TheaterJones covers Lizard Boy Eats a Dorito

Varied Mixtape 

Sundown Collaborative Theatre's We've Done It Again: A Mixtape has highs and lows, but thankfully there are more of the former.

TheaterJones.com | by Kris Noteboom | Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Robert Linder in LIZARD BOY EATS A DORITO

The art of a good mixtape, as laid out by Rob Gordon (John Cusack) in the movie High Fidelity, is complicated. “You gotta kick it off with a killer. Grab attention. Then, you gotta take it up a notch. But you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you’ve gotta cool it down a notch. There are a lot of rules.” Sundown Collaborative Theatre’s short play program We’ve Done It Again: A Mixtape, features a killer Side A, but ventures into overly abstracted deep tracks on the back side that end up leaving the audience with a lingering feeling of confusion.

. . .

Continuing the tradition of literal show titles established by its predecessor, Brad McEntire’s Lizard Boy Eats a Dorito, as the program even says, “is exactly what it sounds like.” Robert Linder, donning glasses in which the lenses have been replaced by paper cutouts made to look like the bulbous eyes of a lizard, slowly crawls across the stage, contorting his body into many a reptilian pose. At the other end of the stage, a single Dorito sits in the middle of a small, round table. An experiment in the limits of humor, the key is Linder’s Brando-esque commitment to the role. He carefully meanders through the space, testing the air with his tongue and staring down audience members before finally coming to his Mount Sinai—the table bearing a gift from the large bipedal gods.

Arduous pursuit of a goal is something everyone can identify with. Life is stressful and full of unrealized dreams. McEntire’s piece captures this struggle in a way that reflects the absurdity of life. And Lizard Boy’s success in achieving his goal—again, the title is very literal—is a catharsis that delights everyone.

» We've Done It Again: A Mixtape continues at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 13 at the Margo Jones Theatre in Fair Park, and continues 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 16-17, at  the Greenspace Arts Collective in Denton

Original review... HERE

ADDED NOTE: from Kris Noteboom on Facebook: "Brad McEntire's piece, Lizard Boy Eats A Dorito, is worth the cost of admission by itself. Seriously, I'm still in awe."