THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS AIRDATE: October 07, 2005
When social-political conundrums take center stage,
it’s a good week in the theater. One play looks at the working poor, another at
race relations, and a third peeks behind the curtain of silence that cloaks the
Catholic Church.
“The Prince of L.A.” is Matthew Mark Luke Cardinal
John, a character conceived and portrayed by longtime Old Globe associate
artist Dakin Matthews. Church corruption is a subject the acclaimed
actor/playwright/dramaturge knows well, and not just because he plays Reverend
Sikes on “Desperate Housewives.” He spent years in Jesuit school and seminary,
and he shows us what clergy look and talk like in private, informal moments.
Written in rhyming verse, his often disturbing drama focuses on power, sex,
faith and fallibility. The production is a family affair - directed by
Matthews’ wife, Anne McNaughton, with his son, Andrew Matthews, playing a young
Irish priest. The performances are uniformly strong, with an especially
genuine, unaffected turn by Michael Winters as the Bishop accused of
embezzlement and sexual predation. The play has some structural weaknesses, and
could be tightened. But the story is intriguing and the production is
excellent.
Also tautly constructed but in need of a trim is the
tense/intense drama, “Dancing with Demons,” presented by Common Ground Theatre,
directed by its founder, Floyd Gaffney. On a rainy night, a young white man
picks up a black hitchhiker and brings him back to his apartment. What he says
he wants is to befriend and photograph the attractive African American. What he
really wants is revealed in a suspenseful sequence of persuasion, threats,
temptation, revelation and emotional outbursts. There are some inconsistencies
in the 2002 play by the late Don Evans, and a few in the production as well.
But the acting is superb. As former boxer Teddy “Thunder” Jackson, L.A. actor
Mister Jones has exactly the swagger and style Jerry attributes to him. And
Anthony Rosa makes Jerry a very sick and scary puppy. Nothing is quite what
you’d expect.
The writing assignment Barbara Ehrenreich got was
also not as expected. The award-winning social critic went undercover for
several months to see how the other third lives, trying to subsist on minimum
wage. The result was her best-selling 2001 book: “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not)
Getting By in America,” which was required reading for all incoming SDSU
students this year. Now the Theatre Department is staging the dramatic
adaptation by Joan Holden. Faculty member Peter Cirino directs a game if uneven
cast, with Dana Pacheco particularly compelling as the overloaded Ehrenreich.
The production, nicely designed, and framed by video interviews with local wage-slaves,
does what it’s intended to do – raise consciousness and increase compassion.
When theater takes you on an intellectual or
emotional journey, it’s definitely doing its job.
©2005 Patté Productions
Inc.