Not so obvious art  Religion and Rubber Ducks—a recently concluded bill of three short plays hosted with stylish enthusiasm by painter/designer Veta Cicolello and her husband, musician Theo Antoniadis, at their converted auto-garage art space Ovvio Arte, at 425 Chestnut Street—marked an auspicious return to the Nashville theater scene by writer Joseph Giordano.

Giordano used to mount his angular and/or fanciful playlets and one-man shows with some regularity at Ken Bernstein’s Bongo After Hours Theatre, though recently the author, whose upbeat exterior masks decidedly sardonic thoughts, had been noticeably absent from the scene. Giordano’s recent chance meeting with Tennessee Rep associate Lauren Shouse—who says hanging out in bars is wasted time?—spawned this felicitous collaboration. The newer Giordano works, while still rooted in his characteristic sketch-comedy mode, exhibit marked maturity, and director Shouse staged them with both energy and a keen eye for the specifics that maximize textual impact.

The opener, “Simply the Best,” featuring Sarah Looney and Eric Williams, is a wry if repetitive concept piece. “The Day the Duck Came Back,” with fine performances by Jon Royal and Kahle Reardon, offers marvelous commentary on both the glory and futility of the notion of romantic permanence. The capper, “The Plan,” enacted by Royal, Andrew Kanies and Reardon (as a recorder-playing Holy Spirit), is what might be termed classic Giordano, as God himself cagily outlines for a skeptical Christ the Son the rationale for the whole, you know, redemption thing.

Antoniadis handled the technical aspects of the production, and all lighting and sound cues worked efficiently in what is a charmingly alternative venue that aims for multipurpose artistic use. (And pay no attention to the noise from passing freight trains or the fireworks from Greer Stadium. Ambient sound can be exciting, if you allow it to be.)

By Martin Brady

June 12, 2008

Photography by Rob Stack

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