Port City Playhouse - ARCHIVE
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June 6 - 21, 2008
Split Second
Reviewed June 7 by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:50 - one intermission
A taut police drama from the policeman's perspective
Click here to buy the script |
Crime dramas aren't anything new. There are
plenty of plays that give the victim's view. There are almost as many others
that give the perpetrator's view. Then there are those that concentrate on
the judicial system's operation. Some even give the policeman's view, but
often these just touch on the policeman through such clichés as
honorable-but-overworked public servant or seen-it-all cynic. Here's one
that takes a refreshingly complicated but highly focused look at the
policeman under pressure to put public duty above personal, human nature. If
a policeman fails to live up to expected standards for one "split second"
under great pressure, and gives in to anger and frustration that would be
natural for anyone not wearing a badge, should he be held to account by
either "the system" or, for that matter, by himself? This production lays
these questions out for examination without distracting embellishments,
which is exactly what the playwright has attempted to do with his script. It
is a good match of performance and material for a satisfyingly serious
evening of community theater.
Storyline: A black policeman gives in to anger and frustration for one
brief moment when his prisoner taunts and insults him unmercifully. Pulling
the trigger of the gun he holds on his handcuffed captive, he ends his
prisoner's life and changes his own. In succeeding scenes he tells his story
(or various versions thereof) to his supervisor, his partner, his wife and
finally his father - a former cop himself. Each has a different reaction.
Written in 1984, this is the most frequently performed of
the half dozen plays by Dennis McIntyre who had become recognized as the
creator of solid, well constructed plays before his death of cancer at age
47. It is a highly focused piece consisting of single scenes for each of the
major aspects of the story. There's the scene of the incident itself (with
Jackson Dismukes giving a strong performance as the despicably racist and
obnoxious criminal) followed by individual scenes of the reactions of the
important people in the policeman's life. That policeman is played with an
honest, open feel by Christopher C. Holbert.
The two most important people in the policeman's
world, his wife and his father, are given very strong performances by Amy
Miharu Hard and Donnell Boykin. Hard is at her best when she reaches the
peak of fear that her husband may well go to prison if he tells the truth
about what he has done. Her pain is multiplied by her panic in a very
believable outburst. Boykin gives an uncompromising performance as the
father who expects from his son adherence to a set of standards he believes
he maintained during his own career as one of the few blacks to serve on the
police force in his native Pittsburgh. He's thoroughly supportive of his son
at first, but the inconsistencies in the story begin to bother him and he
can't abide what he finally comes to believe. Boykin has a distracting habit
of overdoing conversational gestures, but he maintains a clarity of voice
and a solid control of his characterization that is quite satisfying.
Supporting performances are well controlled as well.
In addition to Dismukes' insufferable criminal, Franklin Walker's fatigued
police captain who has heard it all and Jermaine Shorts' loyal partner are
handled with skill in a staging by Ed Bishop which avoids any distractions
from the central story and moves along at a measured pace, accelerating when
emotions flare but not moving too quickly past those moments of heat. It
should be noted that Kathy Nay will take on the role of the policeman's wife
for the weekend of June 13 - 14 before Hard returns for the final week of
the run.
Written by Dennis McIntyre. Directed by Ed Bishop.
Design: Ed Bishop and Donald Neal (set) Farrell Hartigan (costumes) Donald
Neal (properties) Chris Hardy and Alice Lee (lights) Keith Bell (sound)
Douglas Olmsted (photography) Carolyn Lightfoot (stage manager). Cast:
Donnell Boykin, Jackson Dismukes, Amy Miharu Hard or Kathy Nay, Christopher
C. Holbert, Jermaine Shorts, Franklin Walker. |
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November 2 - 17, 2007
To Gillian On
Her 37th Birthday
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:00 - one
intermission
A warmly affectionate look at a family in mourning
Click here to buy the script |
The birthday girl isn't there for her 37th - at
least not in the flesh - in Michael Brady's romantic drama which deals with the effort of a widower to come to
grips with his loss and move on with his life. The late Gillian's presence
is very much there, however. Not only is her impact on the lives of her
husband and child evident as they grapple with their life after losing her,
her spirit still appears at least in her widower's mind. Sara Joy Lebowitz
directs the seven-member cast in this gentle play with an unhurried pace
that allows each scene to evolve as written without adding extraneous bits
of business or distractions. The approach gets the most mileage
out of the material and presents it in its best light, but also leaves the weaknesses exposed. There are some nice, warm father-daughter moments
for Dan Eddy and Margaine Jovan, and Amanda Lenhart is touching in her
leave-taking as the spirit of Gillian, but the material is thin and these
performances can't hide that fact.
Storyline: On the second anniversary of the death of Gillian in a freak
boating accident her sixteen year old daughter has come to grips with her
loss enough to move on with her life, but her father, Gillian's widower, is
still incapacitated by grief. When friends of the family invite a young
woman to join them in a visit to the family's beach house, Gillian's spirit
appears - but only her widower can see her.
The script does take a bit of a swerve from
time to time to avoid feeling as if it is too linear in its story telling,
but it does a nice job of keeping the tale fresh and avoids making any one
of the main characters too simplistic. As could be expected, the memories
revealed early in the play seem to paint a picture of an ideal relationship
between the father and his late wife. Only slowly are we introduced to some
of the stresses and strains that afflicted both the marriage and the
relationship between mother and daughter. Those stresses add a human
complexity to the mix that keeps the tale from seeming too sweet and
hopelessly romantic.
Dan Eddy plays the widower with a winsome
touch, establishing a workable relationship with Morgaine Jovan who plays
his daughter with a wise-beyond-her-years feeling of a youngster who has had
sorrow and responsibility thrust on her prematurely. At the time of the play
she is supposed to be sixteen which means that she was fourteen when she
lost her mother. Megan Graves is expressive as a neighborhood friend with
attitude. Carl Nubile
is the wise-cracking but caring friend of the family and Elizabeth Replogle
his psychiatrist wife who has helped the father through the roughest times.
Katie Gentic is a somewhat enigmatic presence as the single woman Nubile and
Replogle bring along as a blind date for the dad, and she has a bonding nice
scene with Jovan. The super-natural fantasy touch of the piece comes form
Amanda Lenhart as the spirit of the late wife/mother Gillian.
The design team comes up with a mixed bag for this
production. Kevin King fits a shingled beach house with a wide porch on one
side of the stage and a light house-like cylinder on the other with a lot of
open space between for the scenes played out on the beach. It is a nice,
efficient design with stars projected on the backdrop for the night scenes.
However, Will MacLeod's lighting unaccountably casts shadows across that sky
for the daytime scenes and Jamie Bartosavage Erdman, who makes a substantial
contribution with appropriate costumes for all seven characters, further
undercuts the daytime scenes in his sound design by dropping the surf sounds
seemingly whenever the sun is up. It is a time honored technique of sound
designers to establish a repetitive sound, such as surf or wind or rain, and
then gradually reduce the volume. However it is a distraction when the
absence of surf sounds coincides with dialogue about how very peaceful it is
on the beach.
Written by Michael Brady. Directed by Sara Joy
Lebowitz. Design: Kevin King (set) Jamie Bartosavage Erdman (costumes and
sound) Donna Reynolds (properties and set dressing) Will MacLeod (lights)
Douglas Olmsted (photography) Alexis Rose (stage manager). Cast: Dan Eddy,
Katie Gentic, Megan Graves, Morgaine Jovan, Amanda Lenhart, Carl Nubile,
Elizabeth Replogle. |
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June 8 - 23, 2007
The Smell of
the Kill
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:20 - no
intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for a light diversion
delivered with verve
Click here to buy the script |
There are six cast members listed
in the program but you only see three women on stage, the ones who joke
about how their lives would be better if their husbands were dead. What
gives? In a nifty piece of writing, playwright Michelle Lowe calls for the
actors playing these three women's husbands to be off-stage all night long,
delivering their lines through the door at stage left. It is more than just
a comedic technique. It is the reason that the audience can laugh this much
at the debate over husbandcide. The men never become real people in the
audience's mind, but we still get to witness some of the irritating habits
these men have and come to understand and believe the women's complaints.
The women become very real, however, and Margaret Bush, Katie Gentic and
Gail Seavey create very distinct personalities while trading pithy
observations and witty rejoinders in a concise, tightly constructed single
act.
Storyline: Three wives, each unsatisfied with their marriage but each for a
different reason, are relegated to the kitchen to chat after dinner while
their husbands pursue manly activities, including a visit to the new
refrigerated meat locker one has had installed in his basement to hold the
carcasses of his hunting successes. The wives realize a unique opportunity
to escape their mutually disappointing lives when the door of the locker
accidentally slams shut and the husbands have no means of escape. Will the
wives decide to open the door or take the unexpected opportunity to start
their lives anew?
Playwright Michelle Lowe seems to be having
more luck with her short, small cast comedies for actresses than lengthier
projects. Her String of Pearls, a single act, four woman comedy
generated many a laugh in New York a few years ago as it earned her a
nomination for the Outer Critics Circle award for best off-Broadway play.
Then, this play had a brief run on Broadway where it simply didn't have
enough heft to succeed. Heft isn't what it is all about - nor subtlety. The
three characters Lowe creates are hardly deep thinkers, but, oh, they have
an almost inexhaustible supply of one-liners.
Bush, Gentic and Seavey work together as an ensemble
very well and each succeeds in creating a different personality. Bush's
"Nicky," with a tan that looks just right for a woman who spends quality
time at the spa or poolside, sets the pace for the trio. She's a bright and
chipper woman who has been pushed to the limit. Gentic's "Molly" is the
youngest of the bunch, frustrated by her husband's feigned affection which
rarely finds physical expression, and Seavey's "Debra" is the senior partner
who has buried her disappointments and frustrations for so long it is
difficult to let them surface.
Set designer Jarret Baker and director Olson deserve
specific kudos for the decision to place the detailed kitchen set close to
the lip of the large and deep stage of the Lee Center. Often, designers and
directors feel a need to use all the space available and end up with a set
too far back and too distant from the audience, resulting in a feeling of
separation and distance that does damage to the experience of a show. This
intimate comedy requires a sense of immediacy and that is exactly what it
gets from this design. The use of actual kitchen cabinetry adds a feeling of
reality that works nicely, and as a note, it is all for sale when the run is
over.
Written by Michele Lowe. Directed by Scott Olson.
Design: Jarret Baker (set, lights and sound) Maggie Bush, Katie Gentic and
Gail Seavey (costumes) Pat Jannell (properties) Douglas Olmsted
(photography) Carlyn Lightfoot (stage manager). Cast: Margaret Bush, K.
Clayton, Katie Gentic, C. Evans Kirk, Gail Seavey, Cal Whitehurst or Ron
Field. |
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April 13 - 28, 2007
Terra Nova
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
An intelligent production of a challenging history play
Click here to buy the script |
Its hard to believe that a detached feeling of
reflection and contemplation can make a production of a play about the dying
thoughts of a committed adventurer emotionally involving when an overdose of
histrionics would harm it, but Don Petersen's nicely intellectual sense of
distance serves this historical drama quite well. It isn't that the
characters on stage don't have emotional flare-ups. They do argue, struggle
and try to fix blame for disaster. Through it all, however, the production
seems to be examining the reasons the hardy explorers who "attacked" the
South Pole in 1911-1912 were willing to undergo such hardships and even
loose their lives. In the process, it is examining the drives toward
discovery, fame and duty that bound these men together. The approach is
particularly appropriate because it is a match for the playwright's apparent
concentration on just these themes in constructing his rather detached but
nonetheless fascinating view of an historical event.
Storyline: Captain Robert Falcon Scott
recalls his failed attempt to be the first explorer to reach the South Pole
as he tries to complete his diary entries before becoming the last member of
his team to die on the way back from reaching the pole only to find that the
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them to the prize.
The play is by Ted Tally, best known for his
work as a screen writer. He wrote The Silence of the Lambs, a movie that
examined the inner workings of the mind of a man who did extraordinary
things. The same topic is at work here although the "extraordinary things"
were less socially unacceptable. Talley's screenplay about the serial killer
Hannibal Lecter was based on a novel by Thomas Harris. His play about
explorer Robert Falcon Scott is based principally on the journals and
letters found on his frozen body. The play was written in 1977, more than a
decade before The Silence of the Lambs. Its concentration is on the inner
workings of Scott's mind - his goals, his dreams, his passions. It takes a
nearly clinical look at its subject. Director Petersen makes sure that sense
of examination comes through while allowing his cast to explore some of the
exposed nerves that people under pressure display.
That cast includes Blakeman Brophy, who does a
fine job of displaying the strength of character that Captain Scott
exhibited, even as it brought him and his men to disaster. Each of the four
members of Scott's team who died on the frozen surface of Antarctica are
given distinct personalities by the actors in the company. Jon Whittle is
perhaps the most fascinating of the performers in the company playing what was
Tally's greatest dramatic liberty in the script, bringing the Norwegian
explorer who beats Scott to the pole to life in Scott's mind, carrying on a
dialogue with him over the responsibility he has for his men and the
approach he should be pursuing.
The events are played out on a white stage
draped with white muslin given ice-blue lighting while Alan Wray's sound
effects of wind and storm add to the atmosphere. Wray also provides dramatic
incidental music including an effective underscoring of the final moments of
the play. An indication of the seriousness with which the entire team
approached this project is the listing in the program of two dialect coaches
- Carol Strachan for British accents and Bruce Follmer for Norwegian.
Written by Ted Tally. Directed by Don
Petersen. Design: John Downing (set) Paul Andrew Morton (costumes) Bette
Williams (hair and make-up) Judy Kee (properties) Ken and Patti Crowley
(lights) Alan Wray (sound) Doug Olmsted (photography) Robert S. Kraus (stage
manager). Cast: Blakeman Brophy, Ken Clayton, Gary Cramer, Erin Gallalee,
Carl Brandt Long, Scott Olson, Jon Whittle. |
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January 19 - February 3, 2007
Anton in Show
Business |
Running Time 2:20 - one intermission
A bright and brisk backstage comedy
Click here to buy the script |
This backstage comedy by Jane Martin about a troupe of actresses trying to
mount a production of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters in San Antonio Texas
has a cast a eleven handling eighteen parts. Even with three actresses
doubling, tripling and one even quadrupling on characters, it still feels
rather intimate and small. This is principally because the focus is often
confined to the three actresses playing the three actresses playing the
three sisters. Director Chuck Dluhy has in these three a trio to rely on, and
he builds the evening on their skills. Add in the occasional gem of a bit
from one of the supporting actresses in one or another of their characters
and the result is a fun evening lampooning and lambasting the peculiarities
of "theater folk," but which always manages to stop just shy of insulting people
who devote their time and effort to putting on a show.
Storyline: Three actresses prepare to appear in a regional production of
Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters. Each exhibits some traits of the
character she is to portray, but each brings a contemporary sensibility to
the mix as they form an ensemble, develop their relationships with the
director, stage manager and other people involved in the production, and deal
with a pushy theater critic.
The play premiered in 2000 at the Humana Festival of
New Plays, where all of Jane Martin's plays have premiered. It was
the winner of the American Theatre Critics Association's Steinberg New Play
award in 2001, one of a number of awards that have come to the playwright.
There is a bit of a mystery surrounding her, as she has kept completely out
of the public eye and rumors about her actual identity have circulated.
(Could she really be the nom-de-plume of the long time artistic director of
the Actors Theatre which is the host of the Humana Festival?) Never mind all
that. The only question of importance is "Is the play any good?" The answer:
Yes. Potomac Region audiences can be grateful to Port City and Chuck Dluhy
for this opportunity to experience it.
The three actresses at the center of all the action
are all very good. The always impressive Amy Hard puts her sharp good looks
to good use as she plays a soap opera actress trying to "go legit" after
getting as much of a career boost as she's going to get from her breast
augmentation surgery. Caitlin Brodnick is very funny as the local Texas
blond with the thick drawl who wants to step up to bigger roles in more
important shows, and Leta Hall is touching as an actress whose career is
going downhill just about as rapidly as her health, as she worries about a
recurrence of her breast cancer.
Among those who take on multiple roles are Lori
Muhlstein, who, in the persona of the white wigged director announces with
equal import her interpretations of Chekhov's text and her personal
information such as "I pee now!" Katie Gentic switches gender as easily as
switching job descriptions. Rhonda Carter has at least two very strongly
defined characters among the four she plays. There's great fun, too, at the
hand of Sara Joy Lebowitz, as a theater critic who expounds from her seat in
the audience.
Written by Jane Martin. Directed by Chuck Dluhy.
Design: John Downing (set) Eileen Farrell (costumes) Kendel Taylor (makeup,
hair and wigs) Rob Cork (properties) Les Zidel (lights) Chuck Dluhy and
Frank Pasqualino (sound) Douglas Olmsted (photography) Donna Reynolds (stage
manager). Cast: Caitlin Brodnick, Jennifer Calhoun, Rhonda Carter, Katie
Gentic, Leta Hall, Amy Hard, Sara Joy Lebowitiz, Kate Masters, Lori
Muhlstein, Jennifer Reitz, Susan Schulman. |
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November 3 - 18, 2006
All My Sons
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:20 - one
intermission
A solid presentation of Arthur Miller's substantial drama
Click here to buy the script |
Arthur Miller didn't write any frivolous plays.
The string of important studies of the American experience that included The
Crucible, The Price, A View from the Bridge, After the Fall and the
masterpiece Death of a Salesman began with this drama of a family torn by an
otherwise unexamined aspect of World War II's place in the national psyche.
It put a human face on the business side of war and treated a timely issue
with timeless values. Produced on Broadway less than eighteen months after
the end of World War II, it touched contemporary emotions without needing to
explain anything about the condition on the home front during and just after
the war. Everyone in the audience had lived through those years. The test of
the great accomplishment of Miller is that if it is given even a minimally
effective production it still works before an audience made up mostly of
people born after 1945. This community theater presentation is
very much better than minimally effective. As a result, it is an affecting
evening of emotionally involving theater.
Storyline: One day and night in middle
America, where a year after the end of World War II, a family is still
struggling with the impact of the war on their lives. The father has been
released from prison after being cleared of charges of knowingly supplying
defective parts to the Army resulting in the death of 21 pilots. The mother
holds on tenaciously to the thought that her missing-in-action son will turn
up even three years after the disappearance of the fighter he was piloting.
The surviving son has finally decided to move on with his life, seeking the
hand of the daughter of his father's deputy who has been convicted of the
fatal fraud. She had been his brother's girl before he left for the war.
Port City Playhouse is one of the consistently
reliable community theaters. They almost invariably select plays that are
well written and deal with intriguing subjects, and they frequently give them
high quality productions. This time out they have a play that has all the
heft you would want of a drama, and they have assembled a satisfying cast
under the direction of Adriana Hardy, who allows the story to play out
without distractions.
G. Smith makes an imposing owner of the factory that
manufactured the faulty aircraft parts. Although the role is often played
as a hollow shell, Smith lets the frailties of his psyche appear a little at
a time, certainly a valid approach to the role. Hans Dettmar contrasts that
approach with a constantly strengthening portrayal of the son who has
refused to doubt his father's innocence until faced with new evidence during
the play. Jessica Lada does a nice job with the rather over-burdened role of
the daughter of the neighbor who is still in prison for his part in the
supplying of defective war parts. She is the former fiancée of the dead son
and now is becoming the fiancée of the surviving son.
The stage at the Lee Center is a wide, deep
space that is difficult to fill. This one-location play calls for a swath of back yard with a
wind-damaged tree and the rear door of at least one house (the neighbor's
house in this case is apparently just off stage left). Set and lighting
designer Les Zidel provides the basic locale for the actors and then Farrell
Ann M. Hartigan's costumes go a long way toward establishing the time period
without being too obvious about it.
Written by Arthur Miller. Directed by Adriana
Hardy. Design: Les Zidel (set and lights) Farrell Ann M. Hartigan (costumes)
Bette Williams (makeup and hair) Eleni Aldridge and Kira Simon (properties)
Alan Wray (sound) Douglas Olmsted (photography) Laura S. Newport (stage
manager). Cast: Bob Ashby, Maggie Bowers, Hans Dettmar, Michael J. Fisher,
Karn Henderson, Jessica Lada, Jonathan Poole, Laura Russell, G. Smith, Jacob
Yeh.
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March 24 - April 8, 2006
Stop Kiss |
Reviewed March 31
Running time 1:40 - no intermission
A poignant, personal drama presented in chronology-shifting short scenes
Click here to buy the script |
Diana Son's drama of two women whose friendship blossoms into a deeper,
sexual relationship gets a solidly satisfying production featuring sensitive
performances from Amy Miharu Hard, winner of the Washington Area Theatre
Community Honors (WATCH award) for Sylvia
a few years ago, and Wendy Lamond-Broughton who makes her local stage debut.
Director Zina Bleck finds a way to make each of the more than one dozen
individual scenes that make up this one-act drama feel fully formed and
distinct from the others. Perhaps the most impressive of them all is a
completely wordless scene in which Hard's character adjusts the covers of
Lamond-Broughton's hospital bed even though, as staged, neither Lamond-Broughton
nor the bed are physically on the stage with Hard. It is a touch that lends
a special feeling to the moment.
Storyline: A perky traffic reporter for a New York radio station and a
reserved grade school teacher from the Midwest who arrives to take a job at
a school in the Bronx strike up a friendship. Both are heterosexuals but
their friendship opens up an attraction neither expected. When, perhaps
under the influence of a few too many drinks, they share a kiss in a public
place, they are attacked in a vicious hate crime.
This play was given a fine production about a year and
a half ago by the small professional troupe
Didactic Theatre Company at the
Warehouse. Now it is getting a good mounting in
a community theater. Both demonstrate the strength of the written material.
Son's drama is extremely well structured and stakes out an intriguing topic
and sticks with it through to a conclusion that simply feels
right. What is more, it offers two ideal roles for talented actresses. The
other roles are properly referred to as supporting, their function is to
move the story along, and these roles are handled nicely by the cast here,
but it is the pair of Hard and Lamond-Broughton that bring the play to life.
Hard stakes out a more cosmopolitan, urban
feel for the role of the New York traffic reporter. She has the perkiness
necessary to believe she would be successful as a radio personality in a
competitive market and she blends in just a touch of the fatalism that
inner-city residents seem to adopt as a defense against the inconveniences
of a crowded existence. Lamond-Broughton, on the other hand, has a
Midwestern openness about her that rings true. The attraction between the
two grows slowly, almost taking each by surprise in the scenes that progress
chronologically from first meeting to the night of the attack. The
interspersed scenes of the aftermath - the interviews by the police, the
hospital visits, the arrival of the boy friend from home - all add spice and
a sense of reality which keeps the play from being either a saccharine or
prurient portrayal of a young lesbian affair.
The play doesn't require a great deal in the way of
physical production. The set here is serviceable, displaying the somewhat
messy, lived in looking New York apartment at center stage. There is a
curtained wall to the right which is used both as an interrogation area for
the scenes in which Tom Petecost does a nice job as the policeman, and, when
the curtain is pulled, as the hospital.
Written by Diana Son. Directed by Zina T.
Bleck. Design: Joan A.S. Lada and Juan Filipe Rincon (set) Beverley
Nicholson Benda (costumes) Eleni Aldridge (properties) Richard Schwab
(lights) Keith Bell (sound) Douglas Olmstead (photography) Joan A. S. Lada
(stage manager). Cast: Blakeman Brophy, Amy Miharu Hard, Wendy
Lamond-Broughton,
Tom Pentecost, Liz Schulz, Eric Sever, Janet Devine Smith. |
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September 30 - October
15, 2005
Hauptmann |
Reviewed October 8
Running time 2:15 - one intermission
Historical fiction draws interest from a famous true-crime case |
Director
Gloria Dugan does a good job of creating the feel of the time in this piece
of true crime recreation. With a fine set and costume design in shades of
gray and a strong performance by Michael Kharfen doubling as the accused
kidnapper/murder and as the surreptitiously tippling defense attorney, this
examination of the public record in one of the many "trials of the century"
of the highly litigious twentieth century is filled with intriguing detail.
It doesn't resolve all the issues it raises. Indeed, it probably shouldn't
if it is to remain true to the public record. It does, however, capture and
hold your attention for an evening, and then leave you with many questions
to ponder.
Storyline: The play attempts to portray and
make some sense out of the events between the night in 1932 that the 22
month old son of Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh was
taken from his nursery, and the night four years later that Richard Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the crime.
Potomac Region theatergoers may recall an
earlier true-crime/famous trial play by this playwright, John Logan. His Never
the Sinner, played Arlington's Signature Theatre before transferring to
an Off-Broadway house. It gave a very similar treatment to the events
surrounding a famous 1920s murder trial, the case of Nathan Leopold and
Richard Loeb, who received a vigorous defense by none other than Clarence Darrow, and were convicted of the murder of fourteen year old Bobby Franks.
Here he turns his attention to the 1930s, but he still uses the facts from
the public record to tell his story. The record in this case includes
handwriting analysis, the identification of ransom money, and the matching
of nail holes and wood grains that might seem familiar in an episode of
television's CSI, as well as eye witness testimony about fleeting meetings in
dark cemeteries and familiar voices in brief phone calls.
Michael Kharfen brings a strong stage presence and a
good blend of confidence and panic to the role of the title character as he
alternately assumes his protestations of innocence will prevail, and is
infuriated by the thought that the prosecution's case might succeed. While a
bit stockier and stronger looking than the slight man shown in the historical
pictures of Hauptmann, there is enough of a physical resemblance to be
striking.
Long's concept here has all seven of the cast members
playing multiple roles. This gives Bruce Follmer a chance to exercise his
skill at distinguishing between character roles as the judge, an eye witness
and a handwriting expert. Donald Neal doesn't really seem to try to
distinguish between roles, but gives the part of the prosecuting attorney a
great deal of energy. Lorraine Magee is affecting in her primary scene as
the grief-stricken mother of the kidnapped and murdered boy.
Written by John Logan. Directed by Gloria DuGan.
Design: G. Kevin Lane (set and costumes) Avery Burns (properties) Kendel
Taylor (makeup and hair) Lorraine Magee (choreography) Frank Coleman
(lights) Anna Hawkins (sound) Doug Olmsted (photography) Kira Simon (stage
manager). Cast: Bruce Follmer, Nano Gowland, Michael Kharfen, Lorraine
Magee, Donald Neal, Mari Pappas, Ed Starr. |
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April 8 - 23, 2005
Fences |
Reviewed April 9
Running time 2:25 - one intermission
General admission seating
Some solid performances in a richly developed play
Click
here to buy the script |
The Potomac Region has both of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning plays
playing at the same time. While Arena Stage is presenting The Piano Lesson
in DC, this quality community theater company tackles this more realistic
but no less emotional play about the pain of failing to live up to your own
self-expectations. Wilson is the playwright attempting to survey the African
American experience decade by decade throughout the twentieth century. This
is the one covering the 1950s, a time when the hopes and dreams which would
stimulate the civil rights movement were crystallizing but had yet to
motivate mobilization.
Storyline: A former Negro Baseball league
athlete, who had dreamt of stardom but ended up as a garbage collector, wants
to keep his son from a similar disillusioning fate. At the same time, he has
to cope with the consequences of his own weaknesses and their impact on his
marriage and on the rest of his family.
The cast of newcomers to this company includes
Michael Sainte-Andress in the central role of the disillusioned husband and
father unable to live up to his own view of the role of a man. He gets the
pain of this proud man right, while Patricia Williams as his wife helps build
a picture of their routine home life. When the two have to run the emotional
level up to great heights for the scene where he is forced to confess
infidelity because of his mistress' pregnancy, they fall a bit short of the
searing fervor the scene deserves.
Paul Andrew Morton is very good indeed as the
friend and colleague of the father on the garbage route. There is a sense of
chemistry between Sainte-Andress and Morton that feels right for two men who
have spent hours hauling trash and unwound together over the single bottle
of gin they allow themselves on Friday nights. Also impressive is Rashard
Harrison in the role of a casualty of World War II.
Director Ed Bishop's no-nonsense staging
serves the text well as he keeps the focus on the words in Wilson's script
with few distractions. Al Myska's fight choreography didn't
quite work at the performance we reviewed during the first weekend of this
three-weekend run. Perhaps it will work better later in the run, but it
seemed to suffer from some of the same reticence that hurt the confession
scene mentioned above.
Written by August Wilson. Directed by Ed Bishop.
Fight choreography by Al Myska. Design: Joe Schubert (set) Eleni Aldridge
(costumes) Judy Kee (properties) Ken and Patti Crowley (lights) Keith Bell
(sound)
Doug Olmsted (photography) Carlyn Lightfoot (stage manager). Cast: Rashard
Harrison, DeLon Howell, Paul Andrew Morton, Nailah Newsom or Gabrielle
Powell, Rick Peete, Michael Sainte-Andress, Patricia Williams. |
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October 1 - 16, 2004
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
Reviewed October 1
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
Click here to buy the script
Click here to buy the novel |
Port City continues to chose challenging fare and then to give the pieces
substantial productions that demand respect. In this, their latest mounting
of a serious play with a strong view of the value of the human spirit, they
again find a way to people the world of the principals with strongly drawn
supporting characters, creating an environment that captures the attention
of the audience and makes the central stories the richer for the contrasts
and textures they provide. Of course, Cuckoo's Nest, by its very
nature, provides plenty of opportunities for broadly drawn characters - it
is set, after all, in a mental institution filled with patients who are
confined precisely because they do not hue to the mainstream. In this
production, each of the occupants of the day room of the institution are
strongly drawn, intriguing characters, while the principals - the controlling
head nurse and the newcomer who threatens the established order of things -
are fully fleshed out.
Storyline: Into the day room of a mental institution one day in 1960 comes a
new patient, one whose respect for authority is as low as his tolerance for
routine. He shakes up the established order maintained by the attending
nurse and stirs the emotions of his fellow patients, but at a cost.
Dale Wasserman's 1963 stage adaptation of Ken
Kesey's novel provided a great role for Kirk Douglas' last appearance on
Broadway. Its revival earned Gary Sinise his second Tony Award nomination as
an actor, and its movie adaptation gave Jack Nicholson his first Oscar-wining
role. Obviously, it is a play that can be performed as a star vehicle. The
secret of success for this production, however, is that it is an ensemble
piece, not a star turn. That is not to say that Bruce Ward is lacking in the
lead role - he's as flamboyant as could be wanted. He captures both the
extroverted energy of the new patient and the insecurities that drive him to
an anti-establishment position of leadership. In director Bob Bartlett's
hands, however, that leadership isn't so far out front of the troops that he
leaves them behind. No, the colorful members of the pack are the real story
here.
The collection of colorful inhabitants of the
mental institution is varied indeed. There is uptight, prissy Randy Tusing
providing a counterbalance to Ward's extravagant energy. There is
Christopher C. Holbert's tightly contained intensity as the virginal inmate
whose attraction to Laura Russell's good-time-girl triggers tragic
consequences, and there is Robert Kraus' juvenile-to-infantile innocence
adding to the mix. Even smaller parts are cleanly constructed. Robert Heinly's lumbering patient who can be immobilized by imaginary crucifixion
nails is a haunting image throughout. Best of all, however, is Andrew
Brownstein as the Native American Chief whose ruminations form the narration
of the play.
The key role of the head nurse, whose control
of her domain is threatened by Ward's character's unorthodox manner, is well
played by Barbara Raffaele who hovers behind the plate glass window of the
nurse's station overlooking the day room set that John Downing designed
which leaves the large stage of the Lee Center Theater open for group
scenes. With less fully formed characters, such open space would highlight
the need for diversity and contrast. As it is, however, the cast provides
ample variety and color to make this visit to the Cuckoo's nest an
intriguing evening.
Written by Dale Wasserman based on the novel
by Ken Kesey. Directed by Bob Bartlett. Design: John Downing (set) Eileen
Farrell (costumes) Julie Kiley (makeup, hair and wigs) Joanne Tompkins
(properties) Dick Schwab (lights) Anna Hawkins (sound) Doug Olmsted
(photography) Donna Reynolds (stage manager). Cast: Matthew Anderson, Andrew
Brownstein, Juliette Kelsey Changner, Arthur Greene, William Guey-Lee,
Robert Heinly, Christopher C. Holbert, Zeke Johnson, Matthew Jordan, Robert
Kraus, Sara Joy Lebowitz, Rob Perkins, Barbara Raffaele, Laura Russell,
David Swim, David M. Thomas, Randy Tusing, Cal Whitehurst, Bruce Ward. |
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April 23 - May 8, 2004
Tartuffe |
Reviewed April 13
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes |
Molière’s seventeenth century comic lampoon of hypocrisy
in society and the church is probably his best known and most often produced
play. Frequently, it is approached solely as a lampoon of religious
hypocrisy. In this production, director Bob Bartlett gives Molière’s
barbs directed at the gullibility of most people as much emphasis as his
lampoons of religious pretentiousness. Production values are acceptable but
the cast is uneven resulting in a frustrating evening of direct hits and
near misses. The highlight of the evening is the performance of Bruce Alan
Rauscher who throws every theatrical trick in the book at the character of the
charlatan and appears to have a marvelous time while he is doing it.
Storyline: In the household of a wealthy
member of Paris' society a charlatan has earned the confidence of the head
of the household, but the rest of the family see through his posturing.
Still, he is able to control events to the extent that he takes title to the
house and all its contents before his overreaching causes his downfall.
Rauscher, who has held forth on this company's
stage as the ill fated John Merrick in
The Elephant Man, at the former
Upstart Crow (now Virginia Shakespeare Company) in
The Nerd, and in high comedy (Laughter
at Ten O'Clock: Memories of the Carol Burnett Show) and high drama (The
Andersonville Trial for which he was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award
for Outstanding Lead Actor in 2002) at the American Century Theater, again
demonstrates an ability to throw himself into any well written role. From
his entrance weighed down by a cross through to the very end, he has a
flippant energy that drives the show.
The rest of the cast is of mixed capability,
however, and some of the strengths of individual performances seem
squandered. Eileen Farrell, for example, is imperiously haughty as the
mother of the head of the household but her delivery is directed outward
toward the audience rather than to the other members of the household.
Stacey Lane Smith as the daughter of the bamboozled father whines her way
through scenes, distracting attention from the work of others. Al Fetske
never seems to find the key to turning the head of the household into an
understandable character.
The action takes place on a wide and open set
designed by director Bartlet and Bruce Ward. Sound designer Brian Donohue
pulls musical quotes from Hollywood's version of Biblical epics to
underscore the religious pretension side of the play while costume designer
Susan Kovalik Tully hits a number of nails right on the head with her
high-society garb for members of the family.
Written by Molière. Directed by Bob
Bartlett. Design: Bob Bartlett and Bruce Ward (set) Susan Kovalik Tully
(costumes) Art Snow (properties) Scooter Choi (makeup) Les Zidel (lights) Brian Donohue (sound)
Doug Olmstead (photography) Donna Reynolds (stage manager). Cast: Elsbeth
Bupp, Eileen A. Farrell, Al Fetske, James Howard, Cassie Lee, Joseph
McMahon, Jason Myles, Bruce Alan Rauscher, Laura Russell, Stacey Lane Smith,
Manolo Santalla, Cal Whitehurst. |
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February 13 - 28, 2004
The Pavilion |
Reviewed February 13
Running Time 1 hour 40 minutes |
The region's community theater premiere of Craig Wright's lovely, lyrical
play about time, the consequences of mistakes and the desire to fix the
unfixable is a solid production with a great deal to like. Wright provides a
collection of observations to be pondered within an absorbing and
entertaining framework. While not all the notes this production hits are
exactly on key, there are elements to savor and the overall effect is warm
and satisfying. The play calls for a cast of three although there are
eighteen named characters: the leading man, the leading woman and the
narrator who also plays sixteen different people who appear on the dock
at The Pavilion. Chuck Dluhy clearly revels in this opportunity to jump from
character to character in a bravura performance.
Storyline: The twentieth
reunion of the Pine City, Minnesota High School class of 1982 is being held
at the old wooden pavilion down by the lake. Kari and Peter were the best
looking couple of their senior class but are now seeing each other for the
first time since he abandoned her and fled for college. Now, she’s unhappily
married and and he’s unhappily unmarried. He wants her to leave her husband
and seek happiness with him.
Andrew S. Greenleaf and Barbara Raffaele play
the couple, and each is warmly human and totally credible. Raffaele lets her
character emerge slowly throughout the evening, softening her edges under
the influence of the arguments of friends, entreaties of her former
boyfriend and a glass or two of champagne. Greenleaf's take on the
boyfriend, on the other hand, goes the opposite direction throughout the
evening. He arrived with a goal (getting back together with her) and tries
multiple approaches to the same end. While she's mellowing somewhat, he is
escalating his effort to overcome her resistance as he feels time running
out on his one chance to correct the error that he believes ruined both
their lives. As individuals they are interesting and believable, while as a
couple, there is a very real spark of chemistry between them.
Chuck Dluhy's parade of characters is also
very good. He's the former friends of the boy, girlfriends of the girl, town
officials and other classmates. Its an opportunity for a talented actor to
create a string of interesting and amusing mini-portraits and he makes the
most of it. In each of those smaller parts his touch is sure, but his
approach to the major character, the narrator, is a bit shaky as he imbues him
with a darker nature that puts a
strangely negative spin on some of the more lyrical and more philosophical
message of the playwright. The narrator has some of the most interesting
things to say. Early in the first act, for instance, the
narrator informs the audience that "this is a play about time" and,
offers a number of cogent observations about the quality of time, eternity,
creation and the balance of nature.
In a television interview promoting this
production Wright explained that a main point was that time only goes in one
direction, that you can't go back and unmake an error and you have to work
with the past you have. That wholesome message is somewhat obscured by Dluhy's dark delivery. It is clear from Jeffrey Scott Auerbach's
lighting that this is not Dluhy's
exclusive take on the role. Lit from below with dark circles for eyes, the
impression approaches a Halloween effect and some of the other lighting
effects seem overly harsh and stark as well.
Written by Craig Wright. Directed by Chuck
Whalen. Design: Joe Schubert and Chuck Whalen (set) Jeffrey Scott Auerbach
(lights) Anna Hawkins (sound) Doug Olmstead (photography) J. Arthur Rodger
(stage manager). Cast: Chuck Dluhy, Andrew S. Greenleaf, Barbara Raffaele.
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September 12 - 27, 2003
The Elephant Man |
Reviewed September 23
Running Time 1 hour 50 minutes
t
Potomac Stages Pick |
A well structured play telling an absolutely compelling (and mostly true)
story with a cast featuring two extremely strong characterizations and one
extraordinary one make Port City's season opener a solid pick for those who
appreciate fine acting. It should also draw those who simply want to learn a
bit about the phenomenon of upper class England in the
eighteen-eighties when a freak from a side show became the toast of the
town.
Storyline:
History records that the deformed John Merrick was plucked from a Victorian
freak show to be protected and studied in a hospital in 1884. He became a mover in
London’s high society before his death in 1890. Bernard Pomerance’s
Tony Award winning play explores serious issues of social values and human
worth.
It was the playwright's fortuitous choice to
have the horribly deformed "elephant man" portrayed by an actor without any
help from makeup or special prosthetic devices. Because the concentration on
Merrick's humanity is achieved through this lack of artifice, it requires an
actor of inordinate talent, skill and taste. In Bruce Alan Rauscher, Port
City has just such an actor. He has been blurring the distinction between
community and professional theater for quite a while now. His performances
have earned awards and nominations from the Alliance of Community Theaters
as well as the Helen Hayes Awards which recognize outstanding professional
work. His performance as John Merrick is likely to earn him more awards:
this time on the community theater side only because Port City Playhouse is,
after all, a community theater with volunteer artists. It is a performance
that would draw praise and recognition in the most professional company in
town.
Two of the supporting roles in the play are
given superb presentations which is extremely fortunate for they are the two
most important roles, other than the title character himself. David Sher is
smooth and effective as the young surgeon who discovers Merrick in a
traveling freak show and brings him to his hospital for observation. Since
he is the prime mover of the events covered by the play, his polished
performance makes a major contribution to the evening. The other standout
performance is in a role that might not be as important had it been in the
hands of a lesser talent. But Barbara Raffaele makes the most of the role of
the first woman ever to see Merrick as a man rather than a freak. Through
her tastefully underplayed scenes, she allows the humanity of Rauscher's
performance to be viewed by the audience through a very sympathetic lens.
Director Joe Schubert manages to compensate
for the inevitable unevenness of a large community theater cast both by
concentrating the strengths in the major roles and by drawing attention away
from less polished performers in a highly atmospheric presentation. Schubert
worked with John Downing on a set design that is both flexible and nicely
unspecific - essentially a brick wall with multiple archways - and a set
painting crew that created a fine brick pattern to make the scenery flats
believable. Dick Schwab's lighting plot helps him get the most out of the
set. Anna Hawkins' sound design is as bold as any element of the
presentation as she underscores scenes with hauntingly appropriate music as
well as providing more traditional sound effects and musical transitions
between scenes. It is one of the most active and yet least intrusive sound
designs to support a community theater production in resent memory.
Written by Bernard Pomerance. Directed by
Joe Schubert. Design: John Downing and Joe Schubert (set) Jerry Wolf (set
construction) Joe Schubert, Rose M. Kobylinsky and Donna Reynolds (set
painting) Donna Reynolds (properties and set dressing) Suzanne Maloney
(costumes) Dick Schwab (lights) Anna Hawkins (sound) Douglas Olmsted
(photography) O'Malley Pitcher (stage manager). Cast: Rick Bailey, Ian Fore,
Elissa Hudson, Tom Kluko, Renee Moyer, Barbara Raffaele, Bruce Alan
Rauscher, Debra Salkind, David Sher, Michael Sherman, Cal Whitehurst, Donna
I. Winsor. |
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February 14 - March 1, 2003
Betrayal |
Reviewed February 14
Running time 1 hour 25 minutes |
The Port City Playhouse
brought more than its tradition of interesting script selection and its
passion for tackling challenging work from the tiny classroom where they
have been performing to the new, large Nannie J. Lee Center Theater. They
brought the sense of intimacy. Just how they accomplished it is unclear, but
this four person play is as intense, as intimate and as satisfying as
previous productions were in the smaller, tighter, confining space of years
past.
Storyline: Nine short
scenes that run backward in chronology reveal the history of an extramarital
affair and its impact on a marriage and on the husband, the wife and the
wife’s lover who has been the husband’s best friend.
“Once you’ve heard a
Pinter play, you realize it is completely different from anything you’ve
heard before”. “Heard” a Pinter play? Most people talk about “seeing”
a play. In this one sentence in her notes in the program, director Leslie A.
Kobylinski signals an understanding of the basic truth of a play by Harold
Pinter: it is all there on the page and the secret of staging it is to
deliver the text honestly, naturally and faithfully. Her staging
demonstrated that she also understands the corollary aspect of a Pinter
play: the silences and the spaces between the sounds say as much as the
words themselves.
Restraint is the essence of the husband and wife and lover in this tangled
triangle of infidelity, and the cast clearly understand that. They approach
each scene, speech, sentence or statement with clarity. They respect the
silences. It is almost as if no one moves when another is speaking. But that
would suggest stilted, mechanical and boring performances which none of
these are. Instead, the movements are subdued and placed properly to
highlight the coolness of Sheri S. Herren’s image of the wife, David Sher’s
aloofness as the friend/lover and Larry Daniele’s skepticism as the husband.
The fourth performer, Cal Whitehurst, is close to mesmerizing as the
bartender of the opening scene who is some sort of servant helping with set
changes and announcing time shifts between scenes. But he breaks the spell
with a too heavily accented reading of the waiter in an Italian restaurant
in London.
The
designers of this production also obviously understood the importance of
providing a frame for Pinter’s words and silences rather than filling in all
the blanks that his scenic structure leaves. Grant Kevin Lane’s set consists
of perhaps 70 linear feet of doweling cut into about 20 lengths attached to
three movable platforms before a black curtain with three white muslin
drops. It is simplicity itself, suggesting rather than creating the pub, the
study, the flat, the hotel room and all the rest.
Directed by Leslie A. Kobylinski. Design:
Grant Kevin Lane (set, costumes
and properties) Frank Coleman (lights) Anna Hawkins (sound) Douglas A.
Olmsted (photography). Cast: Sheri S. Herren, David Sher, Larry Daniele, Cal
Whitehurst. |
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May 3 – 18, 2002
Suddenly Last
Summer and
Portrait of a Madonna |
Reviewed May 3
Running time 2 hours 10 minutes
|
Three fabulous acting jobs in two intriguing plays by one of the American
theater’s most disturbing playwrights equals one full evening of absorbing
theater for one of the areas most adventurous community theaters. Port City
prides itself on putting on "edgy, bold, innovative and not frequently
produced" plays. As they put it, their specialty is staging plays "that
everyone has heard of, but nobody has seen." With Suddenly Last Summer
they meet that test hands down. With Portrait of a Madonna, they have
a play that very few have ever seen and almost nobody has heard of.
Together, in the hands of Ellen Young, Karen Jadlos Shotts and Carla
Scopeletis, the two plays make an intense and fascinating experience.
Storyline(s): (Portrait of a Madonna) An aging former Southern Belle
with a history of mental instability reaches the end of her rope.
Living alone in an apartment before World War II, she is tormented by
hallucinations of intrusions and rape. Her demands for increased security
serve only to bring her condition to the attention of the outside world. (Suddenly
Last Summer) In her garden in New Orleans in 1935, the mother of a young
man who was killed on vacation summons her niece who witnessed the death,
and the doctor who is treating her for the mental breakdown the incident
triggered. The mother wants to know the circumstances behind the death and
insists on the truth or she will force the young lady to undergo a new
psychological treatment: a lobotomy. The story her niece reveals is
devastating to the mother but the niece’s doctor resists the lobotomy
procedure on the chance that the story just might be true
Director Rosemary Hartman took on the project of one of Tennessee
Williams’ most famous one act plays, Suddenly Last Summer, but
rightly concluded that it was brief enough to give them time to do another
one of his one-act pieces. Suddenly Last Summer is famous not really
because of its success as a play but because it was adapted for a movie and
the movie broke more Hollywood taboos per foot of film than anything since
the establishment of the Hayes Office, that legendary exercise in
self-censorship the industry adopted one step ahead of governmental
intervention. Hartman surveyed the other short plays of Williams (he
published nearly fifty) and found Portrait of a Madonna which fits
like a puzzle piece with Suddenly Last Summer.
To bring the demented elderly woman of Madonna to life, she cast
Ellen Young, an actress recognized for work in northern Virginia community
theaters who had yet to perform at Port City. She is fascinating from the
opening scream to the closing puzzle. It would be a headlining performance
if it weren’t for the fact that her one-act play is followed by Summer
which features not one but two intense performances. Carla Scopeletis,
who was so very effective in Port City’s The Devil’s Disciple, begins the
second play with a fine mixture of grande-dame hauteur and elaborate
southern hospitality, and progresses through to the shattering climax when
the revelations are just too much for her to bear. Karen Jadlos Shotts gives
every ounce of emotional energy she has to the role of the niece, taking the
audience on a deeply disturbing journey through the joint trauma of the
experience that triggered the neurosis and the pain of the mental illness it
brought on. By the curtain call she barely has the energy left to
acknowledge the applause.
The performing space at the Career Center Theatre of T.C. Williams High
School, which is really an amphitheater shaped lecture hall, always presents
a challenge to the designers. In this instance, the challenge is well met
with simple furniture and props for the first play and the addition of
arches and a backdrop painting of plants (the dialogue alludes to the
carnivorous venus flytrap).
Written by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Rosemary Hartman. Design: John
Downing (set) Dick Schwab (lights) Judy Kee (properties) Eileen Farrel and
Yvonne Owens (costumes) Rosemary Hartman and Keith Bell (sound). Cast: Ellen
Young, Carla Scopeletis, Karen Jadlos Shotts, Mike Russell, Yvonne Owens,
Rob Batarla, Jennifer Burton, Greg Christopher, Celeste Morrow.
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February 15 – March 2, 2002
BecauseHeCan |
Reviewed February 15
Running time 1 hour 10 minutes |
Arthur Kopit has written a Twilight Zone type one act, single point story
with a jolt of an ending. Port City Playhouse gives it a straightforward
presentation that makes its warning of the dangers of the cyber era
interesting if not chilling.
Storyline: An urban couple leading successful, busy lives have their
world systematically unraveled by a hacker who takes control of the computer
records of their lives from bank accounts to legal files, robbing them of
their identities, assuming control of their wealth, creating evidence of
criminal activities and triggering an FBI investigation.
When this play was first written its title reflected the fear so many
were feeling about what would happen in our new cyber-dominated world when
the century changed. It was called "Y2K" and it spoke directly to the alarm
then dominating magazine cover stories that the electronic connections on
which we’d become so dependent would all come falling down when the machines
got confused by a date change. Well, the world didn’t end on 1/1/2000 and
public attention has turned from cyber-threats to terrorist acts, but the
play explores dangers well beyond the date change. "Y2K," now known as "BecauseHeCan,"
explores the damage that can be wreaked when the computers stay on.
Director Rick Hayes takes the single-act structure of the play at face
value and builds the tension of the evening in a straight line, from mild
concern to great concern but never lets it go over into frustrated anger and
denial. Cal Whitehurst as a successful editor and Aimée Meher-Homji as his
wife who works at Sotheby’s react to the revelations of the cyber-attack in
carefully measured stages but never seem to hit the peaks you would expect.
There is never a feeling of overwhelming frustration or outright denial or
an uncontrolled burst of anger. As the malevolent hacker, Skyler Marshall is
a strangely mild presence. The result is a odd feeling that both the
attacker and the victims are almost as mechanical as the electronic machines
the hacker manipulates.
John Downing has devised another fine set for Port City Playhouse’s
challenging platform facility. Panels painted with computer code and
diagrams establish location and theme and make the most of the space. Nancy
and Liz Owens light the space well and Antigone Juvelis came up with a
telling costume for Marshall’s hacker. It all gives a solid feeling to the
presentation but the evening remains strangely uninvolving.
Written by Arthur Kopit. Directed by Rick Hayes. Design: John Downing
(set) Nancy and Liz Owens (lights) Antigone Juvelis (costumes) Donna
Reynolds (properties) Scott Thomas (sound.) Cast: Cal Whitehurst, Aimée
Meher-Homji, Skyler Marshall, Melvin L. Parson, Jr., Michael A. Pemberton. |
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November 2 - 17, 2001
The War of the Worlds and
The Shadow |
Reviewed November 10
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes |
Port City Playhouse stages the scene in a network radio studio as live
actors before microphones perform three radio shows in the 1930s. Director
Donald Neal recreates the ambiance of the working studio instead of simply
staging the radio plays. Actors are in period clothing with props
appropriate to the time, some read an issue of Life Magazine while waiting
their cues and the organist has a copy of "Gone With the Wind" to while away
her free time.
Storyline: Two episodes of the series "The Shadow" tell of an invisible
crime-fighter who foils the plots of dastardly villains. The other show is
the legendary broadcast dramatizing an invasion by Martians delivered in
simulated news coverage.
The unique view into the world of national radio before the introduction
of television combines with the content of the programs themselves to make
this an interesting, if somewhat long evening. Two episodes of "The Shadow"
are about one too many, for the scripts were simplistic pop-culture material
even when new. Heard one, heard ‘em all. But hearing one is fun and the cast
does a fine job of performing before the vintage microphones. To get the
most out of it, try closing your eyes and just listening for a few minutes.
Let the images created by live sound effects man Bill Wisniewski augmented
by Anna Hawkin’s recorded sounds work their magic.
After intermission the recreation of the October 30,1938 broadcast of the
Mercury Theater program War of the Worlds is so well done that you
can understand how, as a Princeton University study later found, 1.7 million
people thought they were listening to an actual news account and 1.2 million
people actually took action in response to what they believed was an
invasion from Mars. The first half of the broadcast was delivered as live
news cut-ins interrupting a musical program. As luck would have it, the
timing was such that listeners tuning in only after Edgar Bergen finished
his Charlie McCarthy routine on a rival network started listening to the
program after the announcement that it was a work of fiction. By the
mid-broadcast station break and the repeat of that announcement, panic had
infected a great many listeners. The Mercury Theater of the Air didn’t have
a sponsor that night so the program was not even broken by commercials.
The fact that Orson Wells was the genius behind The War of the Worlds
and also the actor who played "The Shadow" is a unifying factor in this
evening of radio plays. Paul McLane does a fine job playing Wells playing
"The Shadow" and various parts in Worlds. Edgar Russell III plays the
actor who portrayed the radio announcer who covers the initial carnage of
the "Martian attack" with all the dramatic emotion of the famous eyewitness
report of the Hindenburg’s explosion which was fresh in so many minds at the
time.
There is also a poignancy in these days immediately following the attacks
on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York as you listen to the
second half of the broadcast with its description of devastation in New
York. Wells’ character describes walking through the Holland Tunnel,
emerging at Canal Street to view the destruction and proceeding up to 14th
street to see the damage. Somehow, with what he have had to bring ourselves
to believe in the last two months, it is less difficult to understand how
the millions listening in 1938 could have accepted the unacceptable as fact. |
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