dos chicas ROCKS!
Little Fascist Panties

My old theater home in Houston is kicking ass and taking names. From the Houston Press:

How can Morgan and his dos chicas theater commune follow that, you ask? By offering up Little Fascist Panties.

Morgan's latest play, which opens this weekend at Helios, tells the story of Jenna (Tanya Fazal), who's been on the streets since she was 14. She's thrilled to be taken in by two seemingly caring strangers, lovers Lisle and Mia (played by Morgan and his wife, Anne Zimmerman). But Mia turns out to be a domineering, ruthless killer, who becomes all the more incensed when the transvestite Lisle is beaten by a john. Suddenly, Jenna's world becomes nightmarish, and she realizes that the couple's charity comes with a tremendous price.

"I try to keep [my plays] as funny as possible," says Morgan. Wait -- what? This all sounds about as funny as organized crime and spousal abuse. Ah, but Morgan has written comedies about those topics, too. (The latter is called Where's My Dinner, Bitch?) Wittingly or not, Morgan seems to be creating a genre. This is comedy at its darkest: His plays are self-indulgent orgies of everything heretical, misogynist and offensive. Call it avant-garde; call it sensationalist; whatever it is, don't bring your kids. Or your grandmother. Or a first date.

Click here for the rest.

Bob Morgan is truly maturing as a playwright. He's been working with offensive, edgy, bloody, sexual, David Lynchian humor for as long as I've known him, but something has happened to his work in the past couple of years: unlike Lynch, Bob is now infusing this style with coherent meaning. That is, Bob's sex and gore gags are no longer simply for cheap thrills and laughs; as his piles of theatrical body parts and child molestations grow ever higher, social and psychological commentary seamlessly inserts itself into the bloody mix. dos chicas' homespun plays are downright thought-provoking. Bob really is creating a new genre.

This is one of the few things about Houston that I miss. If you're there, don't miss out.

For a "capsule review" of the show by a different critic, click here and scroll down a bit.

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