COURTESY OF CRUEL THEATRE Should we be able to alter our appearance if we want to? Cruel Theatre tackles the issue.

Appealing characters
confront odd premise

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By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Three interesting characters battle for our sympathy, with uneven results, in Cruel Theatre's production of "Double Above the Knee." The show is something of a stretch for Taurie Goddess and her Cruel cohorts since it uses a conventional script (courtesy of Po'okela Award-winning stage combat choreographer Tony Pisculli), rehearsed dialogue and minimal audience interaction.

The drama's issue, as Pisculli and director Goddess frame it, is deceptively simple: Is it right for society to deny an adult the right to alter his or her appearance for cosmetic reasons? Where do we draw the line? Leela (Mariko Neubauer), Pisculli's protagonist, draws those lines across her perfect thighs. Leela envisions herself as a double amputee and wants all the "extra" removed so that her body will conform to her self-perception.

Never mind that her legs are considered beautiful by those around her. How many tens of thousands of perfectly functioning breasts and eyelids have been cut and modified to conform to their owners' definition of beauty? So who are we to tell her she can't alter her appearance if she wants to?

Put that way, it seems, superficially, to be a no-brainer -- except for the nagging little detail that amputating a leg or two seems different somehow than a quick session with Miss Clairol.

Neubauer is instantly appealing as our apotemnophiliac protagonist, but her desire to have her legs amputated is unlikely to strike many as something even the most supportive boyfriend would understand, let alone encourage.

'Double Above the Knee' Presented by Cruel Theatre Where: The ARTS at Marks Garage When: 8 p.m. today and tomorrow Tickets: $10 ($7 for students), sold at the door 30 minutes before show time Call: 523-1004

Danel Verdugo adds a bright splash of color and comedy to the show as Leela's loose-lipped best friend, Passion. She's a delight and almost steals the show.

Allen is also solidly believable as Ken, "a geek with no social life," who makes a few tactical mistakes in relating to Leela but is overall pretty supportive of her.

Pisculli and Goddess offer a challenging conundrum and great confrontational theater, and Neubauer is mesmerizing, but "Double Above the Knee" is perhaps a few body parts short of a convincing argument or a complete play. The "therapy sessions" that bookend the piece add nothing substantive to it.

They are conducted by Eve Brown as Gina Collagen, an entry-level homosexual transvestite prostitute who hasn't reached the point of shaving his legs or under his arms. Brown/Collagen vamps through the opening "session" as a witty if stereotypical mahu, and was entertaining enough overall to be worth his/her time as a warm-up act.

During the second "session," however, mediated by Collagen between the characters, several audience members walked out as it dragged on.

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