Care to save the whales? The Altruists sure do, and they’re quick to tell you how horrible you are if you do not. This holds true with just about all of the world’s causes, to the point where the Altruists have no idea what they believe in.
In Nicky Silver’s satire “The Altruists,” shamelessly hypocritical individuals jump from cause to cause reveling in the excitement of protesting without ever giving more than a moments thought to what the protest was for, all the while completely ignoring their own hypocrisy.
Director Janine Christl did a wonderful job of taking the three separate and hilariously dysfunctional groups and tying them into one gravely complicated situation. She spoke of long rehearsals but was pleased with the outcome. “It’s like putting music together,” she said.
As the story evolves, the characters discard morals and principles as readily as a person bad with a typewriter throws out paper. “It points out that people don’t live up to their own expectations,” said Christl, “I think it’s very clever.”
Leshawn Holcomb, a Theatre major playing the role of Ethan the sex machine, described the play as “the closest thing to ‘Rent’ in a long time.” “Rent” was the 1996 musical, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical among others.
Holcomb is spending his last year at Fresno City College and is glad to be a part of this particular performance, his fifth one here. “It’s very very very funny,” he said, “a lot of sex…smoking…and more sex.”
But though the performance is very comedic and playful, it has a serious side that Holcomb has come to appreciate. “It just shows what a person will do when they get in trouble,” he said.
His character of Ethan shares a similarity with the rest of the characters in that he is completely absorbed in the now. At times, he almost seems to suffer from a severe case of short term memory loss, but this is not the case. The Altruists simply can not dwell on one idea for more than a moment.
This is made evident in a scene where Ethan finds that Sydney, his girlfriend…wait…roommate (he isn’t looking to commit to a relationship), tried to kill him; he is minimally surprised and even more minimally disappointed/angry. The pseudo-couple make amends within a few moments. The issue is officially closed some three minutes later when Ethan asks (what is likely a very common request from him), “Can I borrow your car?”
Another great example of the play’s rocky relationships is a scene between Lance, a naively positive homo-sexual social worker, and his male prostitute. After a few silent moments of ‘connection,’ Lance says, “I believe I love you,” to which the prostitute responds, “Wow…no shit…” and something to the effect of, “But you still haven’t paid me for last night.”
After a smile, nod, and quick signing of a check, the relationship was normalized as if nothing had ever happened.
