Strong starts and rough landings in “10 by 10”

10 BY 10 IN
THE TRIANGLE


The ArtsCenter
Through July 27

Starting a 10-minute play is hard, but finishing one is apparently harder. That’s one of the takeaways from the ArtsCenter’s 13th festival of 10-minute plays, 10 BY 10 IN THE TRIANGLE. The five one-acts we’re recommending from the current collection would have been nine if the playwrights had managed to bring in some promising opening premises for successful landings.

Director Laurel Ullman crafted Caroline Strange’s snarky but vulnerable techno-waif character in the Internet-age romantic satire The Interpreter. David Berberian, Page Purgar and Jorge Donoso explored how close current technology has brought us to The Truman Show in Brandon M. Crose’s Going Viral.

Director Hope Alexander unlocked the dangerous reveries of an ex-boyfriend in Lost in Thought, after Purgar and Jillian Lea disproved the title of the amusingly meta-theatrical This Is Not a Play. Jordan Rawlins’ Canyon asked how quickly the uncanny becomes mundane.

The Wisdom of Pirates and A Streaker Named Desire took honorable mentions in a night of fine beginningsbut fewer notable conclusions.

This article appeared in print with the headline “Bullish on parade”