THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS
AIRDATE: August 13, 2004
The power of a painting. It can
inspire a play … or ruin a friendship.
An ultra-modern, white-on-white oil-on-canvas becomes the inflammatory
fulcrum of Yasmina Reza's "Art." In "Las Meninas," written
by award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, a 17th century portrait by the
Spanish master, Velasquez, provided a title and a behind-the-scenes glimpse of
the royal court.
Nottage spent eight years
researching her chilling but often-comic play, a fact-based but forgotten story
of political intrigue and insensitivity, outcasts, infidelity and the strength
of the human spirit.
"Las Meninas," which
means ladies-in-waiting, focuses on Marie-Thérèse, unhappy Spanish wife of
French Sun-King Louis XIV, trapped in a marriage of political expediency. One
day, she receives a present from her uncle. When she opens the large box, out
springs a small man -- an African dwarf, kidnapped and sent to amuse the
despondent, isolated queen. The two lonely outsiders develop a relationship,
and the unfortunate result of their union, Louise Marie-Thérèse, was falsely declared dead at birth, and
banished to a Benedictine convent. We meet Louise on the eve of her final vows
of silence. She addresses us, as her fellow sisters, as she pieces together her
past.
In launching the second season
of his fledgling Cygnet Theatre, Sean Murray
soars triumphantly again. His direction and design of "Las
Meninas" are elegant, and his cast is aptly majestic, sumptuously costumed
by first-time designer Jose Maria Martinez Ybarra. Robin Christ is at once
regal, childlike and heartbreaking as the despairing, powerless Queen to a
faithless King, imperiously portrayed by Daren Scott. Christopher Wylie,
too-long absent from local stages, is marvelous as the gentle and noble Nabo.
And with her poetic memories and nimble moves, Monique Gaffney makes us feel
the pain of obliteration by family and history. This is a stirring evening of
theater, and a story that will stay with you long after the lights go out
onstage.
"Art" is a more
intellectual pursuit. The play is oh, so very French -- three guys sitting
around an upscale apartment, ruminating, cogitating and tearing each other
apart… over a painting. But when Serge, a divorced dermatologist, purchases the
large, all-white canvas for an obscene price, Marc, a controlling,
condescending aeronautical engineer, sees red. Caught between them is poor
Yvan, a conciliatory stationery salesman who's bullied by the women in his life
and can barely survive the battering of his buddies. It's a wonderful pas de
trois at Lamb's Players Theatre. Paul Eggington nails the snobbish
aloofness, Bob Smyth the cynical horse-laugh and Tom Stephenson a fever-pitch
of hysteria, under Deborah Gilmour
Smyth's solid direction. The brutally humorous play makes you think about
friendship and honesty, art and taste, trust and tolerance. And in this age of
politicized anti-intellectualism, that is a very good thing indeed.
©2004
Patté Productions Inc.