27th Play - Tinker Rising: A Supervillain Love Story by Hollis Beck

I … probably found this one in my rabbit hole deep dive into New Play Exchange. How can you resist that title?

Summary: "By night, Victoria terrorizes the streets of Tacoma, Washington as "The Tinker", an up-and-coming supervillain who has yet to find her footing in the crime world. Her career ambitions are complicated when she comes to a startling realization: she's very gay, and very lonely. Between her dating woes, taking care of her teenaged ward, and the arrival of a powerful new superhero, Victoria struggles to find the work-life balance she's always dreamed of. A story of searching for connection, developing principles, and adapting to drastic changes in circumstance." (New Play Exchange)

Loved: Two lesbian superheroes? What could be better? Oh, excuse me, one is a supervillain. So that complicates things ... This play is a ton of fun, underpinned with some deeper issues like loneliness and work getting in the way of life. And also the challenges of being queer. This play reads like watching old Batman reruns - the ones with Adam West where all the sets and costumes look like they belong in a comic book, but with better writing. (Ironically I have been doing this lately. The acting and writing is pretty terrible, with the exception of most of the villains, ironically, but the design is AMAZING and wonderfully colorful!). If I was directing this play, I would definitely go comic book style. Victoria is a fascinating heroine who is trying to figure out exactly the villainous mark she wants to leave on the world. And when she FINALLY meets someone with whom she feels comfortable being herself around, of course *** SPOILER *** the girl turns out to be her arch-villain, The Fist. (There is a comment about how that sounds a bit like an innuendo, which is fun.) The relationship between the two of them is wonderfully normal and delightful, and we root for them as a couple, even though we know that ... well, things can't end well. Victoria's "ward" is a nonbinary technician and assistant named Blades. It's fun to see Blades go from just a one dimensional Robin-type to Victoria's Batman-type, to Blades really coming into their own, questioning Victoria’s choices, and even instigating things on their own. It's possible that they are actually better at the "tinkering" (you know, building robot henchmen and gadgets to cause chaos) than Victoria is. I just love the humor and the way this play flys by - you definitely are reading an action play! It goes deeper but never takes itself too seriously.

What I didn’t Love: First of all, this play will demand either a LOT of money to produce, or MASSIVE creativity. With stage directions like "Victoria’s robots storm a large animal shelter and aim their weapons. The Fist arrives on the scene and cautiously advances. ... Suddenly, the robots collapse into a heap on the ground. ... Meanwhile, Victoria and Blades are in the midst of stealing one of the world’s oldest diamonds” and MORE. Whew! There's a lot happening there that will take some creative staging. So, I don't really dislike this part of the play, but there are a lot of challenges. I've done a play with robots before, believe it or not, and even made out of cardboard they're tricky. Also, did I mention the helicopter scene in the play?

Overall: This play is a hell of a lot of fun, with some depth under the surface (like most superhero stories). I think it would not be an easy play to stage, due to technical requirements, but NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! The House Theatre did a superhero show called The Sparrow back in 2007 that was a HUGE hit. I think they used a lot of movement (and suspension of disbelief) to make the heroine fly, but this play goes WAY further than that. That being said, I think the tongue in cheek humor of this play that sort of makes fun of itself as a genre would allow you to have a lot of fun with bringing the technical elements to life in a way that we knew weren't real, but were fun. For example, someone holding a cardboard helicopter in front of the actors. (P.S. My husband made the robot and sculpts in cardboard, so if you do this show you should definitely commission him to do props and maybe the whole set. Thank you, shameless plug.) Marvel movies seem to be everything these days, and I have to say that many of my students want to play superheroes or supervillains. This could be a play they would really enjoy working on. The humor, the exploration of the loneliness of being queer, and the RIDICULOUSNESS of it all make this play a lot of fun, and quite timely. I'd love to see it - I'd like to direct it even more! Who wants to hire me? (Damn, another shameless plug - do you see the mood this play has put me in? But, am I superHERO or VILLAIN? **cacklecacklecackle**) Stop digressing, Laura, and just tell everyone this is a darn fun play. That also appears to have sequel potential, hmm ...

Here’s a link to Google Sheets with more info about the play: Play a Day Sheet

Read more about Hollis Beck: http://www.hollisbeck.com/writing.html