MULTIPLE PLOTCHANALITIES
July 22, 2012
Kenny G plays while a woman walks into her apartment starring downwards and shaking her
head “no.” It’s clear we are witnessing every man’s worse nightmare – a proposal rejection. A
moment later we see the woman’s poor mother receiving the “he proposed but I had to say ‘no’”
phone call, bursting into hysteria. It isn’t until a few scenes in that we learn this woman has been
in the relationship for ten years, never held a job, and we empathize with her desire to find out
who she is on her own.
In the one woman play, written and performed by Dina Ninette Plotch, we meet this thirty-year-
old New Yorker who “had it all” and chose, much to a mother’s dismay, this path of greater
resistance on the heart and sudden, unfamiliar independence.
With the dim of the lights, Plotch transforms from herself to a comical coworker with a
weekly “roster of men,” a text-obsessed, “I haven’t even looked at the menu yet” girlfriend,
a concerned and comical caricature of her mother, a wise bikini waxer, and a sensitive, ex-
manager of a prostitute ring turned bathroom attendant.
Multiple Plotchanalities, as the title suggests, pulls from Plotch’s own life, putting snippets of
random encounters on display – whether it be a draining lunch with a self-involved girlfriend, to
a bikini wax, and a couple of grocery store meetings with her mother.
Most memorable is Plotch’s spot-on performance as a slightly ditzy, superficial young girl,
making comments like, “Honestly, I was going to like die and throw up at the same time,”
earning a number of laughs from the audience.
Directed by Leslie Collins, the hour and fifteen minute production is a mash up of these
everyday life scenarios that affected the woman as she tries to move on and live with her
decision, interspersed with increasingly angry voicemails from Kleinman’s Wedding Dress
Shop, and her mother checking in. It all comes to a close in an endearing, not at all over the
top or happily ever after ending, but rather with a simple sigh of content, confirming Plotch has
found her way back to being ‘ok’ again.
Multiple Plotchanalities is presented by the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the
Dorothy Streslin Theatre.
EYE ON THE ARTS, NY – Jennifer Thompson
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