The Artificial Jungle

Theater revew by Adam Feldman

Theater Breaking Through Barriers, whose productions prominently feature actors with disabilities, did a beautiful job with Samuel D. Hunter's The Healing last year. The company fares somewhat less well in this revival of Charles Ludlam's campy 1986 pulp thriller about lust and murder in a pet shop, directed by Everett Quinton (who performed in the original production and led the Ridiculous Theatrical Company after Ludlam's death). After wobbling in tone and pace, the production pops to life in its much briefer second act, a straightforwardly silly travesty of Thérèse Raquin. Alyssa H. Chase plays a trashy venus flytrap of an unfaithful wife—as though Little Shop of Horrors's Audrey had the soul of Audrey II—and the capable Anthony Michael Lopez is the sexy drifter she ropes into crime. A grinning puppet piranha provides welcome comic bravado; this is a rare play where the scenery chews the actors.

Clurman Theatre (Off Broadway). By Charles Ludlam. Dir. Everett Quinton. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 40mins. One intermission. Through July 1. 

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