"CURTAIN CALLS" #243
By
05/16/08
A week of Scenarios, chock-full of dance,
While Hershey gave Ludwig a knowing glance.
Life of Ludwig
THE SHOW: Beethoven as I Knew
Him, the world premiere of the final installment of
the “Composer Sonata,” a trilogy of solo pieces written and performed by
Montreal-born Hershey Felder. Last year, Felder brought George Gershwin
THE BACKSTORY/THE STORY: Felder created his “Composer Sonata” to mirror the three-movement
musical form of its title. This new piece would represent the first movement,
which is typically dramatic and highly structured. Monsieur Chopin is the Romantic second movement and George Gershwin
Unlike the
other two pieces, Felder does not portray the title character here, except only
briefly, and those are the most dramatic moments of the play. Instead, he’s the
heavily accented Viennese doctor Gerhard von Breuning, whom we meet in 1870,
the 100th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. He’s 56, “the same age
as the maestro before he died,” and the “last person alive with the honor to
call myself his friend.” Well, that’s stretching it a little, since von
Breuning first met Beethoven, whom he mistook for a “filthy vagrant,” when he
was 12. His father was a childhood friend of Beethoven, but they’d been
estranged for years. When they re-meet, it turns out that Beethoven is a
neighbor. Young Gerhard visits him regularly in his messy digs, and studies
piano with him during the last two years of his life.
The stories
told in the play come from von Breuning’s 1870 memoir, “Aus dem
Schwarzspanierhaus,” (“From the Schwartzspanierhaus, My Memories of Ludwig van
Beethoven”). The Schwarzspanierhaus,” or ‘House of Black Spaniards,’ so called
because it was originally a monastery, was Beethoven’s final lodging. Von
Breuning is writing his book as we watch. He provides a few juicy details about
the great man’s living conditions, and tortured life, and a bit about his
family -- though none of the harrowing story of Beethoven’s purported abuse of
his nephew, for whose custody he battled mercilessly, for years, after which
the teenager finally escaped his uncle’s relentless wrath (he briefly refers to
the nephew as a loser who can’t even commit suicide successfully; the young man
was reportedly trying to escape his awful life with his uncle). Von Breuning’s
biggest revelation is the mistreatment of Beethoven by his remaining brother,
who is implicated in the maestro’s death at age 57 (he froze and starved him at
his home, and send him packing in an open carriage, during a storm). No
mention, though, of the long-term lead poisoning that seems, in fact, to have
been the real cause, or facilitator, of Beethoven’s demise.
The problem is,
we’d much rather spend time with Beethoven than with von Breuning, who’s a
rather dull and colorless character. He serves little purpose, except as a
conduit of information, and his heavy Germanic accent is off-putting to some.
Felder intersperses his ‘lectures’ on the work and the life to play Beethoven’s
‘Greatest Hits’ on the grand piano (“Moonlight Sonata,” “Für Elise,” etc.),
while waxing rhapsodic about the other works, some of which are heard in
ethereal recordings.
THE PRODUCTION: The set
(François-Pierre Couture) is minimal, and beautifully, if somberly lit (Richard
Norwood). The whole piece has a solemn tone; it’s relentlessly grim, dark and
dour. The only joy in the 100-minute intermissionless evening is the “Ode” to
same that opens the show (of his many talents – writing, acting, piano-playing
-- singing is Felder’s least
accomplished). Behind the action (what little of it there is), an enormous open
tome hangs overhead, with a stylized ribbon bookmark bisecting its pages. The
projections of highly abstracted pen-and-ink drawings of people and places in
THE LOCATION: Diversionary Theatre,
through June 1
Who’s that Girl?
THE SHOW: Attempts on Her Life: Seventeen Scenarios for Theatre, an experimental play by English writer
Martin Crimp. First performed at the
THE STORY: In the text, none of the lines is
assigned to a particular character; Crimp doesn’t even specify how many actors
should perform the play. In the 17 apparently disconnected scenes, groups of
people give mutually contradictory descriptions of an absent protagonist
(variously name Anne, Anny or Anushka), a woman who’s talked about as if she
were a terrorist, a suicide, a daughter, an artist and a new car. The
non-linear, deliberately fragmented work challenges an audience to re-define
its notion of play, character and identity, and contemplate whether a person
has any existence beyond the models we construct.
THE PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: This was a
risky production for a community college, but Rebecca Johanssen,
founder/artistic director of Stone Soup Theatre and adjunct faculty at Mira
Costa College has never been one to shy away from a challenge (witness her 2006
production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis).
Working 2-3 hours a day for the past five weeks, she shepherded seven members
of the student theater club, the Backstage Players, and mounted an
often-exciting production. The students handled themselves well, for the most
part (some words got swallowed, or mispronounced), and the dance moves were
evocative (created by Anna Valendez, and executed by her and Karen Villareal
and Jamie Hunt). The bilingual moments were powerful, with Venezuelan Anyelid
Meneses speaking Spanish, and later, in a provocative scene, Valendez and
Villareal played closely entwined prostitutes, talking in Tagalog. The best
scenes were ‘The New Anny’ (Anne as shiny new bilingual vehicle, with Meneses
describing a smiling Hunt), ‘Kinda Funny,’ about “the bitter sweetness of
things,” The rhymed sections have been done in other productions as songs, and
that would have altered the tone and pace of the piece, for the better, I
think. Johanssen has a good feel for the enigmatic material and its delicious,
language-drunk text. She should definitely consider a full production for her
plucky little company. This isn’t for all theatergoers, by any means. If you
need a narrative arc and clear sense of character and story, stay away. But if
you like a challenge, a dramatic puzzle, a boatload of play on and with words,
you will be titillated, intrigued and absorbed by this 20th century
contemplation of all our worst fears and obsessions.
A WEEKEND OF DANCE
THE PRODUCTIONS
…Soulos: Green is Eveoke Dance Theater’s first major production since the departure
of founding artistic director
Given the ‘compassionate social action’ on which
the company was founded, I expected ‘Green’ to have something to do with the environment.
But there was little political edge. And unfortunately, unlike Angelique’s best
work, there was little humor or whimsy, which always made her creations such a
delight. The solo pieces had names like ‘Wealth Soulo,’ ‘Purpose Soulo,’ ‘
Charming 12 year-old Niah Wilcox emerged from the
light at the outset (and as Green, sported the only real hint of the titular
color). After confronting the other women in the opener, ‘Fading Green,’ she
retreats upstage, watching for awhile and then falling asleep, ultimately
rejoining Ericka Moore (who has been the most Pushed and Pulled), to walk off
into the light (enlightened, perhaps) at the end. In between those events,
there is angst, competition, rejection, friendship and forgiveness among the
five female dancers. The most compelling solos were by Moore and Eveoke
co-founder/now executive director Nikki Dunnan.
The Location: Eveoke at the Tenth
Avenue Theatre, through June 1
…Voices of San Diego Dance Theater (one weekend
only). Jean Isaacs, in association with the SDSU School of Music & Dance,
and the SDSU Department of Theatre, presented a weekend of works by four
choreographers, including Isaacs, Wendy Rogers (based at U.C. Riverside), Keith
Johnson (from Cal State Long Beach) and San Francisco-based Joe Goode. It was
an exhilarating evening of eight short pieces, each stylistically and musically
unique. The standout was “Caved-In Heart,” the solo Isaacs created for Lauren
Slater, daughter of County Supervisor Pam-Slater Price, who was there with
husband Herschel, both proud as could be. Lauren is a stunning dancer: lithe,
focused, controlled, statuesque. She stayed within a sharply focused spotlight
(lighting design by Michelle Caron), with her marvelous extensions and
outrageous flexibility, executing with extreme precision Isaacs’ twists, turns,
crumblings, snakelike moves and bird-wing arms. The Isaacs/Slater collaboration
produced a stunning image of a woman crushed, trying to reclaim her poise and
stability and hold her head high.
Another of Isaacs’ works, “Engulf,” was also
provocative, performed by her modern dance students, to Jordi Savall’s “Homage
to Pablo Casals.” Ten black-clad women take positions of suffering and anguish,
supplication and prayer. They crisscrossed the stage in a tight cluster, moving
as one, like frightened shore birds. They looked to the sky and crumpled to the
ground, slithering away as the light faded (lighting design by Kelli
Grovskopf). Powerful imagery of pain. Goode’s gripping piece, “I Don’t Want to
Be There,” included projections, spoken word and imagistic moves, telling a
story of loneliness and isolation (“I’m what you’d call perennially lonely… But
why? Why am I like this? I like to protect myself against this vicious world”).
Liv Isaacs-Nollet was especially potent here, as dancer and solo bar-sitter
(projected onscreen). The dancing, by six of Isaacs’ company, was robust.
Isaacs’ “Satie Suite,” set to the elegant,
redoubtable “Two Gynmopedies,” was played live – elegantly -- by her main
squeeze, pianist Steve Baker, and danced by her daughter, Liv Isaacs-Nollet, in
duet with tiny, weightless Veronica Martin Lamm, joined by the wonderful
Bradley Lundberg and John Diaz. At first, the moves for the women were angular
and lyrical, gentle and impulsive. As strong and connected as they were
together, that’s as weak and disengaged as they became once the males arrived.
The women hung like deflated balloons, pretty little ragdolls flung around by
their men. At the end, though, the gals came together again, left to lean and
depend on each other, in a striking final image.
Wendy Rogers’ piece, “Second Story,” with a
prolonged startup of eye-catching projections and silent dance moves, opened
the evening, followed by Bradley Lundberg’s “Leave Me
The evening ended with Sadie Weinberg’s “American
Torch Songs (excerpts),” set to music by Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Dinah
Washington, strong women telling a woman’s story of hope, expectation,
desolation (all in froufrou prom dresses) and finally, strength and
independence. The seven female dancers, including Weinberg, go through
adolescent histrionics and despair, being left and lost, and then, tossing off
the corsage and crinolines (Weinberg designed the costumes, too) and standing
up for themselves.
A great evening for dance… and for women. Two
proud mamas there on Mother’s Day weekend: Isaacs and Slater-Price, watching
their daughters do what they do so wonderfully.
…Don Quixote (one weekend only),
the elaborate, full-length production by City Ballet, closed the company’s 15th
season. Based on the Cervantes novel, the ballet was created by choreographer Marius Petipa
to the music of Léon Minkus. Its 1869 debut was performed by the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi
Theatre, with a seminal revival by
I’ll only comment briefly on the ballet, because I have to believe that
a principal dancer falling in the first act colored the rest of the
performance. Taureen Green, playing the romantic lead, Basilio, recovered
rapidly, but though his later leaps were at times thrilling, his pairing with
Janica Smith, as the ingénue Kitri, was not. The lifts never had smooth
landings, and as the lovers central to the story (Don Quixote is really a
marginal – and rather pointless – figure here) there was no visible chemistry
between them – either emotional or terpsichoreal. Several times during the
course of the production, Green seemed at peril of losing his footing. Smith
was consistently outstanding in her flawless form and endless turns. But the
lack of connection affected even the famous Grand Pas de Deux in the final act.
Each seemed better dancing alone. Throughout the performance, the women fared
better than the men. Ariana Samuelsson (daughter of company founders, Steven
and Elizabeth Wistrich) was polished and exciting as Mercedes (she alternated
in the role of Kitri, and I would’ve liked to see her in it, too). Tara Formanek
and Kate Spaulding were delightful as the friends of Kitri, and Megan Nichols
was aptly agile and sprightly as Cupid.
Many of the characters in 19th century narrative ballets
were created as non-dancing, acting roles. Here, that included Don Quixote
(Steven Wistrich, who had very little to do and barely registered as an onstage
presence, except for his evocative costume) and Sancho Panza (Paulo Manso de
Sousa, who brought pratfalls and physical comedy to his big-bellied role). The
corps de ballet, which looked beautiful but wasn’t always in perfect synch,
included a bevy of young, budding ballerinas, who acquitted themselves well as
the Baby Cupids in the second-act dream sequence. There were many virtuoso
dance moments, and some striking stage pictures. The attractive sets (Robert
O’Hearn), costumes (David Heuvel) and lighting (Stephen Judson) highlighted the
proceedings. I can only assume that I saw a really skewed performance, and will
surely give the company another try in their 16th season.
NEWS AND VIEWS ….
…On the Air, Again…. On Saturday, May 17, I’ll be appearing on KUSI-TV’s
“Good Morning,
… Bigger than we imagined… The SuperNova New Play
Festival, produced by Vox Nova Theatre Company, will include full
productions of The Tutor by
…Tony-Time! The nominations for the 62nd Tony Awards are out… and
… Hats off to Gaffney!
…Debbie
Does
…
The Final Fritz Frontier…
THE
…Intelligent
Design (but not THAT kind!)… Carlsbad Playreaders presents The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (An
Instant Message with Excitable Music) by Rolin Jones. Seema Sueko
reprises her Patté Award-winning performance (Old Globe, 2004) as an
agoraphobic Chinese teen with OCD, a compulsion to build a robotic doppelganger
and an obsession about finding her birth mother. The staged reading, directed
by Siobhan Sullivan, also features Frances Regal,
…
Lovely weather for ducks! … ion theatre presents the fifth installment
of its Intimate Ibsen series -- The Wild Duck, an 1884 drama that is
on one level a domestic tragedy and on another, a morality tale of human
frailty, fall and possible redemption. Before the performance, which will be
directed by San Diego Rep co-founder D.W. Jacobs, Ibsen scholar and
series translator Brian Johnston will present a symposium on the play,
followed by a discussion with the audience. Monday, May 26. Reservations highly
encouraged. In the Lyceum Theatre Space: Symposium at 4pm,
…
Driving Miss Sandy… Sandra Ellis-Troy will star, along with Antonio
TJ Johnson, in a reading of Driving
Miss Daisy,
'NOT TO BE MISSED!' (Pat’s Picks)
Diversionary Theatre,
through 6/1
Prelude to a Kiss –a modern-day fairy tale, enchantingly told
New Village Arts,
through 5/18
The mid-month of May is a marvelous moment for
some drama – or comedy, or music. Go see a show!
Pat
© 2008 PATTÉ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
For more than 20 years,