Review: The Self-Unseeing at Happy Hour Theatre

Happy Hour Theatre is a new theater company founded by Shenandoah Kehoe and Christi van Eyken (an Acme Theater alum). Its first production, The Self-Unseeing, opened at The Black Box Theater in West Sacramento and consists of five short plays that examine the challenges of self-identity.

This is an auspicious debut. Each play has a different director, starting with Don’t Bleed on Me by Andy A.A. Rassler and directed by Michael Sicilia, which follows three socks, two white and one colored athletic sock, that get tossed into the wash together. The fear of the white socks for the colored sock and how the situation is ultimately resolved is clever, funny and very relevant to issues today.

What Are You Going to Be? by Steven Korbar and directed by Acme alum Betsy Raymond, touches on Islamophobia and uses humor effectively to deliver a message, with a surprise ending.

The remaining plays are Mendacity, or the Herd of Elephants in the Room by Carlos Murillo, directed by Andrew Fridae; Sold! by Donna Hoke, directed by Lucinda Hitchcock Cone; and Paper Thin by Lindsay Price, directed by Vernon F. Lewis.

Each of these short plays is excellent, and shows that you can do a whole play in just 10 to 12 minutes. The entire production lasts one hour, followed by a “happy hour” in the downstairs cafe.