Lives of the Saints

Off-Broadway-at The Duke on 42nd Street


It’s a challenge to tell you about these 6 short plays without giving too much away, and at the same time convince you that the laughs are perpetual and David Ives is one of a kind brilliant.

I’m going to serve this up to you  in a nutshell and you are just going to have to trust me that this is absurdly funny and then count on your finger to March 27th and that is exactly how many days you have left to see for yourself how these play out.

#1. From the Goodness of your Heart
Two friends sit around drinking beer and the one friend tells the other that he should buy him a Television


Punch line:  Friends give shit to friends

 #2. Soap Opera
 The Maypole repairman (take off on the Maytag repairman) falls in love with his washing machine that is actually alive and eats undergarments…literally

Punchline:  Relationships run “hot” and “cold”

#3. Enigma Variations
Perhaps my favorite of the six.  It might be easier to draw this one than explain it.  Bibi Doppelganger Doppelganger comes to the Doctor Doctor. Something is wrong wrong.  Two women playing one women.  Two doctors playing one doctor.  Both are talking or one is talking and the others lips are moving and all the words and body movements are in perfect sync.  It’s mind boggling and hard to explain but it’s multiples of fun times two. It’s a play on words as you have never seen or heard before. It’s a play on words as you have never seen or heard before


Punchline:  Two heads are better than one

#4. Life Signs
This perfectly prim and proper dead Mother lying in the bed comes back from the dead to reveal to her son and daughter-in-law some shocking bedside confessions about her girlfriend Daisy, and tells them where Dr. Feel Good (who just pronounce her dead) was putting his very large instruments for the past 27 years.  You could call it comic relief and you might just call it relieving yourself in the event you wet your pants.

Punch Line:  It was a nub

#5. It’s All good
A successful NYC writer returns to Chicago to find he left behind more than his roots when he meets a stranger on a train that turns out to be him.

Punchline:  There is none.  It’s all good

#6. Lives of the Saints
Two elderly women in aprons and slippers are preparing a funeral breakfast in the church basement in an entirely empty space.  An improvisational wonder.  The magic is in the sound effects.

Punchline:  What does it say on the bottom of a Polish Coke bottle?  Open other end

We know that it takes more than a brilliant writer and director to pull this off, so hats off to the cast of 5, Arnie Burton, Jeff Biehl, Carson Elrod, Kelly Hutchinson, and Liv Rooth  This is very difficult material to deliver, and timing is crucial.  I have the utmost respect for these talented and  versatile actors.   ThisbroadSway 3/18/2015