10x10x10

Celebrating a decade of productions, the Comedians' Theatre Company here presents 10 monologues played in rotation, with five per show (though, for some unexplained reason, there were six at the performance I attended). Monologues work well when it's clear why a character is engaging in a moment of reflection, and those stories here include a women remembering all the boys she has kissed, a cage fighter deciding whether or not he's out for the count, and an Armenian masseuse examining her femininity.

While the company laudably aims to offer comedians the opportunity to participate in kinds of performance beyond their usual range, the monologue is an odd choice for achieving this goal. After all, isn't a standup routine already a monologue, with the comedian playing a role? And the form requires an economy of writing and solidity of narrative which isn't always evident here. The tension between the instincts of those involved and the needs of monologues are evident in that in several pieces pathos and darkness are sacrificed for the sake of a gag. A recurring theme is characters trapped by circumstance and it would have been better if all had been braver about probing the seriousness of this. But it's a fun show and an interesting experiment, and such a compilation of short pieces means that any that is weaker is swiftly replaced by something stonger.