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October 25 - December 2,
2007
Kit
Marlowe
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:35 - one
intermission
A rollicking, swash-buckling mystery thriller
v
nudity and simulated sex acts
Click here to buy the script |
Rarely has a show begun with such energy, style and excitement as does
director Jessie Gallogly's staging of David Grimm's historical drama of the
writer of historical dramas in Elizabethan England, Christopher "Kit"
Marlowe. When a show bursts open as this one does, it is often difficult to
maintain the energy level, but Gallogly's troupe keeps it up through the
first act and even manages to approach it again in a periodically dispirited
second act. Oh, but when it is high, the pleasure level of this production
is sky high and it never is less than interesting as it works its way
through a modern writer's speculations on the mysteries surrounding the
short life and violent death of the man who may have passed on the concept
of the history play to Shakespeare who gave us all those Henrys and
Richards. Bringing the swashbuckling adventurer to lusty life is Adam
Jonas Segaller, who makes his Potomac Region debut in a most memorable way,
bursting on stage stark naked and dripping wet, swinging from a rope fresh
from a dip in the foul, fetid Thames.
Storyline: It is London, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth but before the
rise of William Shakespeare. Fledgling playwright Christopher "Kit" Marlowe
is a rambunctious young man who writes "history plays," carouses through the
town and harbors a hero worship for the adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh. In
search of his own adventures, he joins a team of spies in service to Her
Majesty, but his loyalty to the spy operation is tested when he meets and
becomes a friend of none other than Sir Walter Raleigh himself. Can his duty
conflict with his friendship?
Our understanding of the historical events of four
hundred years ago is sketchy at best, especially when the events of interest
didn't involve royalty or governors. Just who this "Kit" Marlowe was is
shrouded in an incomplete record, but the tantalizing odd detail here and
there in records, diaries and correspondence lead to fascinating
suppositions. Grimm, a New York-based author whose works involve both
historical characters and styles, takes the incomplete record and creates a
reasonable hypotheses while leaving the viewer the opportunity to interpret
Marlowe's final, fatal moment as he will. The play is perfectly situated in
Rorschach's season to draw people who want to see it before they move on to
further explorations. The production is actually part of Michael Kahn's
Shakespeare Theatre Company's Marlowe Festival which sees the Harman Center
for the Arts officially opening next week with a repertory of two of
Marlowe's history plays,
Tamburlaine and Edward II.
Later in the season, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will present Grimm's new
play, a sex romp of a restoration-style comedy called
Measure for Pleasure.
Segaller comes to the Potomac Region from a stint with
the American Shakespeare Center
in Staunton and the outdoor venue in Manteo on the Outer Banks of North
Carolina where he played Sir Walter Raleigh in the pageant of The Lost
Colony. His energetic romp as Marlowe is matched by Matt Dunphy's slightly
fopish gentleman with a sexual tension with Marlowe. John Brennan intones
nicely as Elizabethan spy-master Sir Francis Walsingham. In the second act
there is more of William Aitken, a normally reliable and often
enjoyable actor who makes an imposing looking Sir Walter Raleigh, but whose
scenes seem slower than the others due to a thick delivery of the semi-blank
verse, faux-Elizabethan verbiage and meter that Grimm has written to conjure
the sound and feel of the setting. The supporting players are sharp,
especially Jesse Terrill as a servant. Reece Thornbery plays the actor
Edward Alleyn whom history tells us was such an impressively tall and
imposing figure that larger than life roles were written for him, including
Tamburlaine. Thornbery, however, makes Alleyn seem just another actor
in the troupe.
London, it turns out, was a very noisy place and
Veronica Lancaster fills the high-ceilinged former sanctuary that Rorschach
uses as a theater not only with the sounds of traffic and crowds but of bear
bating and revelry as well. Eric Grims' two-story, Tudor-style structure
serves as everything from tavern to torture chamber and Emily Dere's
attention to detail for the costumes adds to the solid feel of the
production. There's no specific credit in the program for special effect but
someone should take a bow for the effectiveness of the blood-letting scenes
which take the concept of "signing in blood" to a new level.
Written by David Grimm. Directed by Jessie R. Gallogly.
Fight choreography by Casey Kaleba. Design: Eric Grims (set) Emily Dere
(costumes) Heather Gaither (properties) David C. Ghatan (lights) Veronica
Lancaster (sound) Marigan O'Malley-Posada (photography) Katherine A. Keogh (stage manager). Cast: William Aitken,
John Brennan, Tony Bullock, Matt Dunphy, Lee Ordeman, Adam Jonas Segaller,
Nick Stevens, Josh Sticklin, Jesse Terrill, Reece Thornbery. |
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June 27 -
July 28, 2007
Birds
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:40 - no intermission
A confusing tale of contemporary urban life |
The cast and director of this premiere of a confusing contemporary drama by
the author of the supremely entertaining and effective
The
Last Seder
had a few weeks to make sense of the events and characters in the script.
Whatever insights Brian Hemmingsen, Nanna Ingvarsson, Tim Getman, Marissa
Molnar, and Jjana Valentiner were able to develop under director Wendy
McClellan's guidance during the long days of rehearsal as they dissected
each and every line of dialogue and every bit of stage direction, they fail
to transmit them, leaving the audience, which has just
an hour and a half to comprehend the events on stage, with no clue as to what
they are witnessing. Hemmingsen's performance is so entrancing that many may simply
chose to watch him and not spend too much energy trying to figure out the
plot. Still, even those who do try to follow along will probably be awfully
confused by the time Valentiner's character finds feathers growing on her
arms.
Storyline: A pair of young stockbrokers are too involved in their careers
to take the time and trouble to convert their live-in love-affair into a
permanent arrangement such as, perhaps, a marriage. With the woman's
deceased grandmother hovering above seeking the return of a brooch in the
shape of a nightingale, and a philosophical homeless man on the street
shaping the couple's relationship, things go from bad to worse. Soon the man
has lost his job and the woman her faith in the future, but things don't
seem beyond repair until she begins to sprout feathers.
When last we reviewed a play by Jennifer Maisel it was
the Theater J 2003 production of
The
Last Seder. We
came away saying "This is what theater
is for. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you think. It makes
you feel." As a result, we came to
Rorschach for her new play with expectations that may have been altogether
unfair. This piece, developed through Rorschach's Magic in Rough Spaces new
play program, does not accomplish any of those things, but it does have clean
dialogue, five clearly delineated characters each with individual traits
that give an actor something to sink his teeth into and not a few
interesting and intriguing events. All of these strengths, however, are in
service to a plot that an audience needs help comprehending. Perhaps it
would help to give each member of the audience a copy of "Jorinda and
Joringel" by the Brothers Grimm which gave the playwright the initial set up
(the pair of happy young lovers and the old lady story) as well as the name
for Valentiner's character, Jorie - oh, and her feathers.
Valentiner and Getman make a believable yuppie couple
and Ingvarsson gives a strong performance with touches of Sunset
Boulevard's Norma Desmond as the grandmother demanding the return of her
bird-brooch (she is Maisel's version of the Grimm's "old woman" of the
castle). Marissa Molnar does what can be done with the part of a prostitute
with a hard exterior but a soft spot underneath. It is Hemmingsen, however,
that takes possession of the stage each time he's on it. He's a homeless man
with a surplus of common sense and a touch of magic of his own. When
Valentiner donates one of three of her boyfriend's overcoats to the homeless
man she sees on a bench every day, he begins a transformation into a
sartorially splendid, suave man about town. Through it all, he remains
fascinating to watch.
The hall in Casa
del Pueblo is set up with the audience on one end facing a tall arching set
which appears at first glance to be covered with computer printed 8x11
sheets of paper forming a mosaic of a New York skyline. Soon, however, the
additional capabilities of the structure become apparent. Back-projections
cast shadows of the titular birds in one area while a large panel swings
open like a portion of the party wall of television's Laugh In to
reveal Ingvarsson in full grandma regalia. Next, a bed and bed stands
complete with lamps slide out on one side as a couch and coffee table appear
on the other. Through it all, characters come and go through slits in the
covering that don't look like doors until used. Its a fanciful structure and
quite a lot of fun to watch in action but it doesn't really help the
audience make sense of the play.
Written by Jennifer Maisel. Directed by Wendy
McClellan. Design: Jacob S. Muehlhausen (set) Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes)
Deb Sullivan (lights) Matthew Nielson (sound) Viv Woodland (stage manager).
Cast Tim Getman, Brian Hemmingsen, Nanna Invarsson, Marissa Molnar, Jjana
Valentiner. |
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January 24 - February 24, 2007
Rough Magic
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 2:10 - one
intermission
A fantastical blend of Shakespearean characters, modern settings and a comic
book sensibility |
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's background includes working at the Shakespeare
Theatre, studying playwriting at Yale and writing comic books for Marvel
Comics. No wonder he can combine Shakespearian characters and contemporary
dramatic forms with the aesthetic of an illustrated strip. His
The Velvet Sky at
Woolly Mammoth, a company with a matching, edgy aesthetic,
was the winner of a monthly Ushers' Favorite
Show Award last year. His Dark
Matters and The Muckle Man remain in the memories of the fans
of the late Source Theatre Company. (And he is the recipient of the Comic
industry's Harvey Award for outstanding new talent.) With this new play
receiving its Potomac Region premiere at Rorschach, he draws from his
diverse training to play with Shakespeare's characters from The Tempest
by placing them into a modern comic strip style battle in downtown New York.
He also manages to throw in a refugee from Little Shop of Horrors.
Storyline: Calaban is more than just the deformed
slave of Shakespeare's Prospero, he's his first born son. He has escaped
from the Mediterranean Island where the bard's The Tempest is set and
has arrived in modern day Manhattan Island, bringing with him Prospero's
book of magic. He is pursued by Prospero's other two children, the enslaved
spirits Ariel and Sasia. With the aid of a New York dramaturg and
information from the bookstore run by a Mr. Mushnik, he tries to avoid
capture. Ultimately, Prospero himself arrives to do battle by magic.
Those who have been attending theater in the
Potomac Region long enough to remember the total abandon in the spirit of
many of the sophomoric productions of Cherry Red Productions will understand
that "sophomoric" need not be a demeaning phrase. Sure, the dictionary says
it means a lack of the judgment that accompanies maturity, but in theater
that can be a liberating force that frees fantasy from the bounds of
reality. In Cherry Red's case, the aesthetics of immaturity created a number
of fun evenings despite some truly amateurish production values, simplistic
performances and rough texts. It often seemed that the performance energy
was so much higher than the quality of the material that the people on stage
were improving rather than damaging the works they performed. Here the
opposite seems to be the case and it isn't quite as much fun in the reverse.
Aguirre-Sacasa's play isn't given the support it deserves.
Cesar A. Guadamuz gives a spirited performance as
Calaban. He just gets more and more fun as the magic causes progressive reptilian
deterioration. Tracy Lynn Olivera is the dramatug to the rescue, but her
performance doesn't quite have the take-charge quality the role deserves. Vasanth Santosham is everything you might want from a super villain but his
two offspring, in the persons of Danny Gavigan and Diana Cherkas, let way too
many plot points escape resolution, especially when Gavigan seems all but
inaudible even from the front row, in a scene obviously designed to wrap up
loose ends. The Cherry Red connection feels very much alive with a trio of
furies in drag, principally Grady Weatherford as the lead fury Tisiphone.
Perhaps the most mature contribution of the
production and the most in tune with Aguirre-Sacasa's script is the
multi-panel set designed by Eric Grims. It echoes the comic strip
sensibility while providing multiple playing spaces for a play that switches
locales quickly. Frank Labovitz contributes a few genuinely inventive and
witty costumes such as Calaban's "I Love New York" t-shirt and Prospero's
evil genius cloak that looks like something out of a 1930s Flash Gordon
serial. But whoever provided the mere piece of doweling he uses as a staff
pretty much ruined the effect.
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick. Fight choreography by Casey Kaleba.
Dance Choreography by Gwen Grastorf. Design: Eric Grims (set) Frank Labovitz
(costumes) Debra Kim Sivigny (properties) Andrew Cissna (lights) Matthew
Frederick (sound) Megan Reichelt (stage manager). Cast: Diana Cherkas, Danny
Gavigan, Cesar A. Guadamuz, Wen Grastorf, Lee Liebeskind, Jason Basinger
Linkins, Dustin Loomis, Tracy Lynn Olivera, Ghillian Porter, Vasanth
Santosham, Grady Weatherford. |
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October 31 - November 26, 2006
Monster
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Running time 1:35 - no intermission
Another re-telling of Mary Shelly's tale
Click here to buy the script |
Neal Bell's adaptation of Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein, as
directed by Randy Baker, mixes horror and morality tale with a dash more of
the former than of the later. The play offers Rorschach a fine opportunity
to work some of the wonders audiences expect from shows here at the
Sanctuary Theatre of the
Casa del Pueblo Methodist Church: the immediacy of up-close-and-personal
staging, the use of the height of the hall, and the strong emphasis on
atmospheric effects - especially the atmospherics of lighting. Each of the
characters, if you will pardon the expression, comes to life in a production
that feels smoothly created, not at all like the haphazard patch job that is
the central character pieced together from spare parts by the good (?)
doctor. That patch job is the most fun of the piece, however, as Robert
Rector takes us through the evolution of the creature's consciousness of
self.
Storyline: Victor
Frankenstein, in search of the secret of life and death, assembles all the
parts of a man from corpses and then finds a way to bring his construction
to life. Once alive, however, the creature has needs Frankenstein cannot
fulfill and becomes violently demanding, eventually bringing tragedy to his
world.
This mounting of
Bell's adaptation feels slighter than did Jim Petosa's 2003 staging at
Olney, but perhaps
that is a reflection of the fact that Petosa seemed to have the field to
himself that season. Not so, Rorschach. This is the third telling of
Shelly's story this fall. First came
Synetic's
highly visual presentation of the story told from the perspective of the
doctor. Then
Round House hosted John Spelman in his sort-of-solo version (he held the
stage along with unspeaking Jesse Terrill and his violin) shifting the focus
to the creature. Then, too, for all of Bell's skills as a writer, any
production of his play has to deal with the the fact that the audience knows
the outcome so well, and that the moral message has been delivered so many
times from so many perspectives that it is hard to create anything that
feels fresh.
Still, Rector's work as the monster is to be admired
and there are notable performances by Jeremy Goren as the young doctor
Frankenstein, and Lily Balsen as the cousin he loves who is killed by the
monster. As Rector shifts from the pieces of meat to which things are being
done, to the completed creature that is doing things to others (mostly
murderous things), he takes on more and more personality until he seems a
fully formed individual. Goren's doctor learns his lessons slowly, which
works well, and Balsen's sense of innocence with a seductive touch is very
effective.
The set design by Debra Kim Sivigny uses back-lit
stretched drapes to focus attention on a plank ramp that serves as both a
playing space and a framing device. Erin Nugent's period costumes are
suitable and effective, but it is the outfitting of the monster as he
progresses from something that might hang in a locker to something very
human indeed, that holds the attention through much of the play. The
emphasis on the physical production -- the atmospheric lighting, the
abstract set, the sounds of the wild and the period costumes, not to mention
the evolution of the monster's own appearance -- sets up a bit of an
unfilled expectation that leaves an "is that all there is?" feeling to the
final moment of the play. There is no final, capping visual effect. The play
just stops. It isn't exactly dramatus interruptus but it isn't "Oh, wow!"
either.
Written by Neal Bell. From the novel by Mary
Shelley. Directed by Randy Baker. Design: Debra Kim Sivigny (set) Erin
Nugent (costumes) David C. Ghatan (lights) William Burns (sound) Grady
Weatherford (fight choreography) Marigan O’Malley-Posada (photography) Megan
Reichelt (stage manager). Cast: Lily Balsen, Nicola Daval, Jeremy Goren,
Jason Basinger Linkins, Paul McLane, Tiernan Madorno, Ryan Nealy,
Robert Rector, Jon Reynolds.
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April 19 - May 21, 2006
A Bright Room
Called Day |
Reviewed April 27
Running time 2:40 - one intermission
Winner of the Ushers Favorite Show Award
for May
Early Kushner offers pure theatricality and telling detail
Click here to buy the script |
Before there was Angels in America part I or part II, Homebody/Kabull
or
Caroline, or Change there was this look at how the Nazis came to
power when good people did nothing to stop them.
The first published play by Tony Kushner exhibits many of the traits of the
author's later works, including his concern for political causes, fascination
over political events, his capacity to create interesting and fully formed
characters, and his ability to view the events through the eyes of the
characters he creates. Unlike later works, however, there really aren't any
differences of opinion among the characters he creates in this play. Just
differences in the risks they face or the determination to take action.
Interspersed throughout the live action of the play are filmed sequences
flashing forward some fifty years from the live action's Nazi Germany to the
time in which the play was written, Ronald Reagan's America. Some of the
connections Kushner tries to make must have felt strained when written, they
certainly do when viewed from the Bush years. Still, the performance of this
cast hits every strength of the play and compensates for some of its weak
spots.
Storyline: In an apartment in Berlin, a
number of young, left-leaning friends struggle to understand the world
around them as Hitler comes to power and establishes an authoritarian
regime. Out the window they can see the glow of the Reichstag burning. The
events that impact their lives are contrasted with a parallel presentation
of events in America in the 1980s in a series of "interruptions" by an
increasingly disturbed commentator who draws comparisons between the times.
Kushner's play says emphatically "the past is past,
but what are you going to do about the present?" It is a challenge to an
audience. Director Rahaleh Nassri and his design team make the contrast
between the 1930s and the 1980s as sharp as possible through the technique
of placing the 1980s interruptions in a black and white video presentation
shown on a panel that is the ceiling of the Berlin apartment. While life
goes on below, the parallels are detailed on screen. The screen is also used
effectively to display slides giving the date and the details of the latest
political development outside the walls of the apartment ("January
30, 1933 - Hitler becomes Chancellor" or "February 27, 1933 - The Reichstag
Fire").
Lindsay Allen and Elizabeth Chomko have the
two roles that dominate the bifurcated play, and they both make the most of
their opportunities. Allen is the apartment dweller who relies on her four
walls to protect her from the increasing insanity of the outside world, even
as friends and neighbors are taken from her. Her temptation to withdraw into
the presumed safety of isolation is at times heart wrenching. Surely, a
simple slap to the face might shock her into recognizing the reality that
hindsight makes so clear for the audience. But Kushner introduces the shocks
slowly in a demonstration of the old saw that you can boil a frog by placing
it in water and then increasing the temperature gradually. Each increase in
the political temperature seems to sap her of initiative rather than
stimulate her to action. Chomko is magnetic as an ever more alarmed observer
of the the events of her time, the Reagan years, stretching to find
connections to the events of Hitler's. By the time she details an analysis
that connects Hitler to Reagan through the biblical reference to "the number
of the beast," ("666" - six letters in each of Ronald Wilson Reagan's names
and a similar but even more convoluted calculation for Hitler) she's reached
a shrillness that contrasts dramatically with Allen's nearly burnt-out
shell.
Cam Magee heads a superb supporting ensemble
as the friends and neighbors in the German apartment. It is a strange
assortment as you would expect from Kushner. Magee's character is the least
strange, a friend who is concerned and tries to spur Allen to action. Grady
Weatherford creates a one-eyed-man that raises parallels with Hitler's love
of Wagnerian
opera and
Matt Dunphy does an interesting but rather confusing conversion into a devil figure emerging from the apartment's
fireplace. Each gives Kushner's always intellectually intriguing dialogue
its due through precise delivery.
Written by Tony Kushner. Directed by Rahaleh
Nassri. Design: Jacob Muehlhausen (set) Franklin Labovitz (costumes) Becky
Trotter (properties) Grady Weatherford (multimedia) Nathaniel John Sebastian
Sinnott (lights) Matthew Nielson (sound) Colin Hovde (photography) Vivian Woodland (stage manager).
Cast: Lindsay Allen, Katie Atkinson, Elizabeth Chomko, Matt Dunphy, Lauren
Judith Krizner, Cam Magee, Alexander Strain, Grady Weatherford, Ellen Young.
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January 18
- February 19, 2006
Fair Ladies
at a Game of Poem Cards |
Reviewed January 27
Running time 2:30 - one intermission
A highly stylized live actor portrayal of an ancient Bunraku puppet theater
play
Click here to buy the script |
Randy Baker directs an adaptation of a play by the Japanese
Playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon, who, during a lengthy and productive life in
the theater three hundred years ago, wrote both puppet plays for Bunraku
theater and live actor pieces for the highly stylized Kabuki theaters which
he helped popularize. The play, dealing with two pairs of young
lovers who defy convention in the rigid social structure of Japan, is one of his Bunraku pieces. However, Baker mounts it as a
live-actor production in a distinctive style using a translation and
adaptation by Peter Oswald who has a long list of adaptations from a number
of cultures including works by the German Schiller, Roman Plautus, French
Racine, Spanish de Molina and Indian Kalidasa. The evening gets a bit long
toward the end but there are both visual and emotional moments that are
memorable.
Storyline: A pair of young samurai in the court of the Heian-era of Japan
nearly eight hundred years ago fall in love with a pair of ladies in waiting
to the Empress, despite laws and traditions against such liaisons. The
Empress is touched by their love and attempts to aid them without violating
her duty under those same laws and traditions.
This is an evening of stark contrasts which
begins well before the house lights come down. You enter the performance
space in the former sanctuary of a church to find clearly Japanese set
pieces including paper screens, but the air is full of contemporary western
music. Once the lights dim, the costumes confirm the ancient setting but the
predominantly occidental cast make no effort to hide the fact that their
names are Guadamuz, MacDonald, Porter and McCormick as well as Twanmo,
Tuazon, Nassri and Khalsa. The performance style is both rigidly formal and
freely energetic, a mix that is difficult to accomplish but which Baker's
cast achieves quite well.
That cast includes a believable pair of
ladies in waiting, Nelina Giridhar and Jai Khalsa and a youthful and likable
pair of suitors, Cesar A. Guadamuz and Patrick Bussink. The real strength of
the cast, however, is in the more imposing roles. Rehaleh Nassri is striking
as the Empress and Scott McCormick is nearly overwhelmingly in control as
the "Warden of the Ladies in Waiting." Al Twanmo is a marvelously strong
presence as the Lord Shigemori but that strength works later in the play to
the detriment of the production when he has to double up and play a masked
subordinate, drawing an unfortunate laugh from the audience with a single
line that would have passed unnoticed had it been delivered by someone less
identifiable.
Thank goodness the theater includes a chart
of the relationships of the characters. Without it the audience would expend
a great deal of its energy trying to figure out just what Morotaka, has to
do with Genjo the Executioner or how Yoshitsugu and Moritsugu are related
and what that has to do with Katsuyori, the Priest, and Takiguchi the
samurai. With it, and the assist provided by Debra Kim Sivigny's wardrobe of
kimono-like costumes in which the level of sumptuousness indicates the
social level of the character, that energy is spent on the traits of the
characters, the plot and the fascinating values embodied by the etiquette of
the court. There is an interesting display
including a description of the game of poem cards which is important in the
second act of the play, but you needn't read it before the show.
Intermission will be time enough to learn about this part of the traditions
incorporated in the play.
Written by Peter Oswald. Based on the play by
Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Directed by Randy Baker. Fight Choreography by Casey
Kaleba. Design: Nathaniel John Sebastian Sinnott (set) Debra Kim Sivigny
(costumes) Justin Thomas (lights) Matthew Frederick (sound) Lindsey Ruehl
(stage manager). Cast: Patrick Bussink, Nelina Giridhar, Gwen Grastorf,
Cesar A. Guadamuz, Jai Khalsa, John-Michael MacDonald, Scott McCormick, Paul McLane, Rahaleh Nassri, Ghillian Porter, Yasmin Tuazon, Al Twanmo.
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October 19 - December 10,
2005
The Beard of
Avon |
Reviewed October 27
Running time 2:40 - one intermission
t
A Potomac Stages Pick for an imaginative romp through the world of Shakespeare
Winner of the
Ushers' Favorite Show Award for November 2005 |
"What if" plays can be so much fun! Here's one that plays around with a
question that has fascinated the theater community for so many years: could
Shakespeare really have written all 37 of those plays and, if not, who did?
Playwright Amy Freed doesn't approach the question as a subject for
sophisticated analysis. Instead, she plays with the topic with impudence to
create a highly entertaining diversion. She probably isn't serious in her
answer to the question, either. In this version, although there is a principal font,
practically everyone wrote one or two of them. However, she raises serious
questions about the creative process and the role of fame in getting your
writing produced. Most of all, however, she is serious about using the
concept to create fine dramatic comedy.
Storyline: In Elizabethan England young Will Shakspere
(pronounced shaq - spar) has become stage struck. He leaves his wife, Anne
Hathaway, in their small town of Avon and heads for London, the big city
with a thriving theater community. Theater is, of course, a disreputable
activity, but its allure extends not only to young bumpkins like Shakspere
but to members of the elite of court society, many of whom have written at
least one play. They want to see their works performed but have to avoid the
stigma. What to do? Get young Will to put his name on their works!
Freed creates three really vibrant characters in her
script - Shakspere, Anne Hathaway and Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford - her
candidate for most of the authorship. Indeed, she pulls in more than a few
of the points used by those who argue that de Vere wrote many of the plays
now known as Shakespearean. Those arguments are summarized nicely in
dramaturg Cam Magee's notes in the program which are worth reading twice -
once before you watch the play so you can recognize some of the references,
and again afterwards as you contemplate what you have just seen.
Grady Weatherford makes a marvelous bard-as-bumpkin,
both because of a physical resemblance (he even shaved back his hairline and
grew out the remainder to look like the image we
know from prints) and because of his bumbling but believable comedy. He
gradually takes his character from stage-struck neophyte to an experienced,
slightly wiser member of the theater community. Valerie Fenton carries off her
role as his wife with increasing gusto as she
joins him in London. (She laments that she wasn't born a man so she could
have grown up to be an actress in that age when women weren't allowed on the
stage.) Eric Singdahlson gives de Vere a dignity beneath the
surface of his courtly pomposity and a bit of pathos that ends up very
touching. Scott McCormick makes a marvelously booming Lord Burleigh and
Wendy Wilmer dominates the space as she should as Queen Elizabeth. It turns
out that the Queen has also been bitten by the play writing bug - she's
produced "Taming Of A Shrew" and will hear none of Shakespeare's suggested
improvements, including the change of title to "Taming of The Shrew."
Rorschach has a habit of using the space at
what is now called "The Sanctuary Theater" at the Casa Del Pueblo Methodist
Church in ways that match the needs of each play. For
Master and Margarita they
filled the theater with sets and had the audience swivel their attention
from right to left. For Lord of the
Flies the high ceiling allowed a set that had the cast clambering up
ever higher. For this visit to the theatrical world of Shakespeare's time,
the audience surrounds the playing space on three sides on two-level seating
structures that give the feel of an intimate experience at a small Globe
theater. It is a good way to enter the world that so captivated this bard.
That feeling of being transported back four hundred years is further
reinforced by by Jenn Miller's fine costumes that recreate some of the
sumptuousness of both theatrical and courtly circles of the time.
Written by Amy Freed. Directed by Jessica
Burgess. Original music by Jesse Terrill. Fight choreography by Chris
Niebling. Design: David C. Ghatan (set and lights) Jenn Miller (costumes)
Elizabeth Baldwin (properties and set dressing) Gabrielle Vincent (wigs and
makeup) Matthew Frederick (sound) Andrew Griffin (photography) Ellen
Houseknecht (stage manager). Cast: Austin Bragg, Patrick Bussink, Valerie
Fenton, Andrew Jessop, Scott McCormick, Eric Singdahlsen, Brent Stansell,
Grady Weatherford, Wendy Wilmer. |
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May 26 - June 26, 2005
Behold! |
Reviewed May 31
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
A bizarre comic journey |
Rorschach has supported the development of this new play
from a short piece receiving a staged reading through this world premiere
featuring a cast of young performers who put a great deal of energy and
intensity into their rather bizarre characters. A journey play, the piece is
a comic take on an epic journey, this one undertaken by a strange assortment
of characters whose only apparent connection is the trip itself. Under the
sharp direction of Randy Baker, it isn't always clear what is going on -
indeed, that may be part of the message of the play - but it is always
intriguing and frequently entertaining. Baker moves his forces about an
ever-changing landscape using the stage, a central playing space, multiple
small set pieces scattered throughout the theater and even moves the
audience seating area between acts to keep things from settling down.
Storyline: Nearly a dozen people from as many different walks
of life are caught up in the search for a missing box which is supposed to
contain some secret of great importance. Each journeys in search of the box
along a highway with many stops, from the American southwest to Baja
California.
Playwright James Hesla plays with the concept of myth
and with specific legends throughout his weird and wacky assembly of strange
scenes. Each of the pieces are intriguing and many of the incidents
entertaining, which is not to say that they add up to a satisfying
whole. It is never really clear how the individual stories connect or even
what the entire evening is about. Still, the elements are amusing and
engaging enough to carry the audience along to the next event. Eventually,
you stop looking for a central thread and simply sit back and enjoy the
ride.
Most of the cast are familiar to local theater goers,
each known for sharp characterizations and high energy performances. Tim
Getman returns to the region to lead the journey as a slick-talking barker,
Liz Chomko is a bemused waitress, Grady Weatherford creates another of his
off-kilter characters in the person of a spaced out drycleaner who probably
is influenced by the fumes in his shop, while Hugh T. Owen joins up with
company newcomer Shane Wallis as a pair of hotel attendants constantly
pulling on a bottle of tequila, with predictable results. Cecil E. Baldwin
is consistently intriguing as a radio talk show host who seems to be setting
the stage of the story. Most fun, however, are Andy Brownstein and Jenny
Morris, who are also new to the company, and who team up as a couple on
vacation, apparently from Minnesota to judge by their accents, who go from
beach to beach sending out messages in bottles.
Rorschach has a tradition of non-traditional set
design in the unique space they use in what is now called "The Sanctuary
Theatre" in the Casa Del Pueblo Methodist Church in Columbia Heights. They
previously have had the playing space tower above the audience, spread out at either
end or progress from location to location along the long wall. Sarah
Nelson's scenic design for this journey play stretches a black surfaced
highway through the center of the room flanking it with small set pieces
which presents a challenge for lighting designer Raquel Davis. She does a
great job of giving each scene a theatrical feel of its own.
Written by James Hesla. Directed by Randy Baker.
Design: Sarah Nelson (set) Yvette M. Ryan (costumes) Debra Kim Sivigny
(properties) Raquel Davis (lights) Matthew Frederick (sound) Chris Mataloni
(photography) Debbi Arseneaux (stage manager). Cast: Cecil E. Baldwin,
Andrew Brownstein, Elizabeth Chomko, Tim Getman, Jason Linkins, Hugh T.
Owen, Jenny Morris, Kerri Rambow, Shane Wallis, Grady Weatherford.
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February 9 - March 12,
2005
The Scarlet
Letter |
Reviewed February 12
Running time 2:05 - one intermission
General admission seating
Click here to buy the novel |
Playwright Phyllis Nagy's 1994 stage adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's
1850 novel is a good match for Rorschach's highly visual, psychologically
complex and dramatically compelling style. No simple excerpts from the
original's dialogue with stage blocking to fill in for the narration, the
play is highly theatrical using such unusual approaches as having the
daughter who was conceived in the adulterous past played by an adult
actress. Rorschach embraces the theatricality of the approach with its usual
flair for set, costume and lighting design and performances of intelligence
and style. It is still the story you may have had to read in school, but it
has a richness and a flair that you certainly never got from the cliff notes
you read before test day.
Storyline: A tale of passion, pride and revenge set in colonial Boston where
the aftermath of adultery involving Hester Prynne and the minister Arthur
Dimmesdale wreaks havoc on their lives and those of Roger Chillingworth.
Rahaleh Nassri makes a compelling Hester,
wearing her letter with the pride of a seamstress who fabricates a fashion
statement which makes clear that she can take whatever the world throws at
her and still live her life the way she believes she should. James O. Dunn
III makes the greatest transition of the evening as the Reverend Dimmesdale
whose guilt eats away at his pride, his soul and even his flesh.
The two characters surrounding the
relationship between Hester and the minister fuel the play's uniqueness.
Elizabeth Chomko and Scott McCormick do them with memorable relish. Chomko is the daughter of the union, the girl-child Pearl. Her role is
written to be performed by an adult and is given decidedly mature
observations which Chomko delivers with a sort of native innocence that
works well. McCormick is the much more mysterious quantity, playing the
revenge-driven wronged husband with a hint of supernatural power.
Rorschach continues to find ways to create
theatrical environments in the cavernous hall on Columbia Road. With a
graveyard feeling a bit like a cock-pit surrounded by the low-rise skyline
of Colonial Boston and a woods created out of streamers with a gothic
feeling, the environment is impressive. Only the use of contemporary music
at the climax seems to stretch just a bit too far. Be aware, the hall is unheated, so it
is wise to dress warmly during this February/March run.
Written by Phyllis Nagy. Adapted from the
novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick. Design:
Eric Grims (set) Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes) David C. Ghatan (lights)
Matthew Frederick (sound) Paul Schuster (photos) Elizabeth Welke (stage
manager). Cast: Elizabeth Chomko, James O. Dunn III, Jason Basinger Linkins,
Celia Madeoy, Scott McCormick, Paul McLane, Rahaleh Nassri. |
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September 7 -
October 3, 2004
A Tale of a Tiger |
Reviewed September 10
Running time 2:05 - one intermission |
Too much of a cute thing can cancel out the charm and turn a pleasant
diversion into an annoying imposition. Dario Fo's one-act piece has enough
material for a talented performer to carry a willing audience through a
pleasant hour. However, it takes about an hour and a half to perform which
is too long by half. This performance features the very talented
Ami Dayan, who makes about as much as can be made of the material, but then,
in an exercise in indulgence, he announces that after a brief intermission
there will be more. The "more" is the original ending of the piece performed
with an explanation for the ending that was performed before intermission.
Had Dayan selected one version and stuck with it, the one and a half hour
mixed bag wouldn't have been turned into a two hour drag.
Storyline: A soldier in the Red Army in the
Long March in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek's forces in the 1930s is wounded
and left behind by his colleagues, only to be taken in and nursed back to
health by a tiger and her cub. They develop a relationship based on mutual
assistance and eventually the soldier returns to human settlements taking
the tiger and her cub with him. The soldier shares the curative power of the
tiger's saliva with other humans, earning a reputation as a great healer.
Dario Fo won the Nobel Prize in 1997 for
"(emulating) the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and
upholding the dignity of the downtrodden." His work is unique, his voice
distinctive and his style a sort of modern take on the absurdism of the
1940s and 50s and the unconventional dramatic forms for which Rorschach
Theatre seems to have such an affinity. He's best known for his 1970 play,
Accidental Death of an Anarchist which Rorschach will be performing
later this fall.
A Tale of a Tiger was written in 1979
and Ami Dayan, a Denver-based actor/director, performed it in Israel in
1994. In his after-intermission presentation, Dayan explains the way in
which he first became involved with the piece, how he found the original
ending inappropriate for performance in Israel at the time, and how, with the
approval of Fo, he devised an alternate ending. Whichever ending he is
working with, Dayan establishes a direct connection with his audience,
speaking with individuals, asking for responses and even welcoming the late
arrivals in a conversational manner.
In this piece, Dayan gets a chance to display
strong skills in pure storytelling. It is a solo-performer piece and he
performs it in an engaging, humorous and very likable manner having more to
do with story-theater where the performer or performers relate the events
more with illustrative acting out than with narrative dramatic theater where
performers become the characters. He never abandons the persona of narrator
telling the story in the first person with the soldier as storyteller. He
impersonates the tiger and the cub but never attempts to convince the
audience that he is a tiger, only that he is the soldier
demonstrating what the tiger or cub did in a specific moment.
Written by Dario Fo. Directed and performed
by Ami Dayan. Choreographed by Robert Davidson. Music composed by Ran Bagno.
Design: Miki Ben-Cnaan (set and costumes) Justin Thomas (lights) Sharon King
(stage manager). |
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January 8 - February 7, 2004
After the Flood |
Reviewed January 17
Running time 2 hours 35 minutes |
The combining of a modern coming of age story in the contemporary American
theatrical tradition with the ancient art of Malaysian shadow puppetry is an
intriguing concept for a play. Certainly it intrigued Randy Baker,
co-artistic director of Rorschach who grew up in Malaysia. The premiere of
his play provides plenty of pleasures for the eye and some interesting
situations, although overall it is more diverting than captivating.
Storyline: A young American is traveling through Malaysia researching a
graduate thesis on the shadow puppetry art form Wayang Kulit. He
concentrates on attempting to locate a dalang, the master puppeteer of the
art, but it just may be that there are no masters left and that the art form
is in danger of extinction. As his search takes him away from Kuala Lampur
(“KL”) and out into the countryside, episodes from a Wayang Kulit production
play out on the large screens built into the set and parallels are drawn
between the Hindu epic of that production and the young man’s search for
beauty and truth.
Some
stories cry out to be told through unorthodox theatrical means. Then there
are stories that seem more manufactured in order to be told through these
techniques. This is one of those where the medium is more important than the
message. There may not be two compelling stories being intertwined through
the combination of puppetry and live action, but there is variety enough to
carry the audience along for the evening and, the entire package is unlike
anything you have seen before.
The
six live action players include Jason Lott as the searching student, Anne
Bowles as an American co-ed who is also in South East Asia but who isn’t
quite as fascinated with the student’s quest as she is with him, and Frank
Britton as a source of assistance in the search. Lott does a nice job of
being earnest and reverent when considering the endangered art form but
flippant and irreverent in his college student-like attitude toward the
establishment and the government of Malaysia. Britton and Franklin Dam in
four different roles, create the local atmosphere with an agreeable sense of
bemusement.
The
“Shadow World” shown on the screens is the work of seven puppet
manipulators, three of whom are also in the live action scenes including
Frank Britton who, as a shadow puppeteer, is also a source of assistance in
the search that is ongoing in the play-within-a-play. Four screens are
integrated into Matthew Soule’s interesting set design. The screens not only
serve as the “Shadow World,” they provide some effects for the live action
portion.
Written by Randy Baker.
Directed by Jeremy Skidmore and James D. Hart. Design: Matthew Soule (set)
Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes) Debra Kim Sivigny, James D. Hart, Frank
Labovitz (puppet development) John Burkland (lights) David McKeever (sound
and music) James D. Hart (photography) Jordan Sudermann (stage manager).
Cast: Anne Bowles, Frank Britton, Franklin Dam, Jennifer Knight, Jason Lott,
Paul MacWorter, Scott McCormick, Joshua Skidmore, Meg Taintor, Al Twanmo. |
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July 30 – August 30, 2003
Master and Margarita |
Reviewed August 2
Running time 2 hours 25 minutes |
What
an ambitious undertaking! This 23 scene adaptation of the sprawling novel by
Mikhail Bulgakov involves over 50 characters in over a dozen locations as it
tries to cover events in Moscow in the 1930s, Jerusalem in the 0030s and
various environs in the mind of a novelist confined in an insane asylum.
Rorschach Theatre, which seems to thrive on challenges, uses a cast of
eleven and an impressively inventive scenic design to create a rich, if
uneven, précis of this surreal three-level story.
Storyline: The Devil journeys to Moscow at the height of the Stalinist era
to host his annual ball in a city that is “neither Heaven nor Hell.” For his
Queen of the Ball, he picks Margarita who is in love with “The Master,” a
writer who was working on a novel about the torment of Pontius Pilot but who
has been shut up in an insane asylum. The Devil and his colleagues, a
vampire and a talking cat, grant her a wish as a reward for her service as
Queen of the Ball. When she uses it to help a stranger, they grant another
wish which she uses to free her lover.
The
real stars of this production are David Ghatan and Justine Light, credited
for the design of the theater-filling set, with its dozen-plus playing
spaces that accommodate this story which spans geographic and mental
boundaries and millennia. The script switches between these settings with
near-cinematic timing and their set, with its hidden rooms behind a central
panel and separate locations to stage right and stage left, allows the
production to cover the territory in a mere two and a half hours.
The
surprising thing is that director Jenny McConnell fails to take full
advantage of the ability of the set to switch nearly instantaneously from
one scene or time to another. The script seems to call for quick cuts
between Jerusalem in 30 AD, Moscow in the 1930s or the demented mind of “the
master” and yet the transitions between scenes are no briefer than they
would be if stagehands had to switch scenery in the dark.
There
are a number of striking performances. Tim Getman’s Devil is a stylishly
demented demon in shocking red hair. He’s accompanied by Grady Weatherford
whose interpretation of a talking black cat gets more interesting as the
evening progresses. Chris Davenport is a standout as Pontius Pilot weighed
down with premonitions of doom. Lindsay Allen and Scott Graham are a fine
matched pair as the Master and Margarita of the title, although Allen has to
perform in some very distracting wigs.
Written by Jean-Claude
van Itallie based on a translation by Sergei Kobiakoff of the novel by
Mikhail Bulgakov. Directed by Jenny McConnell. Design: David G. Ghatan and
Justine Light (set) Justine Light (costume) Alex Cooper (lights) Matthew
Frederick (sound) Jordan Sudermann (stage manager). Cast: Lindsay Allen,
Chris Davenport, Melissa-Leigh Douglass, Tim Getman, Scott Graham, John
Horn, Jason Linkins, Scott McCormick, Melissa Schwartz, Mark Sullivan,
Grady Weatherford. |
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April 9 – May 10, 2003
Family Stories:
A Slapstick
Tragedy |
Reviewed April 19
Running time 1 hour 55 minutes |
A Slapstick Tragedy? You may rightly ask: “Well, which is
it?” Definitely a tragedy! Oh, there are lots of times when you laugh, but
the laughs come from the same spot in your soul that harbors embarrassment
and unease, not the place of happiness and giddiness that supplies the
pleasure of laughter. This is a searing experience of the horrors of war as
seen through the eyes of children and there is nothing funny about that.
Storyline: Four children in the rubble of Belgrade during the NATO bombings
of 1999 act out their fears (they seem already stripped of any hopes) by
assuming the identity of the grownups of their world and acting out their
experiences. The experiences aren’t pleasant and neither are the
make-believe recreations. Each experience ends in a different death.
To
heighten the already sky high sense of theatricality, the four member cast
are adults portraying children portraying adults. The adults the children
are playing are the only ones they know well, the only ones who matter in
their world – their parents. Their view of what parents are like and
therefore what adults are like is as disturbing as the cause of the rubble
that is their playground. Man’s inhumanity to man begins with parental misparenting, whether caused by the pressures of external events or faults
within the family. The parents of these kids, as seen through the eyes of
the kids, are as injurious to their children as is the war. At one point the
child playing the father has him say of his own son “I made him, I can kill
him.” So much for nurturing.
Director Grady Weatherford has staged this manic piece with a burst of
energy, kicked off in a very dramatic way with the overflight of a NATO
airplane dropping leaflets in the war zone. His cast keeps that energy level
high throughout the evening. Maggie Glauber and Mark Sullivan get the
concept of kids playing parents across clearly and Sarah Painter is
impressive as the playmate who hides emotionally in her own game of being a
dog. The most impressive performance comes from Andrew Price as the boy
playing the son. While the other three seem to retain some semblance of
their adulthood while playing a child, Price becomes a confused, frightened
child.
It
all takes place on a dramatically effective set constructed of platforms,
detritus, corrugated metal sheets, concertina wire and the side of a
building that could be the home or apartment house where these children
live. Matt Soule’s design turns the former sanctuary of the church into a
believable war zone with the aid of an effective soundscape from Mark K.
Anduss and sharp lighting by David C. Ghatan. Denise Umland’s costumes are
sufficiently generic that the place could be the war zone in Belgrade or one
just around the corner. It helps bring it home.
Written by Biljana
Srbljanovic. Translated by Rebecca Anne Rugg. Directed by Grady Weatherford.
Design: Matt Soule (set) Denise Umland (costumes) Suzen Mason (props) David
C. Ghatan (lights) Mark K. Anduss (sound) Derrick Jones (stage manager).
Cast:Maggie Glauber, Sara Painter, Andrew Price, Mark Sullivan.
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October 9 -
November 9, 2002
Ubu Roi |
Reviewed October 12
Running time 2 hours 10 minutes
Price range $12 – $15
Playing at the Calvary Methodist Church
1459 Columbia Road NW |
Director Kathleen Akerley seems to find historical and artistic importance
in this 1896 piece by an otherwise obscure eccentric Parisian. She lavishes
detail and discipline on its incredibly slight frame. The cast of six young
performers bring both talent and energy to the project. The production draws
inspiration from everything from 17th Century Commedia Dell’Arte
to 20th Century Monty Python. Yet it is a case of very much ado
about nearly nothing as the original piece hasn’t the content required for
one-act yet was structured over five acts and an epilogue. Akerley and
company take it as serious comedy and present it as a two-act farce.
Storyline: A man of no particular distinction decides to kill the King, and
assume his throne. It seems to go so well that he decides to kill a lot of
others to take their treasures.
The original had no pretense that the storyline was either complex or
important. It wasn’t either allegory or parable and it barely qualified as a
story. In Akerley’s treatment of Barbara Wright’s translation, which dates
from the 1950s and 60s, it is the excuse for a high-energy display of
foolishness. At times, the gags seem endlessly inventive but at others they
seem simply endless, especially as the second act gets underway and lasts
longer than the first one with no new idea or story to tell.
The energy of the cast is impressive. Dan Via is the nonsensical in the
title role. He maintains an innocence throughout while giving in to
atrocious impulses including a combination of murder and gluttony which
could be revoltingly suggestive of cannibalism if it came anywhere close to
its logical conclusions. But, aided by Michele Reisch’s ingenious costuming,
turns into just one long fart joke.
Scott McCormick takes on the role of the wife in drag while supporting
cast members all cavort at top speed, rarely pausing as the sight gags and
puns, references to popular culture and theatrical in jokes pile up. Most
impressive of the bunch is Jason Lott’s ability to create multiple
individual characterizations. He benefits from the fact that a couple of
those characterizations are impersonations of known people. He does a pretty
fair impression of Ronald Reagan and his Bill Clinton isn’t too far off the
mark.
Written by Alfred Jarry. Translated by Barbara Wright. Directed by
Kathleen Akerley. Design: David C. Ghatan, Beth Baldwin and Debra Kim
Sivigny (set) Michele Reisch (costumes) Jason A. Arnold (lights) Jesse
Terrill (music) Matthew Frederick (sound). Cast: Dan Via, Scott McCormick,
Jason Lott, James Denvil, Jason Styles, Michael John Casey. |
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June12 - July 13, 2002
A Clearing In The Woods |
Reviewed June 20
Running time 1 hour 50 minutes
Playing at the Calvary Methodist Church
on Columbia Road NW |
When the story of the author of a play is more interesting than the story of
the play, you have a bit of a problem. If A Clearing in the Woods
hadn’t been written by the same person who wrote The Time of the Cuckoo,
and the books for West Side Story and Gypsy (not to mention
winning a Tony for Hallelujah, Baby!) it would probably receive fewer
productions than it does – and it doesn’t get very many. Of Arthur Laurents’
rarely produced titles, Home of the Brave offers more dramatic
interest. But something in the text of this play seems to have called to the
people at Rorschach, especially Jenny McConnell who directs this honest,
straightforward and relatively uncomplicated production.Storyline: A
young woman flees from modern life into the titular clearing, a safe haven
from the urban nightmare that has her on the verge of a breakdown. Just what
the nightmare might be, personal or societal, isn’t at issue. In the
clearing (the middle of New York’s Central Park?) she meets and interacts
with herself at various stages of life and with the men who were important
to her at each stage. Her selves accuse her of not caring about them and she
slowly learns that they are right. But as she learns more about them and
re-considers the relationships they (she) had with the men in their (her)
life she comes to like them and, in the process, herself.
Rorschach can be counted on to deliver earnest presentations of
intellectually challenging material and this production is no exception. A
solid cast of young performers play each of the various selves and partners
as if they were central characters, not as smaller character parts. The
script doesn’t provide much in the way of "back stories" for these people –
indeed, for some the "back story" is the story of the others. But the actors
and McConnell may have filled in whatever it took to make the flat
characters of the page appear to be fully formed people on the stage.
Lindsay Allen, an artistic partner at Rorschach, is very good as the
young woman as she slowly comes to understand just who these people are. The
audience’s realization really comes from her own. The women in the
supporting cast include an intriguing newcomer to Rorschach, Alia Faith
Williams, while Rorschach returnees Jessi Burgess of JB and Maggie
Glauber, Jason Stiles, Adam Jurotich and Hugh Owen who were all notable in
Lord of the Flies make substantial contributions.
McConnell, with the help of set designer Matt Soule, puts the characters
in the center of the hall, surrounded by a single row of audience seats.
There are only three set pieces and they are each just segments of the trunk
of a tree that has been chain sawed down. The space is made theatrically
interesting through Marianne Meadows’ dramatic light shifts. There is little
here to distract from the main point of the evening – what will the young
woman learn from her visions? Will she be stronger, better and healthier for
the experience or will she go over the edge and break down entirely? Allen
plays the final moment with a surety that answers the question, and it is
that resolution more than the elongated meanderings of the preceding hour or
so that makes the evening feel substantial.
Written by Arthur Laurents. Directed by Jenny McConnell. Design: Matt
Soule (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Marianne Meadows (lights) Dave
McKeever (composer/sound). Cast: Lindsay Allen, Alia Faith Williams, Jessi
Burgess, Maggie Glauber, Adam Jurotich, Hugh Owen, Angela Cerkevich, John
Brady, Jason Stiles, Michael John Casey. |
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March 13 - April 13, 2002
Lord of the Flies |
Reviewed March 28
Running time 2 hours |
Rorschach, as is their want, offers a strong
performance of a strong play in a unique location and they put that location
to good use. They built the towering platform set designed by Matt Soule in
the old (1905) sanctuary of Calvary Methodist Church in the Columbia Heights
section of Washington. This is actually Washington’s second staging of Lord
of the Flies in a church sanctuary in a little over a year. The St. Mark’s
Players did the piece in their lovely 1890s church on Capitol Hill in
November of 2000. There is something resonant in staging a play that deals
with the darkest side of human nature in a space built to stimulate the
better instincts in our souls.Storyline: Nigel Williams’ stage
adaptation is faithful to William Golding’s 1954 novel that sets a dozen
children alone and unsupervised after an airplane crash on a lush tropical
island that has all the necessities of life. It was something of a literary
psychological experiment to see how mankind would function shorn of the
controls of civilization. Golding’s conclusion was that they would function
very poorly, indeed.
Rorschach’s Grady Weatherford directs this, his first show for the group.
He keeps the action fast and furious and the volume level high in the echoey
space, creating a sense of excitement as the always fascinating if not
always pleasant events of the story play out. A key image in the book which
was carried over into the play was the struggle between the two factions of
boys for the high ground – the hill or mountain which one group sees as the
proper place for a fire to signal for a rescue while the other group values
for its prominence as a symbol of their dominance over anyone who won't join
them. Soule’s set takes full advantage of the height of the sanctuary,
providing multiple levels of platforms to be climbed, fought over, protected
and ultimately dismantled while the boys at the top cast shadows on the
white washed walls.
Casting a play about youngsters is always a difficult task and some
liberties are usually taken with regard to actual ages. Weatherford cleverly
uses the age disparities among the cast to emphasize the struggle for
leadership among the boys, casting the older and more experienced actors in
the leadership parts and using the smaller youngsters (male or female) in
the follower roles. This places the key roles of the leaders of the two
factions on the capable and better developed shoulders of Hugh T. Owen and
Adam Jurotich and they spar marvelously. In many plays, the key characters
advance through multiple stages of development. In Lord of the Flies, the
two leaders have to regress through multiple stages of disintegration. Both
do that well.
The strongest performance, however, comes in the pivotal role of the
unfortunately chubby and nearsighted boy "Piggy." While everyone else on the
island is reacting to their environment, he is reacting to them. His
commentary on their actions gives the author’s view of what is really
happening. That view is distinctly pessimistic but this production is true
to its source and is marvelously dramatic.
Adapted from William Golding’s novel by Nigel Williams. Directed by
Grady Weatherford. Design: Matthew Soule (set) Adam Magazine (lights) Ivania
Stack (costume) Brian Keating (sound.) Cast: Hugh T. Owen, Jason W. Gerace,
Adam Jurotich, Jason Stiles, Karl Miller, Maggie Glauber, Evan Casey, Sean
Robinson, Wyatt Fenner, Meredith A. Kiffer. |
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September 15 – October 13, 2001
J.B. |
Reviewed September 21 |
Archibald MacLeish’s verse version of the Book of Job in a theatrical
setting won a Pulitzer Prize in the 1950’s and the play was a success on
Broadway as well as a national tour. Since then, however, it seems to have
been put on the shelf to be studied in bound volumes but seldom actually
performed before audiences by live actors. Pity.
Storyline: A down on their luck pair of circus vendors with pretensions as
great actors chose to perform the story of Job. Donning masks they proceed
to deprive a happy, successful and devoutly thankful businessman of
everything he values in order to test his devotion to God. No matter how
they torment him, his devotion holds and, so, he is healed.
Rorschach has built a reputation for staging serious works
in unconventional spaces and this production is no exception. Playing in the
empty and decaying former auditorium of the school now being renovated as
the Millennium Arts Center in Southwest Washington, the production takes on
atmosphere from the ambiance.
Extremely well acted and utilizing all the potential of
the cavernous space of the hall, the production could have revealed a major
work in all its glory. Instead, it seems to highlight its pretentiousness
and the futility of devotion to a supreme being who would wreak such damage
on a worshiper simply as an experiment.
MacLeish’s language is lofty and his plotting is skillful
but it comes across as a great deal of talent devoted to a faulty project. |
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