Lion. Pig. Wolf. Snake.

Monday night I attended a reading of an unproduced play by Michael Mitnick called Lion. Pig. Wolf. Snake. It's a comedy/thriller about an amoral teenager who sets in motion a murder-for-hire in order to impress a girl. A psychopathic hit man gets put on the job & then starts improvising, causing the plan to take a nasty u-turn. Except for the final scene, the play is a series of 2-character scenes taking place at a park bench. The 5 actors read from scripts in binders & either sat or stood as the scene required. An additional reader spoke the stage directions. The play is very talky, & I failed to follow the thread of some of the speeches. I also completely missed some of the stage directions, so afterwards my theater companion had to fill in an important plot point for me.

The audience at this free play reading series at the SF Playhouse is encouraged to come early & bring wine & snacks to share beforehand, so the atmosphere is very informal. We were allowed to take our drinks into the theater. The reading ran for 90 minutes, & the somewhat elderly audience had an enjoyable time. I did not stay for the talk-back afterwards, though my theater companion did & reported that the audience was asked who they thought was killed by the off-stage gunshot at the end.

§ Lion. Pig. Wolf. Snake.
By Michael Mitnick
A Staged Reading
Directed by Jeffrey Lo 

Cliff: Jeremy Kahn
N: Monica Ammerman
Big Jack: Carl Holvick-Thomas
Alvin: Michael Torres
Ira: Marvin Greene

SF Playhouse
19 May 2014, 7p