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CityTripping Your Urban Style Source
July 1999
What's Hot
NEW YORK, NY -- Rachel Arieff's one-woman show, Hi, I'm Brittany, and I'm Rotting!, is subtitled "a comedy about career girls in decay." After one or two minutes of her performance at Collective Unconscious, you'll realize that Arieff (left) means this quite literally. This performance artist has taken her natural comic talent and obvious appreciation for gore and fused them together against the sterile backdrop of New York office culture. The result is a comedy that is often hilarious, always strange, and gives one the distinct impression that Arieff buys her fake blood in bulk.
Arieff's main character is an attractive mutual-fund executive who made six figures right out of Yale, takes her sales team to Houlihan's for post-work celebrations, and is slowly festering on the inside. Brittany is someone who everyone in New York finance has had to contend with, though hopefully not on a personal level; her character is caustic with a sugar-coated exterior. Like most of the characters she assumes, Arieff takes the initial affinity the audience has for each figure and tweaks it with a bit of the insane. Brittany, for example, has a predilection for self-mutilation. Nancy is a chipper office assistant who is courteous, well-dressed, and a fast typer; she also happens to be covered in blood. Accordingly, Nancy is presented to the audience complete with her own catchy theme song.
Other characters struggle in the New York world of entertainment. Regina is a former starlet from Hollywood who is now temping to stay alive. Missy is an aspiring actress who has gone from the thrill of dating only agents and producers to sleeping with anyone who claims to be loosely affiliated with a TV show. In an odd bit of self parody, one of Arieff's more bizarre characters teaches the audience how to advertise a one-woman show, taking cues from her own course at the Learning Annex. The dichotomy of maintaining one's professional and creative life is certainly not unfamiliar to Arieff, who temps full-time during the week.
Rachel Arieff, who has been involved with comedy for years, is an intriguing character even without the different wigs, accents, and body fluids she dons to assume her alter-egos. She met her husband, Bob Powers -- the creator of the one-man show Blood In My Coffee, which immediately follows Arieff's -- at Collective Unconscious while he was doing a stand-up routine. Ironically enough, the two were married a year ago at the bar next door. Powers' show is similar in that he also has a taste for visceral comedy involving an assortment of different characters. These range from a guy who is surprised to find blood in his coffee one morning to an amputee who constantly forgets this legs are missing. While admission to each show is $7, the couple is offering a package deal whereby one can see both shows on the same night for $10.
Both of these plays will be enjoyed by anyone who has endured the rigors and absurdities of the New York working experience. There are moments when the material itself is lacking, but any weak points in the writing are easily salvaged by Arieff's inimitable ability to make the crowd laugh. It is an original and creative performance that hinges on a simple assertion: at some point in your professional life, you've probably wondered whether your boss was actually rotting on the inside. --David Isaacs
Hi, I'm Brittany, and I'm Rotting! runs July 10, 14 and 31, 8 pm, at Collective Unconscious, 145 Ludlow St., 212-539-7570.
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