A Raisin in the Sun
Joseph E. Boling
February 5, 2006
I fudged on this one. I had a feeling this was going to be a good production, and I had to go to Ft Lewis this week for some shopping and a haircut, so I put the trip on Sunday and added a stop at the Lakewood Playhouse, violating my one-day-a-week theater attendance scheme for this year.
It was well worth finagling for. Checkmark to Frederick Charles Canada for direction and, presumably, for casting this show. The woman he selected to play Mama (Eva Abrams) is not trained for the stage, but is a professional story teller - and she sure does tell this story. Three checks for her. Checkmarks also for Lance McQueen as Walter Lee, Mama's son; to Sarita Williams as Ruth, Walter's wife; and to Ijeoma O Okpala as Beneatha, Walter's sister. Honorable mention to Frank Reed as Joseph Asagai, the Nigerian exchange student who courts Beneatha. Also in the cast are Ekello Harrid Jr, Jack House, Patrick C Schroeder, and Izaic York. This is a strong production that will move you.
In an interesting twist, player Sarita Williams is married to a relative of playwright Lorraine Hansberry.
The show is accompanied by an extensive exhibition of photographs, by Bernard Kleina, of a 1960s confrontation in Chicago between blacks and whites over the issue of blockbusting (integration of white neighborhoods by black families). MLK Jr, Coretta Scott King, Jesse Jackson, and other well-known civil rights activists accompany the local demonstrators in a series of fascinating photographs. This is the second public viewing of this exhibition, which premiered in Chicago last month.
The Lakewood players, under AD Marcus Walker, continue to turn out theater worth driving south for.
Lilies of the Field
Joseph E. Boling
October 30, 2005
This piece sneaks up on you. It's very slow-moving, and demands much imagination to see the chapel that Homer Smith is building. But the final few minutes are very emotional and still all in the mind's eye.
Checkmarks to David Dear as the itinerant worker who falls under the spell of Mother Marie Marthe (checkmark to Jeanne Ross). Double checks to Michael Sanchez as the priest from the nearby town and the café owner where Homer eats while the sisters go to mass. Stacey Gassman directed.
Appointment With Death
Joseph E. Boling
September 26, 2005
Here is an Agatha Christie piece I had not seen, set in Jerusalem at an indeterminate time (before 1948), with an American family, a French doctor, a British lady doctor, and various other tourists, locals, and police (a cast of sixteen in nineteen roles). It's a four-act piece, performed in three acts in the round under Marty Mackenzie's direction.
Checkmarks to Mackenzie; to Scott Campbell and Art Fick for set design; to Lynn Geyer as the family matriarch; to Tim Goebel as the son she totally controlled; to Season Luben and Tom Phiel as the doctors; and to Michael Osier as the police colonel.
Honorable mentions to Dave Van Arnam as a tourist busybody and to Michael Dresdner as a local tour guide. There was lots of other good work in evidence. If you like this genre, it's worth the drive to Lakewood.
The Chosen
Joseph E Boling
January 28, 2005
It will be interesting to compare this creditable production with the (Seattle) Rep's effort next month. Here is a coming of age story set in New York's Jewish community right after WWII, contrasting an orthodox observant son and father with another son and father in the much more strictly observant Hasidic sect. Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok wrote the play; Lakewood AD Marcus Walker and Rebecca Osman co-directed it.
Among the interesting historical aspects are the realization among American Jews that their European brethren had been virtually wiped out by the Nazis (leaving it to the Americans to rebuild an observant community), and the animosity felt by some Jews toward those who were fighting to establish the state of Israel, because the latter were not deemed to be sufficiently religious.
Checkmarks to Patrick Bonck and Marty Mackenzie as the "more secular" son and father. The other pair are played by Reuben Walker and Michael Dresdner. Samuel Rudolph plays the narrator.
Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol
Joseph E Boling
December 18, 2004
Did you ever feel that Scrooge's conversion was a bit too facile, that there was not enough meat in the Spirits' pitches to convert a confirmed curmudgeon so easily? Check out this highly imaginative interpretation by Tom Mula, presented from the perspective of Marley (George McGilliard), who must turn Scrooge in 24 hours if Marley is to escape hell's eternal embrace. Scrooge himself (Marcus Walker) remains arrogant and secure in his position much longer in this version; and the conversion, when it comes, is a cathartic experience. Natasha Sims plays the Bogle, a spirit assigned to supervise Marley's attempt to influence Scrooge, and Jamie Pedersen is the record keeper, who draws up Marley's contract. David Domkoski directed.
Checkmarks to McGilliard and Sims, and to the entire production, which is the highlight of my Christmas theater season so far. Highly recommended; runs through Christmas eve, plus a matinee and evening on 29 December. Take the drive south for this one.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Joseph E Boling
December 18, 2004
This is a longer and more fully realized version of the Barbara Robinson script than Seattle Public's rendition, with a larger cast and a more explicit "pageant" (complete with a printed church program and congregation members gladhanding visitors at the intermission). Checkmarks to Season Luben as the mom who has to put the show up; to Jimmy Gilletti as her husband, the angel wrangler; to Sean O'Leary as Ralph Herdman; and to Jenna Benedetti as his sister, Imogene. Patti Sprague and Peter Punzi directed. Extended to 21 December.
Private Lives
Joseph E Boling - (TPS Online)
September 18, 2004
This is a stylish, witty, well-directed (by Scott Campbell) rendition of the classic Noël Coward script. Checkmarks to Matthew Vail (a double check) and Nellie Doelman as former spouses Elyot and Amanda, and to Meridith Anne Baldwin as Elyot's new wife, Sybil. Christopher S Cantrell (Amanda's new husband) and Cara Roper-Vaughan (the French maid) complete the cast. Fight choreography by Deborah Fialkow. Well worth driving south for; ask about their new Saturday matinees.
Steel Magnolias
Joseph E Boling
December 14, 2003
The very title of this piece makes my throat tighten; here are southern women completely unlike those of Tennessee Williams—gritty, self-sufficient, and if they have any neuroses, they exploit them. I’m sure most readers are familiar with the story: Truvy (Kelly Johnson) runs a beauty salon in the converted carport of her home. At rise, she is evaluating the work of Annelle (Ashley Miller), a new arrival in town who walked in asking if Truvy needed any help. Later that morning Truvy is going to do the hair for M’Lynn (Maggi Barrett) and her daughter Shelby (Jaime Reichner), who is getting married today. Also dropping in will be Clairee (Dana Messina Galagan), the former mayor’s widow, and Ouiser (Jeanne Ross), a neighbor of M’Lynn. That’s all, folks—these six women are the play (except for a radio announcer’s voice, the only place a guy can get a word into this piece).
There are four scenes in two acts; the scenes are spaced a few months apart. Shelby gets married in the summer; by Christmas she is pregnant, against doctor’s advice (she is severely diabetic); the following Christmas, she has had the baby (three months premature), her kidneys have failed, and she is about to undergo a transplant; the last scene is the day of her funeral. Sounds grim, but this show has more zingers per minute than any I can think of right now; even in the dark scenes, these women use humor to get themselves through the tight spots, and it brings the audience along, too.
Half of the cast are new faces for me, and director Scott Campbell has found some gems. Miller’s bashfulness and apprehension in the first scene are perfect. Barrett is excellent as a worried mother, and especially in her scene as a bereaved mother. Reichner, in her Washington debut, simply overwhelmed me as Shelby. The piece is performed in the round, with the beauty shop as the whole stage. At one point in the third scene, Reichner was right in front of me with no lines—the action was across the stage from her. But the stress and fatigue in her face as she prepared for tomorrow’s transplant were stunning, and as she left the stage at the end of the scene, I was watching a woman falling into an abyss. An hour earlier, she had looked completely different as she prepared for her wedding. I don’t think the haggard look she wore was just a change in makeup—here is a real actor.
The costumes for this show (by Naarah McDonald) would make any company proud, and for a company with the resources of Lakewood—well, she deserves the checkmark in my program. The set also got one (by Erin Chanfrau), a fully functioning beauty shop, right down to the 1984 and 1985 magazines on the racks.
I saw this play three times in 1999, and not since, so a lot of it felt fresh. Looking back at the commentaries I wrote for those other shows, I have to conclude that this one is the best I have seen. Check it out—it’s worth a drive. Runs through 21 December, then picks up again after New Year, 2-11 January.
Suburban Legends: A Comedy in One Axe
Joseph E Boling
November 8, 2003
This is Lakewood’s first foray into late night programming, a show written by Jason Rasmussen and Matthew Vail (with additional writing credit to John Munn and Mike Grimshaw). It’s sketch comedy, with the eight-person band “Upstaged” playing (loudly!) before the show and at some scene changes. At the top of the show the audience was invited to step out to replenish drinks and snacks at the scene changes, but there was no actual intermission break; I saw nobody dashing out for a refill.
The program was lengthy—as if the writers had been working on odds and ends for quite a while and finally had a place to show it all. There were sketches about the standard horror show characters (Mummy, Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein’s monster); the babysitter alone with the baby and an obscene caller; the ghost story with the camp counselors around a beach campfire; Hollywood types discussing new show ideas; a TV quiz show with the bachelors trying to get a date; a TV talk show host and his Satanic guest (checkmark for this one, and for Vail as the host); a satire on “The Raven” (checkmark to Brandon Ryan as a pizza delivery boy who can’t stay on his feet); Martha Stewart on decorating a prison cell; improv synopses of audience favorite Stephen King movies; and a final piece with some of history’s most notorious murderers (checkmark for his one). Either they stacked the best into the last half, or I was becoming more easily entertained as they went along.
I don’t know of anyone else offering this kind of show in the south Sound area. Worth checking out if you like this kind of material.
Closed with this performance.
The Miracle Worker
Joseph E Boling
November 2, 2003
An embarrassment of riches. No sooner do I recommend Streetcar as the must see show, than another comes along that also merits that encomium. But this one is way down south, so you’ll have to go some to see it.
This is the oft-told story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, set in Alabama in the 1880s (Keller lived 1880-1968, a remarkable life for anyone, let alone someone who had to overcome her handicaps). Blind and deaf from the age of eighteen months (due to a fever she contracted), she never learned to speak intelligibly (though she did eventually speak well enough that an interpreter who knew her could represent her in public). Sullivan was the teacher who first reached Keller’s intellect with the information that objects and actions could be described in words. Assuming that the historical facts of the women’s biographies are accurate, there was probably nobody better in the country to take on Keller’s education. Toughened by over a dozen years in a reform school, almost blind herself, and thus thoroughly trained in tactile communications, Sullivan had the obstinacy and skills to establish communications with a girl who had no concept of human interaction past hugs and blows.
I saw this play in Charlotte last spring, where it was in out-of-town tryouts for a New York run. But it closed out of town; I never heard why (and if it had not, Lakewood AD Marcus Walker says that he could not have secured performance rights). The two productions are somewhat different. In Lakewood, Anne Sullivan’s departure from the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston is included (with four of her pupils there saying goodby). That scene was cut from the Charlotte show. Also in Lakewood, there is no trouble understanding the voiceovers representing Anne’s brother Jimmy; I could catch only the occasional word of those many lines in Charlotte.
But the biggest difference between the productions is that in Lakewood, at least on the day I saw it, you can see the light going on in Helen’s head as she first understands the connection between physical reality and the tactile symbols that Anne has been drumming into her hand. The denouement works!
Lakewood uses a huge cast, as is their wont—fifteen. Many of those are small roles, but the company rarely doubles up (and most of these are not amenable to doubling up). Doug Kerr directed.
Nine-year-old Monica Meyer is Helen; she has worked at Lakewood before (I had a good report about her professionalism from someone in that earlier cast who had not yet seen this show). She is marvelous. I saw only one time when she negotiated a step a bit too adroitly—the rest of the time she is quite credibly blind, and her love-hate relationship with her family, her anger at Annie, and her native intelligence are also played perfectly. Kate Parker is Annie Sullivan, she is an Idaho drama grad who has played in Lakewood before, but whom I have not seen. Joseph Grant is Captain Keller, Helen’s wants-to-be-flinty father who can’t hide his inherent gentleness. These three get my checkmarks for this production, but there are lots of other excellent performances.
Jesse Michener is Helen’s mother (she is the Captain’s second wife), and Brandon Sharpe her stepson. Leigh Duncan is Aunt Ev (I never figured out whose sister she is—the Captain’s is most logical, but she’s not nearly his age). Grace Crumpton is Viney, the household domestic, and Adrian and Sarah Olives play her kids, who also help out (Sarah is a real ball of fire—she’s probably six). Jimmy Gilletti is Mr. Anagnos, Annie’s teacher at Perkins, and there are also the four girls there and a doctor.
But the heavy lifting is done by Parker and Meyer, and they are a joy to watch. The dining room scene, in which Sullivan breaks Keller to table manners, is an extended contest with lots of physicality (audience members were gasping all around me). There is less crockery smashed than in Charlotte, partly because on this thrust stage there are audience members only a few feet from the fight (and crockery is expensive), but nothing else is off limits (I expect some audience members ended up wearing part of that breakfast). Bob Borwick (yes, the same fellow currently playing in Ming the Rude) is the fight director for this show.
This piece is getting iridescent ink in south Sound newspapers, so don’t rely on walk-up tickets (this matinee was sold out). Call ahead—go ahead, it’s worth the drive.
Ah, Wilderness
Joseph E Boling
September 7, 2003
This is a Eugene O’Neill play that I had seen before only in a television version (part of the Broadway Theatre Archive). The Lakewood company has another strong show here, led by high school junior Aaron Orheim, playing high school senior Richard Miller in a two-day transition from teenager to adult. Lakewood AD Marcus Walker directed.
The action takes place on 4-5 July 1906 in a seaside east coast town. Richard, a cynic with little good to say about US capitalism (shades of the 1960s), gets in Dutch for sending racy quotes of European writers to his girl friend and for getting drunk in a local gin mill on the night of the Fourth. By the night of the Fifth, he has learned some humility and some humanity.
O’Neill described this as more optimistic than his usual fare. It is also shorter, coming in at about 2:40 with the intermission. (Lakewood has configured it in two acts rather than the three that it was intended to have. I say, let’s have both intermissions and sell more concessions.) There are fifteen in the cast. The other principals are Richard’s parents (Ernie Heller and Carolyn Castaneda) and his aunt and uncle (Dad’s sister and Mom’s brother, both unmarried and living in the same household, Leigh Duncan and Michael A Osier). During the long scene in the bar, Richard’s companion is Joanna Jackson, and his girl friend, to whom he remains faithful and finally renews his pledge of true love, is Masumi Hayashi-Smith.
As in most O’Neill pieces, there are some boring stretches, and the layout of the set puts the dining room scenes a long way from the audience (and hard to see from the front row, being situated behind several pieces of downstage furniture). But the performances are solid (and a couple sparkling), and I was surprised to find myself wiping away tears not in the beach scene, where the lovers make up, but in the last scene, as Mom and Dad talk about what has happened to their son these past two days.
Despite that distant dining room, the set (by Erin Chanfrau) and costumes (by Frances Rankos) are lovely. Checkmarks to Orheim, to Jackson as the working girl, and to Osier and Duncan as one-time lovers separated by alcohol and attitude, but still ever so much in love with each other. Heller’s attempt to explain the birds and the bees to Richard is touching, as is Castaneda’s motherly fretting. And there are lots of one-scene characters whose work is fun to watch.
Closes 28 September.
Romeo and Juliet
Joseph E Boling
25 May 2003
When Lakewood Players AD Marcus Walker was studying in Britain some years ago, he worked under longtime Shakespearean actor Andrew Jarvis. When Jarvis came to the states this year to teach and direct at Pepperdine University for a semester, Walker invited him to come to Lakewood to direct their annual production of the Bard—this year, it’s R&J. Jarvis was able to squeeze out three weeks to work with the Lakewood company, and this production is the result.
This is the fifth live R&J that I have seen (I also have four film versions, plus two ballets and an opera, all on LaserDisc and DVD). Of the live productions, it's at least tied for best (the one it's tied with is Seattle Shakespeare Festival’s 1999 production—too long ago to make a good direct comparison). It’s also the one least cut; Jarvis was extremely sparing with his editor’s pencil, and you will hear lines in this version that you have only read before.
Jarvis is a self-described fundamentalist; he believes in the power of the text, and directs using a very text-centered approach (including slowing down in rehearsal so that every word gets individual attention—early run-throughs were taking five hours). The finished product still runs 3:15 with intermission, but that’s because of the limited cuts; the players are now running at normal delivery speeds (or faster, in the case of Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech and the subsequent banter). The result of this approach is that fewer words are lost due to elision; I recall only two places in this production where I could not catch all the words.
Sarah Malkin is a perfectly boisterous 13-year-old Juliet, excited by first love but serious about being a wife (to either Romeo or Paris—happily serious in the first case, unhappily in the latter). Brandon Brown, whom I have not seen before, is Romeo. He’s the right age and knows the part well, but there is no passion in his performance. There are twenty others in the cast; checkmarks to Joseph Grant as Capulet (he especially shines when dressing down Tybalt, and later when first comforting and then chiding Juliet after Tybalt’s death); to Tim Barr as Mercutio (though his hyperspeed speech already mentioned needs a touch of moderation in order for all of the words to come through); to Scott C Brown as Friar Laurence (for acting, in addition to the fact that he is wearing a genuine tonsure for the run); to Betzy Miller as the nurse; and to Alex Lewington for costumes. The fight choreography (Bob Borwick) is heartstopping, with three duels at once in one melee on Lakewood’s none-too-ample stage. There is some lovely dancing at the Capulet ball (choreographed by Katie Felesina). There are only a couple of minor players who seem wooden in their deliveries, and no line stumbles that I noticed.
This is a better-than-serviceable tradition-oriented rendition of one of Shakespeare’s chestnuts; it’s worth the drive to Lakewood.
Closes 14 June.
Murder at the Vicarage
Joseph E Boling
March 30, 2003
This is an Agatha Christie who-done-it, set in rural England in 1949, directed for the Lakewood Players by Randy Clark. A disagreeable retired colonel is found shot to death at the vicar’s desk. Several people had beefs with him, and of course the author throws in multiple clues and twice as many red herrings (Moie Charles and Barbara Toy have the credit for the stage adaptation).
This is old-fashioned story telling, with a cast of fourteen (well, sort of—the colonel appears only as a corpse, and I don’t recall the constable having any lines). The set is Lakewood’s usual excellent work, with a nice garden scene through the French doors (convincingly lit as daylight fades and a storm brews in act II); Scott Campbell and Stacey Gassman did the set and lighting.
Checkmarks for performance to Joseph Grant as the vicar, Betzy Miller as the cranky maid, Jeanne Ross as Miss Marple, Lynn Geyer as Mrs. Price Ridley, and Sean Schroeder as the smooth artist-in-residence in the vicar’s cottage. The rest of the cast is fine except for the inspector, who managed to step on his own lines several times.
This is a serviceable treatment of the play, solidly in the middle of Lakewood’s work. There is an interesting anomaly in the script; despite describing the colonel’s murder weapon in several ways that require that it be a pistol, the characters refer to it consistently as a revolver. One wonders whether the British use “revolver” as a generic word to describe any handgun.
Closes 13 April.
Anne of Green Gables
Joseph E Boling
December 21, 2002
This is a fine new adaptation by young director Scott Campbell. It needs a couple of tweaks, but he’s done a great job of both moving the story to the stage and getting good work from his players. Lead among these are Angelica Duncan in the title role and Dana Rice as Marilla Cuthbert, Anne’s adoptive mother. Duncan makes the twelve-year-old Anne’s imagination visible; her enthusiasm and spirit are completely convincing. Her subtle maturing as the play rolls and the years pass is also engaging. Rice is equally compelling as a spinster reluctant to take on rearing a pre-teen but too good-hearted to turn Anne away. The escapades as Anne proves unable to live as a titmouse are credible and enjoyable.
Other notable performances are from John Pfaffe as Marilla’s brother and Anne’s adoptive father; Penelope Bourdon as Mrs Lynde, a meddlesome but also good-hearted neighbor; and Nicole Teeny as Diana, Anne’s same-age “bosom friend.” There are nearly a dozen other players in this large community theater cast, all more than adequate to their roles.
Lakewood continues to play in the round, with a fairly large set. Campbell uses an effective technique for reaching the audience way on the other side of the set; in many scenes the players are seated, so continual movement to direct lines in all directions is not feasible. Campbell plays these scenes at edges of the space with the players facing center; those on their side of the room are close enough to hear them even though the players are facing away, and those across the room have the benefit of being spoken to directly. I don’t recall seeing this use of a four-sided stage before; it works well.
The adaptation drags in the second act when Matthew dies; Campbell points out that the book devotes many pages to this event, to which I reply that he need not duplicate the author’s error. There is also some choppiness after Anne goes to teacher’s school; attention is needed there. But otherwise, Campbell has done a very good job of keeping the action moving without disruptive scene changes. Incident follows incident rapidly and understandably, making the three-hour piece seem much shorter. I never read the original, and as far as I can recall, I have never seen a film or stage version of this story. I was entranced by Anne’s mind and the many vignettes of farm life a century ago in rural Canada.
Closed 22 December.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Joseph E Boling
October 27, 2002
Suzy Willhoft of Stadium High School directs a cast of eighteen (including three kids) in this solid production. The Lakewood back wall has been pushed back so that twenty-five additional seats can be placed upstage, facing the one hundred or so in the seven rows of the normal configuration. It looked as if those extra seats were needed today, the second Sunday in the run.
The set is divided, with the Finch home at stage right and the Dubose and Radley homes at stage left. The tree where Scout picks up her mysterious gifts is in the center. Scenes in other locales (such as the courtroom) are overlaid on this set as needed, with the porch of one house becoming the judge’s bench, another the witness stand, another the colored balcony, and so forth.
Scout is played by ten-year-old (but her fifteenth play) Olivia Lailia Westbrooke-Seward. Her diction drops a few words for my old ears, but her acting is fine. Brother Jem is Isaac Solverson, and friend Dill is Hunter Larsen. Again, I lost some lines. Part of the problem is the split audience, with players facing upstage part time to address the other segment of the seating.
Atticus Finch is played very well by Joseph Grant, who came out of retirement for this role. The older Scout (Jean Louise Finch as an adult) is played by Patti Sprague. Director Willhoft has her on stage for the entire show, mostly on a side someplace, but right out by the action when Scout is involved in something highly significant (like visiting Atticus as he keeps vigil at the jail to thwart a potential lynching). I like this choice.
Lance Spencer plays Tom Robinson, the accused rapist. His witness stand narrative is exceptional. The other performances are adequate to good; once in a while something would shake me out of the moment, but on balance this is a good production of this warhorse, which never loses its timeliness.
Closes 10 November.
The Matchmaker
Joseph E Boling
September 15, 2002
This is the Thornton Wilder play that was the basis for the book of “Hello, Dolly”; I had not seen it previously. Small wonder, as it needs the size cast that you can only see in student and community productions (thirteen in this rendition, with some doubling up). The Lakewood ensemble does a good job with it. Though the director (David Domkoski) added an unnecessary entr’acte that does not ring true, the rest of the action is credible and, in places, moving.
Skinflint 60-year-old millionaire Yonkers merchant Horace Vandergelder (Keith Eisner) is looking to remarry. He has engaged a matchmaker, Dolly Levi (Kelly K. Johnson) to find a suitable wife. Wives are much more economical than housekeepers—says Vandergelder, “Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she’s a householder.” Dolly has found a couple of eligible women, but her real goal is to land the millionaire herself. VdG’s live-in niece Ermengarde (Christine Burton) is enamored of an artist, Ambrose (Jeff Hansen), who wants to elope. VdG separates them by sending her off to the city to stay with old family friend Flora van Huysen (Peter Punzi). VdG’s store clerks, Cornelius and Barnaby (Scott Campbell and Chad Russell) are fed up with long hours and punitive working conditions. When VdG and Dolly go to the city to call on another of her prospective matches (milliner Irene Malloy, played by Annette Kathryn Miles), they decide to close the store for a day and check out the city themselves. Naturally, they all end up in the same places at the same times and zaniness ensues.
It’s fun, but not without social commentary (the hazards of trying to indulge in more than one vice at a time, the best use of money, the balance between security and adventure, the value of being social rather than alone, and more). Campbell is delightful as a naive young man who’s in over his head, but never stops scrambling. Johnson knows exactly what she wants and how to get there, and convinces us that she truly is able to pull off anything. Carolyn Castaneda draws laughs in three roles as a put-upon domestic. Punzi is wonderful as spinster Aunt Flora. Stacey Gassman is endearing as Irene’s shop assistant, and the incipient heat between her and Barnaby is more convincing than that between Cornelius and Irene (the only pairing that doesn’t seem to gel). That monologue about vices is delivered nicely by David May, playing a new VdG employee and sycophant. And there are more good performances that I have not enumerated.
In these hands, this play is no museum piece. Worth the drive. Closes 29 September.
To Gillian, On Her 37th Birthday
Joseph E Boling
February 3, 2002
David is a 41-year-old science professor who has been hunkered down on a New England island for two years since his wife, Gillian, died in a boating accident on her birthday. His 16-year-old daughter, Rachel, (a senior--she skipped a grade) lives with him. Same-grade Cindy, a neighbor, runs with David frequently and has a crush on him. Rachel worries about her dad; he is on medication for “fainting spells” and she fears that he is sinking into serious depression.
Enter Gillian’s sister Esther and her husband Paul, sometime surrogate parents for Rachel, who come to the island to be with her and David on the second anniversary of Gillian’s loss. They bring along a lady friend in her late 20s, a former student and running partner of David; their transparent object is to get David to start socializing.
We see how much David likes to teach, as he drills Rachel and Cindy on the constellations. We see how much David is still out to sea over Gillian, to the point of fantasizing long conversations with her nightly. We see how much David resents being pushed to “get a life.” We see how Esther, a professional therapist, serves as both confessor and critic for David. We see that there are strong familial bonds among David, Rachel, Esther, and Paul, and knowledge of vulnerabilities that can be exploited when anger rules an exchange. And much more--there is lots of guilt, frustration, pain, love, and kindness to uncover in these tortured people over two hours.
The Lakewood players do it beautifully, with John Munn directing. Katey Daniel is a wonderful Rachel, and Kathy Shelton very good as Cindy. Deya Ozburn plays the 20-something woman (named inexplicably Kevin). I have seen her several times in south-Sound shows, and she never fails to impress. Michael J Griswold and Jeanne Ross create very emotional moments as in-laws; I was right in there with them as they sparred. Mark Hockman is Uncle Paul, a character who stays a bit on the outside of the story. And Gillian is not merely a ghost; she materializes for David’s fantasies in the person of Patti Sprague. Her playfulness with David makes a striking contrast to the intensity of his exchanges with Esther. There is also a delicious integration of Gillian into a multi-part conversation on the porch late in the play.
The set is a perfect beach house surrounded by a couple of cubic yards of ACT’s leftover sand from Grand Magic. The screen door, the kitchen window held open by a stick, the weathered railings, the omnipresent sand, all make a lovely setting for the difficult business of getting David to face his grief and move on.
This company does great work; I always look forward to visiting, and I am rarely disappointed. Closes 24 February.
Murder on the Nile
Joseph E Boling
April 1, 2001
This is a well-done rendition of a proven Agatha Christie script, a nice Sunday afternoon diversion. John Munn directed. The ten cast members deliver mostly strong performances, only some of the supporting players seeming to struggle with finding their characters’ personalities. Especially good are Tom Birkeland as Canon Pennefeather, Scott Campbell as Simon Mostyn, and Deya Ozburn as Jackie deSeverac. I had seen several of the cast in other productions in the south Sound, but several others are new to me, and I hope to see them again.
The story is too convoluted to describe briefly; suffice to say that there are a love triangle, money, an exotic setting, and red herrings galore. The mystery works itself out believably (though the success of the murder plot seems too dependent on unpredictable events to make me confident of success if I were the plotter).
It’s worth a look if you like this genre; I can’t remember when there was a similar show in Seattle.
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