THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS
AIRDATE: October 10, 2003
It's a rare treat to see two Pulitzer
Prize-winning plays in one week. You can catch the 2001 winner, "Proof,"
at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, then hop up to Orange County for this
year's Pulitzer, "Anna in the Tropics," at South Coast Rep. Both are
provocative and stimulating. David Auburn's "Proof," a mystery about
math and genetics, is also a family drama and a love story. "Anna in the
Tropics," by Nilo Cruz, concerns cigars, literature, automation and
infidelity. And most assuredly, love. The response to one may be intellectual;
to the other, visceral.
The title of "Proof" refers
to how crucial truth and certainty are in math and how rarely they appear or
apply in life. 25 year-old Catherine fears that she's inherited her father's
madness as well as his mathematical genius. She also worries that her father's
protégé, a math-whiz wannabe, is after her for the wrong reasons. Directors Sam
Woodhouse and Delicia Turner-Sonnenberg have shifted the balance of the play so
the love story and the theme of brilliance vs. mediocrity assume a higher
profile than the family dynamic. Perhaps the balance will shift again as the
cast settles in. TV actress Danica McKellar, a bona fide math mastermind with a
proof that bears her name, may have been born to the role but has yet to firmly
inhabit it. Likewise Sam Woodhouse as her father. Neither is the riveting force
they need to be. The slack is taken up by Francis Gercke, whose portrayal of
the nerdy suitor is ferocious and hilarious, a tad too much so at times. Cheryl
Kenan Fording is excellent as Catherine's Yuppie sister, awash in envy and
ordinariness. The beautiful mess of a Chicago back porch was masterfully
designed by Jerry Sonnenberg. Though less enigmatic than it could be, this
satisfying production of an intriguing play will leave you thinking and talking
long after it ends.
"Anna in the Tropics" may
leave you touched, titillated -- overcome by the heat. In steamy, 1929 Tampa
Florida, a lector arrives at a cigar factory to read to the rollers,
maintaining a tradition begun in Cuba and continuing there today. What a
magnificent idea: reading from the classics to workers stuck in routinized
jobs. Mechanization of the factory will soon edge out the lector. But for now,
he's here, he's reading "Anna Karenina," and no character's life will
ever be the same. The pungent words provoke amor and even murder. Life
imitates art; the novel plays out in the factory, and the power of language
overwhelms us, too. The play is lyrical and seductive. Director Juliette
Carillo encourages her sultry, passionate ensemble to ravish us as well as each
other… and we willingly succumb.
©2003
Patté Productions Inc.