“4 Seasons Total Sh!tshow”

A NoHo Arts theatre review of ”4 Seasons Total Sh!tshow,” written by Aaron Michnowsk, and directed and produced by Hiro Korsgaard at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival. 

Watching the hearings over the past couple of weeks brings back a lot of very bad memories. The last election, the primaries running up to it, the terrible feelings of fear and anger that seeped into just about every moment of everything we did. Do I need to go back there again?

Well, maybe if it’s done with humour and pathos and some really excellent situational comedy. “4 Seasons Total Sh!tshow” does exactly that. 

It takes us back to those actually pretty glorious hours in the midst of all the crap where Giuliani held his press conference at the Four Seasons Landscaping, nestled snuggly between a porn shop and a mortuary…has there ever been a more perfect metaphor for the Trump administration?  This playwright certainly didn’t think so!

Other than the obvious triggers this show would offer to about 70% of this country and most of the rest of the planet, “4 Seasons Total Sh!tshow” is a very welcome comic respite amidst the current political cacophony.  

The panicked staff try with all their might and some terribly dated tech to figure out how to get a positive spin on Giuliani and Trump’s out-of-the-blue invitation on Twitter to a press conference that had never been set up, that the actual Four Seasons had refused to host and that also served no purposed whatsoever in the grand scheme of the Trump administration’s sinking ship.  

It’s a very funny 40 minutes or so of highly ironic madcap and totally irrational and reactionary action, which might seem a bit ridiculous if it was about any other time and any other place. However, it could actually have been a ‘word for word’ of what occurred that day. 

I would totally believe it if you were to tell me that.  The cast brilliantly sends up Trump staffers, all skittering around trying desperately to make this work. There’s no balance needed, there’s a little irony in one of the staffers who has a slightly more critical position, but he’s blown away by the fiery and psychotically committed lead staffer, Keri. The play runs through to just before Giuliani steps up to the mic and begins his rant, with his hair dye running like rivers of blood down his face. I can hardly believe that was real…and yet.

Thank you, Aaron and Hiro, and the entire cast for giving us something to laugh at while we still have a sense of humour about this stuff. 

I was worried that it might have been too soon, or bad timing, but it was absolutely bloody perfect. American sarcasm at its best, irony is not dead, and thanks for the memories!

Cast:

Starring Maddy Bryan, Pranav Dev, Sam Lassiter, Ryan Leonard, Zaya Kolia, Christian Lowery, Sam Vidos, and Caiti Wiggins.

When:

June 20, 2022 (8PM-9PM)

June 22, 2022 (6PM-7PM)

June 25, 2022 (5PM-6PM)

Where:

Asylum @ Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre 

5636 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038

Tickets:

https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/7554?tab=tickets