The Shorebound Swim with a One Click Kick (Frigid Festival 2011)

By Markus Paminger; Directed by Alison Carroll    

Off Off Broadway, New Play

The Red Room, 85 East 4th Street

by Joseph Samuel Wright on 2.24.11

Theasy’s own Markus Paminger penned The Shorebound Swim with a One Click Kick, an irrational “tragedy of reason.” Humorous and homicidal, this play is a little Sweeney Todd and a little Rocky Horror but without the musical numbers. Instead, Shorebound Swim gives us a mad scientist, a lovelorn house boy, a psychotic lab assistant, and an ingénue-turned-harlot. As you can imagine, mayhem ensues.

And while the script is sometimes speech heavy, it’s continuity of time in the action gives grounding to the conceptual nature of the play. There is also a beautiful rhythm to the text. This show is like a complex poem, sometimes you feel it more than you follow it, but in the very best way.

The production itself makes a rousing success of a festival’s limitations. The droning audio adds polish to the presentation, and instead of fighting the downtown black box, set designer Tim McMath integrates his murky laboratory world with the architecture of the venue itself, letting the space’s natural dinginess add to the world of the play.

The Shorebound Swim with a One Click Kick is a fully realized theatrical experience — a rarity in a festival. It is seamlessly staged by director Alison Carol and features a compelling cast of loveable misfits. Robin Madel wins audiences over with her ethos before even speaking a line, while William Kozy is charmingly unhinged, Emma Worth is charmingly caustic, and Niko Libowitz is charmingly charming.

This show is a great option for fans of Adult Swim and indie films, and really any theatre lovers who live in Bushwick.

(The Shorebound Swim with a One Click Kick plays as part of the Frigid Festival at the Red Room, 85 East 4th Street, Third Floor, between Bowery and Second, through March 6, 2011. Remaining performances are Saturday, February 26th at 8PM; Monday, February 28th at 9:30PM; Wednesday, March 2nd at 6:30 PM; and Sunday, March 6th at 12:30 PM. Tickets are $10, $6 for students and seniors, and can be purchased at frigidnewyork.info or by calling 212.868.4444.)