Review of Nothing Without a Company's Punk Punk

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Punk Punk. It was by Hannah Ii-Epstein and Birthday Cake. It was directed by Rose Freeman. It was about these two girls, Mindy (Anna Rose Ii-Epstein) and Kathy (Caroline Wright) who are in a punk band but Kathy's landlady Marissa (Jamie Newell) keeps intruding. And they were trying to get ready because a guy from Riot Fest was coming to scout out their band. But Marissa keeps doing all these crazy things and seems like she is crazy. It is about friendship, what punk means, and fame. It was all done in an actual garage which I thought was really awesome.

This show is not for kids. Just so you know, it was because of the language, but not like swearing. I'm okay with swearing; swearing is not something that bothers me. But they had very explicit descriptions of sexual acts which is something that I'm not okay with. You may think, "She's seen everything now. She saw The Full Monty!" But it is not the same because there was nothing too explicit onstage and they didn't describe anything too explicit on stage. I know this difference wouldn't be important to a lot of adults, but it just is to me. I think the adults there did seem to be enjoying it, except maybe when they saw that I was there. We just didn't expect it from this theater company because we had only seen their kid-friendly productions like Alice that they did in Lincoln Park and Down the Moonlit Path. And I didn't know this would be that different. They totally have a right to do shows like this, I just thought I should warn you since I don't often review shows that have such explicit descriptions as this.

But I did find a lot of things that I liked about this show! The music was very funny and weird, which I think is how it was supposed to be. I think they were supposed to be terrible songwriters, and it was funny to see that their actual songs sometimes sounded like a bunch of words jammed together and didn't have a complex or catchy tune. That could also be because they only had a guitar and some buckets for drums. They were supposed to be a band that hasn't been together for very long and nobody has heard of. Usually in these kind of stories the band is really good, just no one has noticed them. But I think in this case, we were supposed to understand that they were not a very good band and no one had ever heard of them. There were still likable because they were funny and had a story about their lives but they didn't have to be amazing at writing songs to be interesting people. Marissa tells them that she thinks she knows what their best song is, but they disagree. I agreed with Marissa on almost everything, except her relationship choices. I felt like Marissa was very very funny because of how awkward she was and how much she wanted in on the fun and how psycho she seemed. I laughed almost every time she was on stage.

The thing was that Mindy was a lesbian and Kathy was not, but it seemed like Mindy might be interested in Kathy anyways. So that made their friendship kind of awkward and weird. There had been an accident between them recently where Mindy tried to kiss Kathy. We did not see that, but they talked about it a lot. Punk is something that they bond over and that they relate on. Punk is like who they are. They are really hardcore and they like to yell a lot. They are in the garage because they actually have a nice space but they want the scout to think they don't have any money so maybe they will get into Riot Fest. Getting along by the skin of your teeth is like supposed to be very cool and punk. Punk is about not caring, and they are very good at not caring about work and stuff. And they probably do care about each other, but only secretly, because they have to seem really cool. There is one scene where it is revealed that they are not as cool as they think they are. And by the end you see them do a terrible thing. If you are disconnected from other people you can get carried away sometimes, but Kathy and Mindy get really really carried away.

People who would like this show are people who like dark comedy, strange friendships, and psycho landladies. I think this would be a very good show for grown-ups. It is funny, exciting, and a crazy in a good way. I hope you have fun at this show.

Photos: Matthew Gregory Hollis