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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Escape to California / Grapes of Wrath



GRAPES OF WRATH at A Noise Within

Deborah Strang and Steve Coombs Photo by Craig Schwartz








 John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is an American Classic. Frank Galati's current adaptation of the novel is anything but.  Opening live music featuring songs of the Thirties by a talented string band though well performed, are almost like dirges. This is, perhaps, to set the tone of the Depression: the angst and anger that permeated Oklahoma farmers as they endured and were driven West by the Dust Bowl. 

Director Michael Michetti has his hands full.  With marginally adept actors and a ponderous script, he also has to battle the images most of us remember in John Ford’s beautiful 1940 film version of the novel with Henry Fonda as the hero, Tom Joad.  Of late, A Noise Within has had a penchant for making their audiences endure overly long productions and this one is no exception.  Had the lumbering set changes and monumental gaps as characters come and go been filled with energy, it might have been possible to come in in under two hours instead of the current two hours and forty minutes. Even a sad story needs the fundamental essence of good staging.  Energy.

Somewhere the pathos of the journey from the Dustbowl to California by the Joad Family became more about speeches and staging than sharing the deep feelings that Steinbeck created in his novel and Ford in his film.    Ford was known for his lean movie making and Steinbeck for his devotion to the poetry of his characters.  Had these qualities been achieved, with energy, the poetry of the piece may have had more success. 

Program notes reveal what many already knew, that the author had been assigned to write for a San Francisco paper about the incursion of ‘aliens’ from the east and the terrible conditions they endured as refugees from their farms in Oklahoma. Failed crops and foreclosures had literally driven these unfortunate folks from their homes. 

With our imaginations chock full of Ford’s excellent film and whatever we may remember from surfing Steinbeck’s gritty tome; seeing the characters in our own minds, makes Galati's and Michetti’s attempt a difficult one at best. This is an intimate story. Staging using Melissa Ficociello’s creative rolling wooden sets, including the on stage assembly of the jalopy that the Joads and their new friend, Jim Casey head west in itself is fine.  Elizabeth Harper’s lights with the questionable use of open flames on stage are adequate.  The flames were more of a distraction than an asset.

Thankfully, there are performances that must be appreciated.  Deborah Strang’s Ma Joad takes her cue from Dorothea Lange’s classic 1930s Migrant Mother photograph and it works. What Strang has learned and shares in her performance is that the  heart of the character is what matters most. Certainly, this is ‘acting’ but we see no indicating, simply the heart of a woman who has done her best to hold her family together under the worst of circumstances. 

Other successes in the cast include Matt Gottlieb’s portrayal of Jim Casey, the former preacher who, through leaving his ministry, has come to a deeper understanding of the Meaning of Life.  Gottlieb’s easy connection to the words brings gentle humor and a life ethic that traces its own thread through the piece.  Stand out Gary Ballard as Grandpa Joad enjoys a brief brush with levity.  An interesting stage move as the relatives bury the sadly departed Grandpa, points up the fact that eventually we are all just dust in the wind.

Steve Coombs as Tom Joad pretty much misses the mark.  Again, the sound of Fonda’s flat Midwestern voice is impossible to forget in the most well known speech in the novel and Ford’s film. “Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there...”  Tom, of course, is Everyman and Steinbeck’s desire to expose the issues of the working emigrants manifested in the Joad Family and the unbearable labor practices foisted on the less fortunate rings brilliantly in his words. 

Had the collaboration for the adaptation of Steinbeck’s novel been honed to a finer point with the pace and energy of the story allowed to unfold with passion, this would be a tribute to not only the Okies, but to Steinbeck himself.  I made a comment to my friend that somehow this production was just too careful.  The only dangerous moment in the show is the appearance of an ensemble member whom I can’t identify as a Bully/Tough who overcame the direction and brought the fear that the migrants must have faced each day to the production.  It was at once too much and much appreciated.

A Noise Within is dedicated to ‘the classics.’  With upcoming shows for the 2013 season, Eurydice and The Beaux’ Strategem, to play in repertory, we’ll hope for more energy and less caution.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH
From the novel by John Steinbeck
Adapted by Frank Galati

A Noise Within
3352 East Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107
Three plays in repertory through May 26, 2013
Tickets and information
626 356 3100
www.Anoisewithn.org

Monday, February 18, 2013

Frankie and Johnny Full Monty

 

Jessica Blair (Frankie) and Bert Rotundo (Johnny)
It’s difficult to think about Frankie and Johnny without hearing the words to the familiar folk song or to picture Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer in their film title roles.  Be that as it may, two brave actors have taken up the challenge, producing Terrence McNally’s original play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune for themselves. This is one of those theatre pieces that lives through its “to the bone” honesty; honesty’s frustrations and ultimately a romantic resolution.  It’s a vehicle for strong actors.  It’s a love story. It takes place in two acts where just one may have been enough. 



The playwright was well into his forties when the first production went up with Kathy Bates and F. Murray Abraham Off Off Broadway as the title characters. McNally’s ear for language and the human condition echoes in the two hander as brought to life at the Sidewalk Studio Theatre in Toluca Lake. 



Jessica Blair (Frankie) and Bert Rotundo (Johnny), while working in Sal Romeo’s  Acting Workshop at the Sidewalk Studio Theatre, began to develop their connection to McNally’s piece as an acting exercise.  Encouraged by Romeo, they expanded the scene study into a full production of the play.  In this tiny space, seeing unabashedly naked actors post coital after experiencing the coitus climaxticus (is that a word?) in the first few minutes of an opening scene that has the audience literally in the dark lets us know that certainly something is up!  Lights up reveal Frankie, a waitress and Johnny, a middle aged short order cook catching their breath after… well, you know. They have met at the diner where they both work, each having more or less settled after years of bouncing around in life.  Both from Allentown, PA with amazing coincidences that make Johnny think the miracle of love is blossoming right before his eyes leaves Frankie not being quite so sure.  In fact, Johnny’s insistence that Frankie is “The One!” creates dramatic tension that the actors come close to revealing.



First act evolves slowly while the second act picks up considerably.  “I didn’t ‘conk out’,”says Johnny, “I’m resting,” as an attempt at a second go ‘round fizzles.  “This has never happened to me before,” elicits knowing chuckles.  It’s all up hill and down from there as the two find their way through uncomfortable demands and expectations.



Director Franc Ross keeps things moving in natural beats with McNally’s dialogue carrying the piece through each character’s issues to the conclusion that Johnny has predicted in the first five minutes of the play. However, for two hours both characters come and go like karma chameleons.



Both Blair and Rotundo (who also produces) seem comfortable and comfortably uncomfortable in their skins, which we see a considerable lot of in the first act.  It seemed to me that the ease with which each actor handled being entirely naked on stage might have been more appropriate in 2013 than in 1987 when the story is set.  Frankie’s Girl Scout sash with merit badges on display might indicate a bit more modesty.  Of course, the essence of the story involves Johnny’s being totally in love with every aspect of Frankie’s being, especially as she changes from a modest robe to a black satin number.  Both actors are in tune with the play, really working most successfully in the second act.



Serviceable lights and set and by Maarten Cornelis and Erin Gunnette, respectively, work just fine.   



 Full disclosure: Producer/Director/Acting Coach Sal Romeo is an old theatre friend. He has been active teaching, producing and directing for many years at his tiny 34 seat Toluca Lake Sidewalk Studio Theatre.  His generosity (making this space available for small productions such as this one) and dedication to the spirit of live theatre is commendable.



Sal Romeo and Friends and Artists Present:



FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR de LUNE

By Terrance McNally

Sidewalk Studio Theatre

4150 Riverside Drive

Toluca Lake, CA  91505
Running through Sun March 3rd
Fridays and Saturdays @ 8pm
Sundays @ 7pm
Tickets $10.00
May be purchased online:
brownpapertickets.com/event/313073
Facebook.com/BLTdown

Tickets and information: 818 558 5702