed at Harvard in 2000. It was then taken to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001. Witty and intelligent, it's a script that deserves to see the stage many more times.
