Seven At W. 70th - seven wickedly amusing but still deadly sins

The seven deadly sins are the topic, and local playwright Elaine Osio has creatively woven together a series of vignettes illustrating situations for each sin in Seven At W. 70th. The setting for all these sins is a single high-rise in Manhattan for which the play is entitled. Directed by Bert Pigg, five actors play multiple roles including the Prince of Darkness in this fantastically dark and witty comedy.

Little Fish Theatre is proud to once again partner with Manhattan Beach playwright Elaine Osio. The first play LFT presented was Peg & Garrick in 2004 which focused on the tumultuous love affair of Peg Wolfington and David Garrick - two superstars of 1740's London. Elaine's other works include, Apewatch, produced for the Mark Taper Forum's Lab and 'Rangements, a play focusing upon the profoundly close relationship between a mid-thirties woman with Down Syndrome and the mother she knows must leave her soon. 'Rangements was produced by the Group Repertory Theatre in Los Angeles; it received a Media Access Award, an annual award given to those works increasing public awareness of people with disabilities.

Seven at W. 70th began as a single sin says Osio, "A few years ago, I witnessed a phenomenon I never thought I'd see - my tough New York cousin and her husband quaking with fear. Why? Because the holiday season was fast approaching, and they had no idea how much to tip the doorman and janitor of the Upper West Side co-op they'd recently moved into. Tipping too little meant a year of undelivered packages, visiting friends redirected to other buildings, and gushing pipes and non-flushing toilets remaining gushing and non-flushing until next Christmas. When, a few months later, a theatre asked for submissions of comic, ten-minute versions of any of the Seven Deadly Sins, my cousins' terror flashed across my mind." After creating that first scene, "Greed," Osio embarked on a full-length play incorporating the other 6 sins and a world-weary, elegant, urbane devil serving as a master of ceremonies. "And since an upscale high-rise co-op, with its hundreds of tenants, is a Petri dish of bad behavior, why not set all the sins there instead of jumping from location to location? As my devil says, 'I just love urban density. It saves me so much legwork.'"