FILL FILL FILL FILL by Playwright Steph Del Rosso Is Too Full but All Too True at The Flea Theater

Steph Del Rosso is a female playwright whose play FILL FILL FILL FILL FILL FILL FILL is an ambitious, weighty over the top dark comedy.  Yet it has a lot to say that resonates with truth and with a truth that strikes with insightful anguish.  Joni (a fearless Sarah Chalfie) has been in a 5 year relationship with Noah that as far she knew, ah, was fabulous.  So fabulous in fact, that when Noah (an underutilized Roland Lane) calls Joni onto the stage it appears to all as it does to Joni, she's about to receive a public proposal.  Del Rosso's jab at social media is just one her many strident whacks at what's lacking in today's multi-media world that leaves most behind in loneliness & solitude.  The play's opening started off on a high note of comedic parody.  From there, Del Rosso should've taken things done a notch or two; at least in volume.  Still, there were volumes of wise observations about women who tend to let a man define their worth or women too needy of affirmation for their physical appearance & or judged for their maternal instincts.  Noah quipped he was going to erase the "...last quadrant of his life with Joni."  It was heartless and cruel and we felt Joni's emotions of elation go to deflation in seconds flat.  After that, Joni was in search of a relationship, validation, medication or any sense of self-worth she could find to fill the vortex left by Noah's departure.  The clever staging of this fast paced one act used actors in multiple roles (other than Joni & Noah).  Joni went on a "Candide" voyage where not everything was the best possible world or neccesary to the play.  The menage a trois was a tiresome tangent.  The  gameshow THE PERFECT WOMAN was effectively exhausting in its fervent & painful pitch.  Three female contestants, dressed to the nines needed to answer questions which answered male's specifications in order to advance the contestants to ... a meaningful relationship with a man or at least to a relationship that lived up to the male's expectations.  Del Rosso shows promise as a playwright.  She needs to hone her skills and find less is more.  Her cast (a fine ensemble of earnest actors) need not blast their lines at a continuous stentorian level.  Still, FILL FILL FILL was a poignant play about the buzz kill of loneliness we all will have to navigate on our own.