Walking the Wire impresses

by Angie Toomsen

Riverside - This past weekend I attended Riverside Theatre’s 11th Annual Walking the Wire monologue show. If there was another performance to follow this review, my unequivocal recommendation would be: “don’t miss this.” As it were, “don’t miss this NEXT year” will have to suffice.

To those unfamiliar with Walking the Wire, Iowa City’s Riverside Theatre puts out a call for ten-minute monologues. The plays orbit—or downright land upon—a unique theme each year. Twelve plays are selected, actors are cast and a show is made.

This year’s theme was “Holiday Tales.” From the 4th of July to Christmas to Veterans Day, the holidays provided a backdrop for touching, hilarious and often absurd circumstances. The theme seemed fitting, both because we are about to embark upon the holiday season and because holidays offer so many moments of recognition and shared experience.

Staged by Ron Clark, the pieces were well-selected (I have heard they have gotten over a hundred submissions in the past) and ordered in a sequence that energetically “passed the baton” from one to the next. The performers were dynamic, and I can’t think of a single moment when the actor standing on the stage didn’t have the audience’s full engagement. In fact, the crowd was very vocal and I overheard a few people around me whisper things like “this is outstanding” and “isn’t this wonderful?”

The evening opened with “A Declaration of Independence on Surf Avenue” by Carrie Lee O’Dell, which is the story of a young woman from a “sports family” who finally finds her sport…as a competitive eater. The details of her foray into the discipline — as well as the stomach-turning particulars of an actual event (and the days after the event) — are delivered by Jessica Wilson, whose spunky, genuine performance held Saturday’s audience in the palm of her hand.

Though the evening was not a competition, I felt that O’Dell’s piece was one of the contenders to wind up in a ten-minute play anthology and become an audition favorite, but I do have one structural observation. The narrator, when trying to support why it is she understands what a waste of food competitive eating can be, tells the story of a group of under served urban kids who helped put it in perspective for her.

The sub-narrative touched such a nerve and was approached with such depth by the actress that it was almost jarring to come back to the primary through-line, about a young woman declaring independence from the expectations and ambivalence of her family. That said, I would love to see a whole piece about the experience with the children as it was very emotionally charged and touching.

Steven Hunt’s “Thanksgiving Dinner with the Last Whore in Calhoun County,” performed by veteran “Riversider” Tim Budd, was another stand out. A drifter attempts to fund an evening with a prostitute — who has requested a Thanksgiving dinner and cake as payment — and inadvertently winds up helping to repair a rift between a mother and daughter. All parties, himself included, learn a little something about gratitude. Budd brings the story to life with such sensitivity and detail that I could easily paint a mental picture of the people and places he encountered.

“Uncle Leo’s Revenge” by Ron Clark is another contender for a play anthology. This is a side-splitting tale, told by one of three small-town-southern triplets, whose uncle Leo exacts vengeance on a group of problem boys. Leo forces the troublemakers to dance naked in the back of his flat bed truck as he drives through town while the girls throw firecrackers at the boys’ feet. Though ambivalent about the cancellation of his town’s July 4th festivities, Leo manages to unintentionally save the holiday by offering up a “parade float” the town would certainly talk about for ages. Kristy Hartsgrove handled the comedic storytelling like the pro she is, making this piece a definite crowd favorite.

Brian Tanner’s “Black Friday,” performed by William Czerwionka, is about a retail worker who, counter to his proclamation that he will not work a double shift on the biggest shopping day of the year, caves at the promise of a date with a work crush. “Black Friday” nails it when it comes to irrational shoppers, blistered feet and cold break room pizza. Czerwionka’s droll “every guy” delivery perfectly complements Tanner’s clever zingers. Everyone can relate to “Black Friday” on some level, but an insider’s take on it, wrapped up in a sweet (but not sickeningly so) love story, was entertaining and structurally satisfying.

Megan Gogerty’s “New Year,” performed by the lovely Saffron Henke, is filled with comic gems about a family Christmas with a budding intellectually elitist college kid who has decided that the calendar should start with his birthday. Among other hilariousness, parental fears of the boy’s potential outspokenness at a holiday party are assuaged by “medicinal brownies.” Like everything I have ever read of Gogerty, the piece is skillfully witty and a crowd-pleaser.

“Holiday Transformation,” written and performed by Janet Schlapkohl, brought the house down and served as fitting finale. “Holiday Transformation” is about a perm-gone-wrong and a dress-gone-wrong at a holiday party for veterinarians. If Schlapkohl were to write and perform in a full-length one-woman show, I would be there opening night. She is a riot, and even offered up the evening’s visual piece-de-resistance in the form of a dress that was meant to be stenciled with holly, but wound up looking undeniably phallic.

I could say something great about every single piece in the show and every single performer. In all, this was an impressive night celebrating the talents of multiple writers, actors and the area’s own professional producing organization, Riverside Theatre. Again, if you can make it next year, don’t miss it.


Angie Toomsen has an MA in journalism from the University of Iowa and a BA in theatre from UNI. She spent nearly a decade in New York City, seeing, participating in and studying theatre. She still enjoys writing, acting and directing as time permits.