Snake Charmer, Black Forest Productions, at Cafe Voltaire. This play features one trim actor (Jon Smeenge) who strips down to a snakeskin thong a few minutes into the action and four actresses (Carla Hayden, Karyl Kelly, Kristin Sztengel, and Maria Perantinides) in various states of undress–one wears a corset, one a girdle with stockings, one pj’s with the top unbuttoned, one a slip and panties. In the right hands this play about a man apparently dying in a hospital and hallucinating about a foursome of succubi–who sometimes appear as nurses, sometimes as insects–who’ve come to torture and tease him could have been a sexy, offensive bit of exploitation. But James Moeller, who wrote this murky, vague, pretentious play, chose to direct it himself, guaranteeing that the weakest elements of the script–the gassy speeches, the pointless dance sequences, the incoherent story–survived unedited. Not that there’s much to salvage. But a good director might have been able to tell Moeller his play makes no sense most of the time.
–Jack Helbig