ZAP

“High art meets short attention span” in a new play that’s really seven plays in one. Richard III shares the stage with parodies of Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett, Neil Simon, Agatha Christie and a performance artist in a show meant to appeal especially to teenagers with short attention spans. A snippet of each play is performed before being zapped by remote control to bring on the next. Chaos ultimately reigns as one play intrudes upon another: One actor trips over women’s underwear left from a previous scene; two plays end up on stage at the same time; and two corpses share the spotlight, until the final (and welcome) curtain finally closes. Though Fleischman “had a ball writing it,” it’s likely to receive mixed reviews. However, high-school theater departments willing to experiment with something new might try this as an alternative to the same old reruns of Grease and Romeo and Juliet. (Fiction. 14+)