YEAR OF THE RABBIT
Gates McFadden’s Ensemble Studio
Theatre L.A.’s new season kicks off with professional actors in a beautifully
designed set by Hana S. Kim with mixed results. Playwright Keliher Walsh’s
script is a heavy polemic that approaches wars past and present in a very
personal way. Reminiscent of Megan
Terry’s 1966 condemnation of the Viet Nam War, VIET ROCK, Welsh employs transformational characters, the stand out
of whom is Elyse Dinh, playing many, including Lieu, a Vietnamese survivor of that
war. This is the ever shifting
story of love under pressure both in 1960’s Vietnam and Afghanistan, 2012.
Terry’s play was facilitated by the cast as an ever changing ensemble, all in
pretty much the same costumes, creating multiple characters on a bare stage: an
open space. Year of the Rabbit is more specific with props, costumes and
platforms. A fine use of projections and the well executed lighting of Pablo
Santiago keep the action well centered.
Navy
pilots, Lt. Brice Skinner (Will McFadden) and Lt. Kara Bridges (Ashanti Brown)
are Navy pilots: flying partners and somewhat reluctant lovers as they carry out assignments
to bomb ‘legitimate’ targets in the current war in Afghanistan. The use of navy lingo, especially in
regard to the scattering of human beings during an air strike is shocking.
Meschach
Taylor shines as Vietnam War Vet J.C. Bridges, who, it turns out has a vested
interest in both Lieu and Kara. In
a random scene at a pharmacy, Allie Skinner (playwright Walsh) has a run-in
with Bridges in what later becomes an ironic connection that only the audience
is privy to.
Allie
and Spence Skinner (Peter Mackenzie) are bereft at the loss of their Navy pilot
son. Walsh seems to be in a
slightly different play than the rest of the cast with occasional over the top
histrionics, but comes to earth in a final scene with Kara.
Running
at just ninety minutes, Year of the
Rabbit is an opportunity for the audience to compare the current US
involvement in a foreign war to the ravages of the war in Vietnam and how on a
personal level these conflicts touch individual human beings.
Director
James Eckhouse guides his cast well.
Artistic Director Gates McFadden hopes that this season’s provocative
choices will awaken audiences and
with Year of the Rabbit, questions may
arise as to why we have allowed war to become the ‘status quo.’
On
hand is a book of artwork by artist Luke Cheuh who has designed mailers for
both shows: (Rabbit and The Belle of Belfast, the next show to run in repertory) the new EST/LA openers.
It’s worth a look.
Year of the Rabbit
by Keliher Walsh
Ensemble
Studio Theatre Los Angeles
Atwater
Village Theater
3269
Casitas Avenue
Atwater
Village, CA 90039
(In
Repertory with The Belle of Belfast Opening October 6, 2012)
Through
October 28, 2012
Call
theater for dates and times
323
644 1929
Tickets:
$25.00