GOOD roles are tough to come by, and more and more, it seems, performers are relying on themselves to create them. “Patriotic Bitch,” the provocatively titled solo piece written and performed by Alanna Ubach, exemplifies the trend. A talented Latina actress who has appeared in such films as “Legally Blonde” (and its sequel), “Meet the Fockers” and “The Brady Bunch Movie,” Ubach has created a multicultural, theatrical portrait of seven female characters that inevitably feels as much like an actor’s audition as a play.
It’s not that Ubach doesn’t portray some distinctive characters in the brief (65-minute) show, such as the narrator Yolanda, a Mexican immigrant washroom attendant who always keeps the ashes of her deceased sister nearby. The other figures on display, who either pass through Yolanda’s environs or who she sees on television, include: an Iraqi rapper, a young Iranian woman coping with bulimia, an evangelical aerobics instructor, and a high-strung news anchorwoman (“I can’t take another Xanax, I’ll pee all over myself!”), who’s long overdue for her colonic therapy.
Ubach inhabits her multiple characterizations with admirable emotional range and physical stamina, but the disjointed segments don’t cohere particularly well, and the piece, all too familiar in its message of tolerance, lacks the depth of similar efforts created by the likes of Eric Bogosian or Sarah Jones, among others too numerous to mention.
Fluidly staged by Ian McCrudden, the evening mainly serves as a powerful showcase for the protean acting talents of its star, who clearly deserves better parts than Hollywood’s given her thus far.
PATRIOTIC BITCH
Clurman Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St. (212) 279-4200. Through June 29.