A Hangdog Theater production

At the Ontological Theater at St. Mark's Church, New York City

May 21 – June 13, 1999

Written, directed and scored by ROBERT CUCUZZA

With

RYAN BRONZ as Jacob

ROBERT CUCUZZA as Ivan

LAURA KACHERGUS as Molly

DAVID COTE as Karl

SALLY EBERHARDT as Ms. Fuentealba

VLADMIR AMBIA as Señor Santeangelo

CRISTINA NUNES as Tiffany Taylor

D.J. MENDEL as Señor Santeangelo (June 3-6)

Set/Costume Designer: MEROPE VACHLIOTI

Lighting Designer: RICK MARTIN

Choreographer: JOHANNA S. MEYER

Technical Director: ANDY BISCONTINI

Stage Manager: CRISTINA NUNES

Assistant Director: SALLY EBERHARDT

“See the Bears”

Lyrics by ROBERT CUCUZZA

Paw Paw's Famous Canned Peas are selling like hot cakes. What the unsuspecting vegetable-eaters don't know is that those tasty peas are laced with a potent and addictive drug that has sparked an epidemic of suicide jumps in their fair city. Ivan, the ringleader of Paw Paw's illicit operation, has more pressing concerns. His years of indulging in the drug have made him immune to its glorious effects, envy has ensued and his appetite for absurd pleasure is now all-consuming. With the help of his assistant Molly and their new Amish employee Jacob, he lures amateur performers over to the decrepit warehouse for a phony talent show and, in a cockamamie and unsuccessful attempt at happiness, watches their "audition," then viciously thrill-kills them. As the authorities close in and faced with one miserably failed thrill after another, Ivan ingests three “pure chunks” of the stuff, catapulting him into a delirious vaudevillian dream world of dancing bears. His appetite for pleasure is now downright ravenous. As the National Guard closes in, the machines start to break down and the whole operation tumbles into sheer idiocy, Ivan shamelessly goes for broke. Determined to take his lurid team with him on his way to maximum pleasure, he masterminds a ramshackle plan for a most grisly, selfish, and hilarious grand finale.

"Cucuzza delivers a thrillingly cartoonish performance through a series of raving eruptions, in which the talented actor transforms himself into a vibrating, eye-popping, slobbering Tasmanian devil. [T]he virtuoso auteur is a tremendously watchable actor..."
“[A] splendidly clever choreographer…his kinetic play retains an uncontrived, anarchic spirit, which is its greatest strength."
— TIME OUT NEW YORK

“...a hypnotic performer with a talent for slapstick..."
"...a master of mayhem...a memorable exercise in delirious theatrical anarchy."
— THE NEW YORK TIMES