Like many a Mad Cat show, the story is set in Miami and plays out against a backdrop of well-known local settings. At the start, three women are cramming for their second-year med school exams. But high-strung Charlotte (Samara Siskind) panics, certain that she's bound to lose her scholarship with a bad grade. Sure enough, she tests badly. Her funding is terminated and, with it, her prospects for a medical career. Her best friend, Alex (Azurdia), vows to help raise the tuition cash by stripping in clubs, but sarcastic trust-funder Sloan (Michaela Cronan) doubts that will bring in enough cash. Soon, though, the students are approached by Ria (Maria Heredia), a tattoo artist who is involved with a get-rich-quick scheme. It seems that a mysterious man with a generic European accent (Joe Kimble) will pay big bucks for human kidneys, but only those from males with a certain blood type and genetic characteristics. Ria, who secretly tests the blood types of her clients, has already identified a potential victim. Running out of time and requiring only three kidney harvests for the money Charlotte needs, the students go for the scheme.
Style trumps substance here. Delivered in a series of rapid-fire, movie-like scenelets, some no more than a brief visual sequence, Trembling Hands takes a while to get going. But when it does, it rockets along with increasing jeopardy and tension. Much of the fun comes from director Paul Tei's crisp staging, using a series of hospital curtains to quickly reveal, then conceal the brief scenes, which skitter around apartments, bars, and nightclubs throughout Miami. Churchill's, the Stampede Bar, and the late, lamented Gables Pub are all punch lines for in-jokes. Even in the most desperate situations, Charlotte, Alex, and Sloan can't resist humorous putdowns. When one particularly moronic frat boy (Craig Kaul) barges into their bar conversation, their sarcasm is so deadpan, he doesn't even notice. Thinking he's making a big impression, he earnestly belts out his version of a painfully out-of-date pop song while the women sing harmony in a terrific, off-the-wall comedic riff. Azurdia's playful sense of humor is in evidence throughout the play, which oscillates from high emotional melodrama to hilarious black humor. (Gregg Weiner is particularly funny as Squirrel, Ria's hapless admirer.)
The Mad Cat's signature style of high-decibel music and slick, quick pacing is well in evidence, including grounded, naturalistic acting and expert production support. As usual, the design team shines. Karelle Levy's thrift-store costumes are subtly inventive. Lighting designer Travis Neff has a field day painting with noirish shadows and highlights. Nathan Rausch's sound design creates a visceral geography of local nightlife. It's a testament to Mad Cat --which, by my reckoning, is the only true theater ensemble in South Florida -- with everyone involved doing their best work.
That said, Trembling Hands is not without its flaws. Even if you can overlook the organ-heist premise, it's hard to dodge the play's basic implausibilities. In fairness, every story has one or two unlikelihoods -- that's the nature of fiction (or even fact). But stories stray beyond that at their peril, and this one really pushes the issue. The fundamental problem is decidedly shaky: Sure, Charlotte needs to come up with tuition money, but is this elaborate, incredibly risky scheme the only way to solve the problem? If the three friends are smart enough to get into, then survive in, med school, how come they are too stupid to think of something else? Even if you can swallow this whale of a premise, why are these med students -- who are hip to medicine's Hippocratic oath ("First, do no harm....") -- so quick to prey on unwitting victims to get the cash? And later, when they manage to get most of the money, why do they go to such sacrificial lengths to get the rest? Never mind. Sometimes it's better not to ask too many questions.
All of this might not be important if Trembling Hands tipped decisively into a fablelike black comedy, where plausibility is not necessary. But the play also asks for emotional involvement with these antiheroines. That's a tall order, and neither Azurdia nor Tei fills it decisively. The result is a play that's funny and fast, but the wide swing between emotional honesty and scabrous fairy tale comes across as more muddled than challenging. Still Azurdia is definitely on to some interesting, disturbing subject matter here. Alex is by far the best-written of her characters, revealing a contradictory attitude toward men, whom Azurdia tends to depict as either menacing, powerful antagonists or easily manipulated weaklings. Alex bonds only with her girlfriends, but she can't resist tempting or humiliating the men who are attracted to her. When the kidney scheme kicks in, she's the siren who lures the targets, and she keeps up the male-bashing with insults and putdowns of her unconscious, drugged victims. The vengeful kick Alex gets from this warped game is easily the most intriguing aspect of Trembling Hands. Whatever Azurdia chooses to do next, this production marks a step forward in her increasing power as a writer.
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