Fouryoucansee Theatre: Toners In Time (blogged reviews)

Fouryoucansee Theatre kicked off its new episodic theatre project at New Theatre with its production of Toners In Time this past weekend. Another episode shows up in August, and they're still trying to find a home for the third.

Perhaps it's fitting that this new kind of approach to theatre - dare we call it a 21st century innovation? - is reviewed not with the regular features - but in Christine Dolen's blog.

For a few seconds, I was miffed that it was in her blog, but then I realized that the only more appropriate media might be a social network - Facebook or MySpace, for example. Really, a blog is the perfect place for a review of this new kind of show aimed at Generation Y. And then we Tweet the blog.

The Toners Live: Toners in Time includes the talents of 305 Live, Lucas Leyva, Marco Ramirez, Alex Fumero, Cristi Garcia, Danny Monsalve, Giordan Diaz, and Erik Fabregat.

So for this one, blogs will count as reviews; it's the right thing.

Christine Dolen's blog in Drama Queen:

Thanks to a combination of funny writing and acting, booming faux reggaeton, multimedia daring, and a free-flowing combo of Caldas rum and Jupiña (probably the audience's favorite sponsors), the 100 people crammed into New Theatre's too-tight-for-the-Toners quarters realized that original, Miami-centric theater can be fun.

The script was basically in English, but if you knew Spanish and/or Spanglish, you got way more of the jokes. The acting -- by Fumero as nerdish Che-Frio, Danny Monsalve as reggaeton dreamer Tito, Giordan Diaz as skinny reggaeton heavyweight Flipi, Cristi Garcia as the has-groupie-tendencies Anisette, and Erik Fabregat as a record mogul-wannabe and a Walter Mercado doppelganger -- was the bomb. Particularly cool was the way Foryoucansee used multimedia: Fabregat's parts were on video (the actor himself was in the audience), and the live performers interacted with his image.

Alexis Scheer blogged it on The Playground:

...a very different, yet rewarding piece of theatre. The entire show bounced around between being a play, a concert, and a giant Jupina commercial...

Monsalve without a doubt comes out on top, because I felt like he wasn't acting, he was living truthfully... which is difficult with "LOST-esque" time travel circumstances the play presents. I was never fully invested in Fumero's performance, I think he let the script outshine him. Garcia was chongaliscious and SO stereotypical, and I LOVED it, slightly reminiscent of my cousins... the latinos with decent taste in music (yay Tori Amos!).

Slightly unconventional was Fabregat's performance which, instead of being live, was projected onto a giant screen, something that really set this show/company apart from every other. Ups to Matt Berkowitz for the video. Like I said, the real stars of the show were writers Marco Ramirez and Lucas Leyva who really struck gold.

Warning: The show is maybe 20% in spanish, and if you're a non-spanish speaker like me you won't understand some jokes. Warning 2: People from Broward might get offended, or just not understand some jokes. Warning 3: May cause sudden cravings for Jupina.

You've missed this first installment, but Part Two comes in August; visit the Foryoucansee website for details.