|
The fascination of this play comes from its subject matter, and the
playwright is wise enough to avoid excessive extraneous excursions into side
issues or theatrical gimmicks. Author Jonathan Graham takes an intriguing
concept and gives it a fairly straightforward telling marked by gentle
humor. The production, by a new theater company headed by Graham and his
wife Jennie Kiffmeyer, gives it a simple, no-nonsense presentation under
director Patricia Baer.
Storyline: An archaeologist at a small college in Illinois discovers a
skeleton which is determined to be over nine thousand years old but which is
definitely Caucasoid rather than the Native American stock thought to be the
only inhabitants of North America that long ago. Her discovery sparks
interest from the scientific community, the college administration, the
Federal Government, local Native American groups and even her boy friend who
turns out to have interests of his own. She, on the other hand, bonds with
the persona of the bones.
Graham’s text is clear and easy to follow, setting out the interests of the
parties almost too clearly -- they frequently seem single dimensional. The
character of the Federal Government official is so stereotypically officious
that Safiyyah Hakim has difficulty making the part human, and the device of
giving the boy friend a Native American heritage is a bit of a stretch. But
the story isn’t about characters, it is about the situation and its
implications. The characters are devices to explore the views of academia,
officialdom, history and interest groups. And the idea of giving form to the
man whose bones these were works very nicely because Graham avoids making it
either pretentious or mysterious.
The
key characters are actually the archaeologist played without affectation by
Amanda Warren and the man who comes down through the millennia, the man
whose bones she has discovered. As she studies them, she becomes intrigued
and then nearly obsessed with him. Such is her concentration that he comes
to life, at least in her mind. Matthew Gottlieb takes a part which could
have been a camp take-off on Boris Karloff and keeps it simple and honest.
He voices the interests of the past and raises interesting intellectual
questions without pretension.
Dino
P. Coppa is also a pleasure to watch as he makes the part of the spokesman
for academia, the archaeologist’s department chairman, a well rounded,
humorously human character rather than an icon.
Written by Jonathan
Graham. Directed by Patricia Baer. Design: Jennie Kiffmeyer (set and
properties) Patricia Baer (costumes and sound) Shannon Thomas Kennedy
(lights) Stephanie K. Patterson (photography) Beth Slepian (stage manager).
Cast: Dino P. Coppa, Matthew Gottlieb, Safiyyah Hakim, Jeff Hubbard, Amanda
Warren. |
