San Diego Playbill

Gorgeous Lies: An Urban Fairy Tale
by UCSD Theatre and Dance

It's a beautiful love story, but we're definitely not talkin' Harlequin here. This one has a lot of rats. Every kind of rat you can imagine. Big rats, brainy rats, and even a little Rat-Nosed Baby rat that is some sort of half-rat, half-human mongrel. Not to mention the "Rat Without Balls" and a lot of humans who get plastic surgery so that they, too, can at least look like rats.

The setting is New York City. The lovers, Ernest (David McMahon) and Ariana (Emily Donahoe), are determined to turn the world upside down. With their young friends Bella (Ivy Khan) and skateboarder-extraordinaire Stevie Ray (Brian Hibbert), not to mention a little help from Kinko's, they wage psychological warfare against the bourgeoisie classes of the city (represented by the owner of Bloomingdale's, who can make her speeches and hold up two big brown shopping bags of clothes at the same time).

By posting signs up all over the city warning of an upcoming rat insurrection led by the terrifying Rat-Nosed Baby, they get the city leaders into a panic. The leaders developed a plan to send all rats to Jersey. But when that doesn't work, more drastic measures prove necessary. At the stroke of midnight, a poisonous gas will be released upon the city, asphyxiating all rats. Don't worry! It's perfectly safe for humans. But just to be on the safe side, you may want to stay indoors and board up your windows.

Little do Ernest, Ariana, Bella, and Stevie Ray know, there really is a Rat-Nosed Baby (Daoud Heidami). And he really is leading a rat insurrection to take over the city. And little do the city leaders know, this insurrection will happen before the poison gas plan takes effect.

This Animal Farm-like tale is cleverly written by UCSD's Julia Edwards, mixing some very original romantic comedy and political satire into a highly entertaining modern fairy tale. Thanks to the script and the direction of Jonathan Silverstein, the play moves along at lightning speed with nary a dull moment.

The entire cast is terrific. Emily Donahoe is very believable as the girlfriend of the too idealistic Ernest, eventually getting kidnapped to be the bride of Rat-Nosed Baby. At least, she made it seem believable. And David McMahon gives a good impersonation of a guy whose idealism may be just a little bigger than his brain. Alex Smith, the big-brained rat who narrates much of the story and often seems the sanest of the bunch (except when he's madly rifling through women's underwear drawers), definitely gets the sympathy vote as the victim of much of the insanity. As he laments, "Why do they always kill the ones with big brains and follow the ones who get flushed down the toilet?" Daoud Heidami is both funny and evil as the Rat-Nosed Baby (aka El Ratto) who had been flushed down the toilet by his Bloomingdale's-owning parents. And Kathleen Carthy is hilarious as the highfalutin Bloomingdale's heiress who seeks to rid the city of all its disgusting, low-class rats.

Gorgeous Lies: An Urban Fairy Tale will only play through April 28th, although I feel sure this outrageous new addition to American theatre will be showing at several other forums in the future. After all, it is society's only hope. Through time, more and more people must be made aware of the coming rat insurrection. Only then can we avoid the terror that is El Ratto. This victory must not be won through extermination, but through discovering and making peace with the "rat" within us all.

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill

~ Cast ~

Ernest: David McMahon
Ariana: Emily Donahoe
Rat-Nosed Baby: Daoud Heidami
Rat 2: Alex Smith
Stevie Ray/Ensemble: Brian Hibbert
Bella/Ensemble: Ivy Khan
Big-Bellied Copper/Rat 1/ Ensemble: Jose Chavarry
Woman With Big Brown Bags/"Barry"/Rat-Nosed Woman/Ensemble: Kathleen Carthy
Kinko's Customer/Rat Without Balls/Ensemble: Arthur Cardoza

Director: Jonathan Silverstein
Scenic Designer: Ryan Palmer
Costume Designer: Jennifer Anderson
Lighting Designer: Jennifer Setlow
Production Stage Manager: Sarah Kirby
Dramaturg: Scott Horstein
Poster Artist: Ed Luce
Fight Choreographer: Charlie Oates
Fight Choreographer: Damian Baldet
Vocal Coach: Debra Hale
Assistant Costume Designer: Maria Zamansky
Assistant Stage Manager: Kristin Hudson