Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
'No Love' For Anyone In Eclectic Company Production
Andrew Osborne's new play "No Love," now running at the Eclectic Company Theatre in Valley Village, iterates the uncompromising worldview of FM rock classic "Love Stinks" in a dramaturgical format straight out of the Arthur Schnitzler Viennese belle epoque provocation "La Ronde." All the principals here are in love, but all the ones they love have thrown their hearts at somebody else. Nobody wins.
Seven scenes each spotlight a relationship between one smitten party and the indifferent object of their desire. As the play progresses, every character who is pined for becomes the one doing the unrequited pining in the following scene until a final recapitulation rearranges, without exactly tying up, the various loose ends. And there's plenty of on-stage violence and some male nudity along the way.
We've noted before that the Eclectic always delivers top-notch acting, and this show is no exception, from Lili Stephens-Henry's ingenue NYC waitress all the way through to Michelle Danyn as the callous friend-without-benefits tormentor of her lifelong guy pal (Daniel Marmion). Blake Anthony is especially good as a young sad sack who discovers that his old flame from high school (Laura Lee Bahr) now willfully subjects herself to ritual humiliation and torture at the hands of her redneck husband (Ryan McDonough).
Eclectic company president Kerr Seth Lordygan skillfully paces the whirlwind array of events and characters that parade before us over the course of "No Love"'s 80 or so minutes, though some of these vignettes, inevitably, work better than others. Osborne clearly relishes dipping into the bag of classic shock value tools (rape, incest, bondage, mistaken sexual identities and misfired bodily fluids, guns, blood) and playing around with them for theatrical effect, while just managing to avoid pushing everything over the top.
Support for LAist comes from
The poignancy of loneliness and romantic despair, which Osborne's and Lordygan's program notes insist are what the play is all about, peek through only fleetingly, but Marmion and Anthony effectively reek of recognizable human frustration in their respective scenes.
"No Love" runs through October 6, with shows Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. and Sunday nights at 7 p.m., plus additional Thursday 8 p.m. performances on September 20 and October 6. Full-price tickets $20 and $17 online, $18 and $15 at the door. $12.50 tickets available on goldstar. "Pay what you can" September 20 and 30.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist