Walking the Tightrope / by Mike Kenney
24th Street Theatre
Keith Mitchell’s multipurpose set, using the bare bones construction
of the old Carriage House that has housed the 24th Street Theatre
for fifteen years at once finds references in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and the perennial classic, The Fantastiks.
In his curtain speech producer Jay McAdams brings us up to
date with the continuing neighborhood involvement of the theatre company and
lets us in on a secret. Playwright
Mike Kenny has written dialogue for his three character piece, Walking the
Tightrope, but has provided nothing in the way of where or when the play takes
place. No stage directions. This
challenge brings director Debbie Devine to set the show in the late fifties in
rural England by the sea, by the sea.
The lights go down. The lights come up and we meet an
apprehensive clown, Tony Duran, a visiting actor from Mexico, who with baggy
pants, an oversized red nose and a bewildered expression, leaps onto the stage
from a swing. He regards the audience while holding a loose limbed child’s
doll. The toy vibrates from the
clown’s touch. From fear? From
anticipation? From anxiety based on the emergence into an unfamiliar realm? It is not clear. The latter may be the cause, though it
is never fully revealed.
The lights go down. The lights come up and here stands
Granddad Stan (Mark Bramhall) who regards the audience and tells the story of
how Esme (Paige Lindsey White) first came to visit Granddad and Nanna in her
mommy’s tummy, and later when she was a babe in arms and so on until we learn
that this will be her first visit, now at the age of seven, on her own. Ms White, clearly an adult, emulates the
physical movements of a child and explodes with enthusiasm from time to time,
all the while asking about where her Nanna is. Meanwhile, the clown observes at a distant closeness. Esme
wants to see her Nanna and Granddad tells her that Nanna has joined the
circus. Gone away with the Circus.
Through a wonderful intertwining of multiple purpose
locations, projections and perfect original on stage musical accompaniment by
the versatile and talented Michael Redfield, the story rolls on to reveal that Nanna
may now be observed high, high up on a tightrope delineated by a pink
umbrella. All of the projections
on draped back drops and even on the ceiling with video design by Matthew Hill are superb!
Devine’s direction seems a bit loose now and then with characters somewhat on
their own from time to time, but the gentle story of a sad old granddad who
certainly loves his little Esme is a nice one. The silent clown may represent the spirit of Nanna. Like the mime in The Fantastiks, he acts
as a koken who facilitates props and actions as the story unfolds.
Under the umbrella of 24th Street’s LAb24, a new
experimental wing of the main producing company, Walking the Tightrope is
billed as a play for children. The
content discusses personal loss in a gentle way and deserves an audience. The crew of very young theatre associates
acting as hosts and hostesses shows that this special company’s main goal is to
involve their local community as well as the world community, especially in Spanish speaking
countries.
WALKING THE TIGHTROPE
by Mike Kenny
24th Street Theatre
1117 West 24th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90007
Performances Saturday and Sundays @ 2:30 and 7:30PM
January 26 through March 30, 2013
Tickets:
Adults: $15
Under 16: $10
Seniors, Students and Teachers: $12
North University Park Residents: $.24 (note the decimal)
(213) 745 6516
www.24thstreet.org