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

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

24TH STREET / UP ON A TIGHTWIRE

 

Walking the Tightrope / by Mike Kenney

24^th Street Theatre

Keith Mitchell’s multipurpose set, using the bare bones construction of the old Carriage House that has housed the 24^th 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 24^th 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

24^th Street Theatre

1117 West 24^th 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

Dream Out Loud Premiere

Last night the premiere of Dream Out Loud, a short film by Juliet Landau and Deverill Weekes, was presented at the Pasadena Convention Center  It was truly an amazing event.     

Dream Out Loud recounts the story of makeup artist  Kazuhiro Tsuji, rising from obscurity in Japan to become one of the premiere creators of special makeup for feature films today. The evening was topped by the unveiling his latest fine art piece, an heroic head of Abraham Lincoln.  

Photos to follow, I hope, courtesy of Scott Sebring.  Meanwhile, you may peruse FB for images of the gala event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/470057026379484/?suggestsessionid=5346664511357271641

Hyper-realism in art as shown in Kazu's work, must be a cutting edge in contemporary circles.  His sculpting skills and use of modern prosthetic makeup techniques are, if nothing else, engaging and truly spectacular.   His sculpture of Abraham Lincoln stands about eight feet in height, but unlike heroic images in stone or bronze, this piece looks as though the President is about to speak! 

I think the piece is on view for the weekend at the Pasadena Convention Center on Green Street in Pas.  Completely engaging and a little spooky, too.   

Over six hundred makeup artists and friends filled the auditorium for the film and then herded into the neighboring gallery for the unveiling.  A theatrical event!  

Christmas Cheer at ANW

 

Ensemble Cast for A Noise Within's A Christmas Carol

Alistair Sim may always hold first place for Best Scrooge in the 1951 film version of Charles Dickens’  A Christmas Carol.  Certainly, the production many years ago at Cal State Long Beach of Kenneth Rugg’s adaptation featuring huge pages of the story turning on stage to reveal in a pop up book the familiar chapters of how an unhappy man is led to understand the joy of living is memorable.  However, A Noise Within’s Geoff Elliott (Scrooge and the adaptor of Dickens’ story to the Pasadena stage) has accomplished a feat.  When Geoff and his lovely co-director Julia Roderiguez-Elliott got together for this one, the idea must have been to make it fun.  And, fun it is. 

Company member Robertson Dean, takes stage to narrate the story as it unfolds.   A wide variety of accents are sprinkled through the characters’ speeches, but all in all, the familiar lines and larger than life characters bring this old chestnut to life.

The ensemble shines. The familiar story unfolds with new twists and favorite members of the company take multiple roles bringing the Cratchitts, Scrooge and the Ghosts back from the dusty shelf. 

Mitchell Edmonds as Marley’s Ghost rattles chains that literally rattle the audience.  It’s broad and appropriate.  Clever set design by Jeanine A. Ringer accomplishes what ANW always excels at: efficient changes that become a part of the show.   The thrust stage accommodates moving platforms and set pieces that harmonize with Ken Booth’s intricate lighting to bring the story in beautifully in one act: smooth as silk.

Deborah Strang showing poor Scrooge his years gone by, as the Ghost of Christmas Past enters swinging.  Ebenzer has spent so much of his time toiling to make more and more money that it is only as Dickens drags him through lost love and opportunity that he realizes, step by step his sad fate.   He encounters Christmas Present (Alan Blumenfeld towers) and Kevin Rico Angulo as Christmas Future menacing and forboding.

The large protean ensemble members become revelers and harbingers of tidings, not always of comfort and joy.  Stand out D`amaso J. Rodriguez as Tiny Tim, only has to recite his familiar line to bring the story full circle and leave the audience ready to embrace the holiday season. 

A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens

(Adapted for the stage by Geoff Elliott)

A Noise Within

3352 East Foothill Boulevard

Pasadena, CA 91107

Through December 23, 2012

Tickets and Information

626 356-3500 ext. 1

www. A NoiseWithin . org

It's A Dilemma at ANW

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The Doctor’s Dilemma

Geoff Elliott and Jules Wilcox Photo by Craig Schwartz

   

A Noise Within continues with its second season in its beautiful new space in Pasadena with G.B. Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma.  The biting wit and social commentary written over a hundred years ago is interestingly contemporary.  Who lives and who dies we pretty much allow the medical profession to decide.  Before the National Health in Great Britain it fell to individuals to take care of their own medical needs,  or else.  Thus, we hear Sir Coleman Ridgeon (Geoff Elliott)  who, with his cronies Sir Patrick Cullen (Apollo Dukakis), Sir Ralph Blomfield Bonington (Robertson Dean) and Cutler Walpole (Freddy Douglas),  discusses the medical issues of the day. Tended by Ridgeon's ever faithful servant (ever crusty Deborah Strang),    Walpole is a germophobe who diagnoses every symptom as blood poisoning. Bonington rants and Cullen, most likely the actual voice of the playwright,  dishes G.B. Shaw as a cynic and holds Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Scientists with disdain as they tend to deny being ill!

Slinky Mrs. Jennifer Dubedat (sly Jules Willcox)  comes to Ridgeon with a plea to save her husband, Louis (Jason Dechert) a skillful artist who is suffering from TB.  However, Ridgeon's friend, Dr. Blenkinsop, also needs his attention. How can he choose who may be more a boon to mankind?  Ridgeon is swayed by his attraction to Jennifer (as are all of his pals).  His dilemma comes down to whom to save.  The sad ethical twist takes a while to be revealed.

At two hours and forty minutes with the intermission, director Dámaso Rodriguez asks a lot from the opening night audience whose enthusiasm throughout was responsive.  Susan Gratch’s sets and again extraordinary attention to skillful scene changes by liveried stage hands is a dance that speaks to the professional approach of Pasadena’s Classical Theatre Company.

Performances are broad. Rodriguez keeps the dialogue rolling, but it’s still an evening approaching three hours in length. Grasping Shaw’s commentary, is possible, but, it could have been done by Moliere in a quick romp, leaving the audience chuckling at the final curtain.

The Doctor’s Dilemma

By George Bernard Shaw

A Noise Within

3352 E. Foothill Blvd.

Pasadena, CA 91107

www.anoisewithin.org

626 356 3100

Tickets  $52 Top

In repertory through December  2012

FIREWORKS AT ANTEAUS!

You Can’t Take It With You

Anteaus Theatre Company is brimming with a family of dedicated theatre people.  Certainly, many of them have done well in feature films and television, which pays the rent, but their loyalty to the Theatre is a calling that few can truly understand.  Helen Hayes was reported to have said something to the effect that ‘he gave a great performance’ pointing up that when an actor puts on a character and hits the stage, it’s a gift to the audience.  Making money as an actor is an iffy business and doing the sort of theatre that we are gifted with by Anteaus isn’t making anybody rich.  However, the rich gifts that are offered in Kaufman and Hart’s silly play currently offered up at Deaf West Theatre in NoHo are a bargain that should be savored: twice.  A tradition that Anteaus continues is a good one. Two casts, The Kirbys reviewed here and on alternate dates The Sycamores present a classic American comedy.  Imaginative director Gigi Bermingham has her hands full with over thirty actors to keep track of.  Fortunately, these professionals step up to the plate, making Bermingham’s job that of inspiring and fine tuning an excellent cast.

  The Kirbys Cast is made up of dedicated actors who jete, amble, ramble, scurry, scramble, stroll, limp and hustle on Tom Buderwitz’s gorgeous 1930s set.  From time to time we hear and FEEL (thanks to Jeff Gardner’s vibrating sound design) an explosion from the basement where the family patriarch, Paul Sycamore (Marcelo Tubert), maintains his illegal fireworks factory with his quirky assistant, Mr. Depinna (Tony Abetemarco).  Like The Munsters, we have one ‘normal’ ingénue who works on Wall Street, perfectly cast Lizzie Zerebko as Alice Sycamore.  Lithe and lovely, she’s head over heels about Tony Kirby, Jr. (Jeremy Glazer) whom she met working in Tony’s father’s firm. This is young love at its most romantic. 

As Mom Penny (Perfectly charming Julia Fletcher) knocks out plays on a typewriter (that was delivered to the Sycamore home by mistake) and daughter Essie (very flexible Linda Park) practices her interpretive dance around the living room/dining room/family room table, her husband, Ed Carmichael (Michael Hyland) ‘creates’ Moonlight Sonata on his xylophone when not printing out quotes from Trotsky and delivering wife, Essie’s candy which she creates in the Sycamore kitchen.

It’s a three ring circus with Grandpa Vanderhof (the amazing and fabulous and dedicated Joseph Ruskin) administering his avuncular wisdom: the calm center of the maelstrom.  I have to insert a disclaimer here.  Joe Ruskin is a pal.   He has been one of those actors whom we have seen for most of our lives in hundreds of edgy roles as a dedicated working actor. His success stems from his being present and accounted for.  Recipient of the Ralph Morgan Award from the Screen Actors Guild and deeply engaged in the working conditions of actors for many years, not only is his well seasoned take on Grandpa Vanderhof endearing, it reflects his dedication to the craft of acting.  Experiencing Joe bring this character to life with such grace is a pleasure that I’ll always remember.  His real life daughter, Alicia, was my agent for many years and her dedication to representing actors is a direct reflection of her dad’s professional ethic. 

We now return to our regularly scheduled review.

It’s a simple story.  A ‘normal’ daughter has emerged in the middle of a wild and crazy family. Every single character is crisp and funny. Penny wants one of her play scripts to be interpreted by a professional and hauls an actress, Gay Wellington (adorable Janellen Steininger) home to do a reading. Gay is a fabulous drunk and passed out on the couch when Tony brings his hoity toity parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kirby (straight from Central Casting in the best sense: Josh Clark and Shannon Holt) to meet Alice’s parents.  Russian dance master, Boris Kolekov (over the top and having way too much fun to the delight of everyone, Jeff Doba) who blows in from the Steppes regularly to instruct Essie in ‘la danse’ creates havoc. Ms Holt returns with a flourish as Olga, a deposed Russian Royal, currently waiting tables in Times Square.

Tech credits are all super with nods to A. Jeffrey Schoenberg’s costumes and Heather Ho’s props.  Director Bermingham’s subtle hand in broad strokes has created a hit in every sense of the word. It’s a straightforward comedy that reminds us all that having a little fun is what life should really be about.  To quote a phrase, “Don’t Postpone Joy.”  Please see this show more than once.  Invest in great theatre. You Can’t Take It With You! 

YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU

By George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart

Directed by Gigi Birmingham

ANTEAUS THEATRE @ Deaf West

5112 Lankershim

NoHo, CA 91601

Through December 9, 2012

Tickets: $34 Top

818 506 1983

www.anteaus.org

Highly recommended!

Mamet + Taper = Political Romp

NOVEMBER by David Mamet

Greeted by a gorgeous replica of the Oval Office, complete with the Great Seal of the United States (the eagle should have had arrows in both claws) by Takeshi Kata, it shows once again that the Mark Taper Forum will not spare the horses when presenting top of the line theatre.  If the set is any indication of the fun to come, the audience is primed for a treat.

David Mamet’s 2008 Broadway hit comes to the Taper with no holds barred. From the first line, the playwright’s biting satire and clever images bring to mind exactly what may be wrong with the way the world works.  President Charles Smith (the wonderfully wonky Ed Begley, Jr.) rants with typical Mamet expletives aided and abetted by the excellent Rod McLachlan as Archer Brown, the President’s Chief of Staff, who matches Begley line for line.

 “Why won’t they vote for me?” 

“Because they all hate you, Chuck!” 

It’s just before the Big Election and President Smith is in big trouble. Not only can he not handle the country nor his blabbermouth wife, nor his brilliant head speech writer, Clarice Bernstein (versatile and facile Felicity Huffman), but there’s trouble with the Turkey Lobby (the bird, not the nation). Unnamed Turkey and Turkey By-Products Manufacturers’ Representative (frenetic Todd Weeks) has arrived at the White House expecting the President to exercise his executive office in the traditional Pardoning of the Turkeys (two Big Birds who must be given an opportunity to smell the President’s hands before the upcoming telecast.)  The chaos ramps up.

Mamet hits a beautiful stride with this farcical romp.  The business of Quid Pro Quo turns the tables on President Smith when he attempts to match wits with a First Nation Leader, Dwight Grackle (Gregory Cruz), who is prepared to build a 4000 room casino on half of Nantucket Island.

About the time Smith gets the Turkey Rep to cave in to his ridiculous demands for two hundred million dollars, another glitch crashes the scene.  It’s pure Mamet and pure comedy. It’s timely and echoes the suspicions that half of the country must have had about the Oval Office for most of the first decade of the 21^st century.  Mamet echoes through Clarice, the lesbian speech writer, beautiful sentiments that can only be heard if Smith agrees to marry her and her partner, Daisy.

Director, Scott Zigler, has this cast rolling at first light and it never lets down in the fast paced ninety minutes.  Staging in the wordy show is punctuated with clever physical business that never misses a beat in the dialogue.  Those offended by Mamet’s fast and loose language choices may even find that it sounds natural and funny and appropriate in an Oval Office where decorum has been chucked out the window. 

This is simply brilliant theatre.

NOVEMBER

By David Mamet

Mark Taper Forum/

Center Theatre Group

Music Center 135 N. Grand

Los Angeles, CA

Tickets:  213 972 7231

www.centertheatregroup.org

$20 - $75.00

Through November 4, 2012

Dark on Monday
Click on photo for full information.

Ensemble takes a look at The Troubles

Continuing with their examination of war and its effects on human beings, The Belle of Belfast is a welcome World Premiere at Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles at the Atwater Village Theater.   

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THE BELLE OF BELFAST

How religion has divided human beings one from another is not a mystery.  When we are indoctrinated into any formal (or informal, for that matter) belief system, those beliefs become Truth.  And, if my truth trumps your truth, you lose and I win or we fight and we all lose.  Playwright Nate Rufus Edelman examines these issues in this world premiere presentation.

The Irish are a lovely lot.  In a Simpsons episode a while back the show parodied the different ‘Heavens’ where the “saved” might go.  The Irish Catholics were portrayed on a cloud that featured donnybrooks and booze.  When folks lean toward a wee drop and a dust up, this sets the scene, at least in part, for The Troubles that plagued Northern Ireland for over twenty years.  The loyalist Catholics and the Protestants had issues that divided their country in a vicious way.  Anne Malloy (effective Sarah Gise), is a ‘wild child’ orphaned when a bomb blast claimed her parents when she was just eleven. Now seventeen, she struggles with all the angst of any girl her age, exacerbated by deep feelings of abandonment and an escalating lust for the local priest, Father Ben Reilly (the excellent Daniel Blinkoff).  Blinkoff manages to capture at once the deep conviction that must hold sway for anyone taking the cloth and believably shows the struggle we imagine any man might face when confronted with undeniable urges.

In the Irish film The Magdalene Sisters, the penetrating heartbeat thrum of the bodhran narrates the first reel with genuine passion. The Irish frame drum is heard again here in the pre-show. It is 1985 in Belfast. Illustrated with projected slides of cheeky Irish kids, marches in the streets and the detritus of civil war the tension is passionate and palpable.  The music is not credited, but may have been The Chieftains or The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem who even still today share the heart of Irish music around the world. Penny whistle and fiddle skim over the resonate beat and musically set the scene. Belfast is a battlefield where there ought to be peace. The music melds well with Pablo Santiago’s lighting and spare scenic design by Hana S. Kim.

Elderly Emma Malloy (the wonderful Carol Locatell) attempts to make her confession to the amiable Father Reilly.  In fact, she is a lonely lady, the great aunt of Anne.  She is frustrated that her great niece is out of control. She steals a moment near the end of the play when she makes her final confession.

Feckin’, arse and bollocks salt and pepper the text not only through Anne, but the priests themselves as they gossip in the rectory. Bill Meleady as the elder priest, Father Dermot Behan, may be a bit too stereotypically a drunk, where moderation in the character might show not only a touch of sympathy, but decorum as well.    However, director Claudia Weill, has her actors in check for the most part and the well defined characters are sad and funny and touching.

The accents are not Ulster, thank goodness, and mostly consistent.  The women were more difficult to understand than the men.  Anne’s girlfriend, Clara Murphy (spot on Caitlin Gallogly who could easily have played Anne as well) is a handy foil. Her special moment is delivered in a tender rendition of the last verse of a haunting Irish ballad, The Parting Glass, to honor their school chum who has perished in a bomb blast which virtually rocks the theater.

Though the lesson of the play is not to understand The Troubles, per se, we do become deeply involved in the motives and ethics of the characters as their lives unfold in this time of war, well told in Edelman’s play.  

Please go to see it for yourself.

The Belle of Belfast

By Nate Rufus Edelman

Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles

At The Atwater Village Theater

3269 Casitas Avenue

Atwater, CA 90039

Through October 28, 2012 in repertory 
with Year of the Rabbit

$25.00

323 644 1929

www.ensemblestudiotheatrela.org

Shakespeare, et al? Cymbeline at ANW

Cymbeline

 (l-r) Jarrett Sleeper (Guiderius) and Adam Haas Hunter(Cloten) 

Photo by Craig Schwartz

The story of Cymbeline as retold by A Noise Within in its season opener brings good news and bad news.  The good news is that Pasadena’s Classic Theatre Company kicks off its season with nowhere else to go but up.  The bad news follows: Director Bart DeLorenzo presents the conceit that Will himself may have taken, it’s just a play. The stage is set with an ancient work light in anticipation of the curtain’s rise.  Various props from other of Shakespeare’s plays are strewn on the steps to the stage itself.  The show begins with a flourish as we quickly are given glimpses of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and others of The Bard’s more familiar stories. It is as though with Cymbeline Shakespeare just tossed them all into a hat, pulling them out with a little narration:  a story of a girl pretending to be a boy, an old man played by a woman (for reasons that escape me) and a panoply of characters who strut and bellow… a lot.

When at the intermission (of the two and a half hour evening) one over hears a member of the audience declare that the scene changes are very smooth, it’s a sign of something missing.  What’s missing here is a company of players who are all on the same page.  Of them all, veteran actor Time Winters as Pisanio and Gaoler screws his courage to any sticking point as best he can and with decent mastery of the language he brings his characters to life.

Adam Haas Hunter plays the handsome swain Posthumus as well as the boorish fop,  Cloten.  Cleverly, at rise, both are on the stage at the same time while narrators in evening suits set up the story. King Cymbeline (Joel Swetow) sorely needs his daughter, Imogen, (Helen Sadler), to marry well, but she’s already married to a commoner, Posthumus.  Although Posthumus is uncommonly an okay guy and really in love with Imogen, he gets banished right off the bat only to return to the stage as  the wicked Queen’s (Francia DiMase who also plays Belarius) favored suitor, her son, the foppish Cloten (Hunter).  So, now we have an evil queen and poison that is switched by a suspecting chemist for an elixir that only makes one appear to be dead, a banished good guy, intrigue and mixed up messages delivered by a trusty servant.  Where have we heard that one before, Will?  I have a faint cold chill.

The up side is that there is one terrific scene with swordplay choreographed by Ken Merckx.  There’s a beheading, too. But, other than that, not only is the story disappointing, predictable and long, but the uneven performances and inability of DeLorenzo to keep his actors suiting the action to the word and the word to the action unhappily makes this production feel like a marginally interesting Masters Degree Thesis Project.  

Angela Balogh Calin’s costumes are perfect.  Sets and lighting by Keith Mitchell and Ken Booth, respectively, are just fine. 

And, the scene changes are executed very well . 

Cymbeline

by William Shakespeare

Directed by Bart DeLorenzo

A Noise Within

3352 E. Foothill Blvd.

Pasadena, CA 91107

Tickets $40 -$50.00 Group rates available

626 356 3100

www.anoisewithin.org

Through November 18, 2012

                                                                            

At War with YEAR OF THE RABBIT @ EST/LA

 

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

www.ensemblestudiotheatrela.org

Tickets: $25.00

From Center Theatre Group / FYI

Normally, this space is reserved for theatre reviews.  

I've been appreciating CTG more and more lately, so if this information is helpful to anyone you know, please pass it on.   

Michael Sheehan

CENTER THEATRE GROUP ANNOUNCES 2012-2013 AUGUST WILSON PROGRAM

FEATURING AUGUST WILSON MONOLOGUE COMPETITION

AND AUGUST WILSON IN-SCHOOL RESIDENCY PROGRAM

Applications for Both Programs are Due in October 2012

 

Following the success of the 2011-2012 August Wilson program, Center Theatre Group has announced its continued participation and is now accepting applications for both facets of the program – the national August Wilson Monologue Competition and the CTG August Wilson in-school residency program.

Student applications for the August Wilson Monologue Competition are due October 11, 2012.  Local in-school residency applications are due on October 22.  Applications for both programs are available at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/AugustWilson.

 

For more information, see attached release. 

For photos, please visit  http://www.centertheatregroup.org/press/pressphotos.aspx