Pat Launer on San Diego Theater
By Pat Launer, SDNN
Thursday,
October 15, 2009
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-14/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-desire-woolf
READ REVIEWS OF: “Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?,” “Nine Parts of Desire,” “Long Story
Short,” “Fires in Heaven”
MINI-REVIEWS: “The
American
Gothic
THE SHOW: “Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” a drama by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee, at Compass Theatre
If you wanted to start climbing, you wouldn’t begin with Everest. Then
there’s Shana Wride. The long-term, well-regarded
actor chose to make her first full-length foray into directing with one of the
most challenging, punishingly difficult plays in the American canon: Edward
Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf!” And she did a spectacular job.
The intensity and brutality of the writing is overpowering enough; but in
a small, tight space, you feel like you’re right there in George and Martha’s
shabby living room, swept into their awful games of “Get the Guest” and “Hump
the Hostess,” as they humiliate each other and their unsuspecting guests in one
booze-soaked night of truth and illusion, revelation and degradation. The 1963
play won the Tony Award and New York Drama Critics’
Circle Award for Best Play. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, but the award's
advisory board—the trustees of Columbia University—objected to the play's
then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes, and no Drama Prize was
given that year. Interestingly, there were no swear
words in the original version. But for the 2004 revival, starring Kathleen
Turner and Bill Irwin (who won a Tony for his performance), Albee went back and
revised the text, adding in the curses he couldn’t have written 40 years before
and deleting one seminal scene, when the young “slim-hipped,” “mousy” wife,
Honey, describes her avoidance of motherhood. When I asked him a few years ago
why he did it, he said it “wasn’t necessary.” I thought it was the only scene
that revealed her motivations.
The play still packs a whallop (with or without
the profanity). This isn’t just a tale of two self-destructing marriages, one
decadent and another decaying. It paints a bigger picture, of
Most casts for the play are lopsided. It’s difficult to achieve a
complete balance, with four actors who can successfully inhabit these
enormously complex, multi-faceted characters. Wride
has cast well, and there’s big payoff all the way through three riveting hours.
Glyn Bedington is spectacular as Martha, a
blowsy, brash “floozy,” daughter of the president of the university who
belittles her husband for being a failure and a disappointment, for not having
gone further than associate professor, and not having taken over the whole
college, as she’d hoped and planned. Martha has to be aggressive, sexual, feral
and also vulnerable and deeply damaged. Bedington
plays all the colors of the character with gleeful abandon and a taste for
blood. As George, Dale Morris matches her tone for tone. He’s beleaguered and
oppressed, but also wily and crafty, intelligent and conniving, able to
out-game Martha and undermine his guests. George’s skillful manipulations and
barely concealed venom are easier to play than his understanding and adoration
of Martha. In its dysfunctional, warped way, this is a love story. Under Wride’s sensitive, muscular direction, Bedington
and Morris display the couple’s playfulness and their underlying affection.
That’s a masterful stroke all around.
Tyler Herdklotz isn’t consistently potent as
Nick, but he does show some spark in standing up to George. He could show the
character’s nasty, calculating underside, to greater effect. Kelly Iverson,
who’s blossoming as a performer, is a wonderful drunk as Honey, not half as
whiney and annoying as Sandy Dennis was in the Academy Award-winning 1966 film
that starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor (her best performance ever;
both women won Oscars). Iverson’s strong throughout, stunning in several scenes
(her dancing with uninhibited abandon, for instance). During the fight scene
(nicely choreographed by Donal Pugh) she doesn’t
quite reveal her darker side, her lust for violence.
The set (Adam Lindsay) is aptly detailed and dilapidated; the lighting (Michell Simkovsky) and sound
(Matt Warburton) are fine. The only misfire is the costume design (Lisa
Burgess), specifically, Martha’s supposedly sexy outfit, which should be a
little outrageous, based on George’s sarcastically calling it her “Sunday
chapel dress.” This Martha just wears black pants and a black, off-the-shoulder
top, not at all the seductive get-up it should be.
These are minor quibbles. The play is one of the American greats. And amid
all the brutality, it can be brutally funny. If you haven’t seen it in a while,
you should. Even if you have (I saw Kathleen Turner’s performance, and frankly
prefer Bedington’s!), this one’s a winner, and a
must-see.
THE LOCATION: Compass Theatre,
THE DETAILS: Tickets:
$20-23. Thursday-Saturday
at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., through October 24.
THE BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET
UNDER
THE VEIL
THE SHOW: “Nine Parts of Desire,” a drama set in
Five months ago, Heather Raffo returned to her
alma mater, the
The play is an ideal match for Mo’olelo
Performing Arts Company, which specializes in telling the stories of those
whose voices are rarely heard. The mission of the vagabond
group (last year in residence at the La Jolla Playhouse), focuses on speaking
for varied and under-served communities and bringing new groups to the theater.
Instead of presenting the play as a solo show, they’ve expanded it to three
actors, each playing three roles. And they do something Raffo
herself couldn’t manage, in spite of her prodigious talent. The women interact,
they support each other, they sometimes echo each
other’s words. Under the expert, delicate and meticulous direction of Janet
Hayatshahi, they waft in and out of these heart-rending stories, passing one abaya among them, wearing it guardedly or carelessly, over
the face or off the shoulder, as chador or as painting smock. Beneath it,
they’re dressed in modern Western clothes, showing us that they’re really just
like us, only in extremis.
They are all survivors, women of profound courage and strength, who share
a great deal: guilt for the fortitude and good fortune that has kept them
alive, grief for those they’ve lost and a deep and abiding love of their
country. The play’s title refers not only to the number of women. It’s borrowed
from a non-fiction book by Australian reporter Geraldine Brooks, who in turn
quotes from Iman Ali in the Koran: “God made desire
in ten parts and gave nine to women.” The proverb is often used as justification
for cloistering and covering Islamic women. For Raffo,
it’s an allusion to the earthiness and frank sexuality of the women who
captivated her. But their most fervent desire may be for their lives to return
to a semblance of normality, to a place of peace, where they can live openly,
vibrantly, unencumbered by laws, rules, subjugation and heavy cloth.
The most colorful character is Layal, based on
the artist Layla Al-Attar, who became curator of the
Saddam Art Center (painting innumerable portraits of the leader) by placating
the regime, offering her body to anyone who would help her stay alive. But Layla/Layal, a forceful, free-spirited woman, also made
very subversive pictures, displayed in the upper floors of the Center – risky
paintings, of nude women, that surreptitiously denounce the regime. She was
only successful up to a point, killed in a
The actors speak in varied accents (coached by the Old Globe’s
dialect-maven, Jan Gist) and move deftly through the evocative set (David F.
Weiner), a snakelike array of water vessels and bowls, symbolizing both the
daily tasks of a woman and the all-important River Euphrates. The background is
a wall of blue-green Moorish architecture, the floors strewn with pillows. And
there’s one tree, an important image in the art-work of Layal.
That unforgettable character is marvelously inhabited by Lisel Gorell-Getz, who
underscores the character’s unshakable lust for life. She also does wonderful
work as the doctor who only delivers deformed and diseased babies, due to the
various contaminants left behind by the war; and Umm Ghada,
sole survivor of the Amirya shelter where 400 people
died, including her nine children, after an American, Gulf War bombing. Now she
offers ghoulishly dispassionate tours of the place, and she asks us to sign the
guestbook, too. They all speak to us directly, as if we’re their interviewers,
or friends – or their eyewitnesses.
Dré Slaman is excellent as a wide-eyed 8 year-old girl who
misses her father, realizing too late that her youthful, casual remark may have
been responsible for his kidnapping and death.
Slaman also makes a strong statement as Mullaya, the professional mourner and Huda, the
whiskey-drinking exile who feels she should have been in
Frances Anita Rivera is powerful as the beggarwoman,
Nanna; as Amal, the
Bedouin; and as the Iraqi-American (based, presumably, on Raffo
herself), fingering her rosaries as she compulsively recites the names of the
relatives in
THE LOCATION: Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company at the 10th
Avenue Theatre,
THE DETAILS: Tickets:
$22-27. Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m.;
Sunday at 2 p.m., through November 1.
THE BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET
Together, Forever
THE SHOW: “Long
Story Short,” a two-person musical, at San Diego
Repertory Theatre
First, a little history:
In 1951, Jan de Hertog wrote a play called “The
Fourposter,” which premiered on Broadway and starred
the First Couple of the Theater, Hume Cronyn and
Jessica Tandy. In 1966, Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones (creators of “The Fantasticks”) made the story into a musical. Both shows
contained one bed, center stage, and concerned one couple, seen over a period
of time, through the ups and downs of their courtship, marriage, children,
extramarital affair and old age. It was the first musical to feature only two
performers, but those two happened to be megastars of Broadway musicals, Mary
Martin and Robert Preston.
In 2002, the Old Globe presented the West coast premiere of “An Infinite
Ache,” David Schulner’s modernization of “The Four
Poster,” with an up-to-the-minute mixed-race couple – she an independent Asian
go-getter, he an unfocused Jewish neurotic. And now, along come violinist
Valerie Vagoda and keyboardist Brendan Milburn, a
real-life couple and two-thirds of the alt-folk/rock band Groovelily,
to make a musical out of the play that was an adaptation of a play that was
made into a musical. (The project began as a commission by City Theatre of
Pittsburgh; the writers chose the vehicle).
So, having seen all those incarnations, some of them more than once, it’s
hard to find something new in this newly reworked little musical. It’s
agreeable and engaging (more or less; the 90 intermissionless minutes do not
fly by). It has a distinct whiff of been here/seen this. The performers are
amiable and appealing; the actors’ voices are pleasant. But there’s nothing
knockout here, and certainly nothing groundbreaking.
The score is interesting and unpredictable, but it’s unlikely to produce any
memorable, recordable songs like “My Cup Runneth
Over” from “I Do, I Do.” The orchestrations are what’s unique; Vigoda has put some killer violin riffs in there (played by
Victoria Bietz), and a mournful cello (Diana Elledge) also features prominently. Mark Danisovszky is the gifted music director/leader/pianist of
the 5-piece band.
There’s one twist in the structure and one in the story. The dialogue is
realistic and well presented. And the ending brings tears to many eyes, but I
felt emotionally manipulated (I teared up at the end
of “E.T.,” too; that didn’t make it a good movie).
Melody Butiu, who was impressive in “Boy” and “Dogeaters” at the La Jolla Playhouse, and also appeared
previously at the Rep, in “Celebration of the Lizard,” does a fine job as
no-nonsense Hope. Robert Brewer is kind
of sloppy/zhlubby likable as Charles. But after it’s
all over, all you say is ‘Hmmm… that was nice. It made me think of my
marriage/relationship/life.’ If that’s what it intended (not enough to sustain an riveting evening of theater, IMHO), then the show met its
goals admirably.
THE LOCATION: San Diego
Repertory Theatre in
THE DETAILS: Tickets: $34-53.
Wednesday at 7 p.m., Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m., through
October 31.
Sufi
Saint
THE SHOW: “Fires
in Heaven,” a world premiere by local scholar/dramatist Marianne
McDonald, resident playwright at The Theatre, Inc.
Did you know there was a female saint in Islam? Me neither.
Born in the year 717, in what is today modern
Her fascinating life story intrigued Dr. Marianne McDonald, a scholar/playwright
who’s best known locally for her translations of Greek tragedies. Her book,
“The Living Art of Greek Tragedy,” is a wonderful synthesis of historical and
modern productions.
Her newest creation, a world premiere, is “Fires in Heaven: For Those Who
Believe in Miracles,” presented by The Theatre Inc. As McDonald notes in the
program, Rabiya “shunned the traditional trappings of
religion, devoid of genuine depth and spirit, which means [that today] she
would be a thoughtful, powerful ally against the rampant fundamentalism in
The language of the play, which borrows liberally from Rabiya’s passionate poetry, is lyrical. The musical
underscoring (by Hossein Omoumi
and Shahrokh Yadegari) is haunting and hypnotic. The cast includes eight
people, but they are mostly backdrop to the primary relationship, between Rabia and the thief, Misbah. The
choreography (Douglas Lay and Bianca Chapman) that often plays out in the
background, sometimes stylized, sometimes slow-mo, is lovely and evocative. The
suggestive set (Vince Sneddon), sound (Blair Robert
Nelson) and lighting (Mitchell Simkovsky) create a
somber mood. Lay’s direction is precise and understated.
As Misbah, Brian Abraham, always an effective
and imposing presence, is brought to his knees – and to deep and abiding,
life-changing truth – by this soft-spoken, numinous woman. At first, he wants
to steal from her, to take all she’s got. But with the promise of a treasure,
she convinces him to spend the night with her, talking and praying. His life is
changed by that experience.
Diana Sparta exudes a luminosity; she gives a
beautifully calibrated, centered performance as Rabia.
If only she wouldn’t race through some of her lines, in an apparent effort to
sound natural and unstilted. Even so, her radiance overpowers all.
THE LOCATION: The Theatre,
Inc.,
THE DETAILS: Tickets:
$29-62. Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.,
Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., through October 25.
THE BOTTOM LINE: GOOD BET
MINI-REVIEWS
Can
I Have Your Attention?
I caught one of the final performances of “Distracted,” the local premiere of
a fast-paced, amusing/disturbing 2007 comedy about ADD (Attention Deficit
Disorder) in our hyperactive, hyper-connected society. It was written by
award-winning playwright Lisa Loomer, who often
places social messages in her fascinating work. “The Waiting Room,” for
example, is about the definition of beauty in various cultures/time periods
(ancient China, Victorian England, modern-day America) and what women do to
themselves to achieve it (foot-binding, damaging corsets, breast
augmentations). She usually finds intriguing ways to play with form and
structure, to make her activist points a little obliquely.
Here, too, though
she presents all the various health care and alternative specialists and
treatments that can drive parents of children with ADD batty, she employs a lot
of clever theatrical conventions, too: breaking the fourth wall (so an actor
can defend the use of medication, for instance, saying that he could never have
learned his lines without it); or having the whole story related by the mother,
with the young boy appearing only as an offstage voice, until the last moment
of the play. That 9 year-old, the source of all family/school/neighbor concern,
was effectively played by Jonah Gercke, son of the
co-founders of New Village Arts, Kristianne Kurner and Francis Gercke. He does a fine job with a thankless role; the kid
screams and curses at his mother the whole time.
Eric Bishop,
chair of the theater department at
This was
something of a coup; Bishop snagged the first non-professional performance
rights to the play, which just completed a run on Broadway, with Cynthia Nixon
(“Sex and the City”) in the lead role. The scenic, lighting and sound design
wonderfully complemented the fanciful nature of the storytelling, as well as
the omnipresence of technology in our lives. This isn’t some esoteric
consideration; there’s a growing incidence of ADD (perhaps up to 10% of the
population). What Bishop learned during
his rehearsal period was that a large proportion of his cast of 11 had
first-hand experience with ADD. This play walks the fine line between art and
edutainment. And after all the considerations and ruminations, it has a
disappointingly simplistic conclusion (forget the medication; just pay
attention to your kid). But it was a gutsy effort and a thoroughly engaging
production.
Making
History
What a thrill it was to be part of the sold-out performance of “The
With acclaimed director Darko Tresnjak, the La Jolla Playhouse amassed a
stellar 32-person cast, making it a genuine community event. The big excitement
was for the high-end actors (Richard Dreyfuss, Mare Winningham, Robert Foxworth, Kandis Chappell, Bruce Vilanch,
James Sutorius, T. Ryder Smith and many others,
including young Stark Sands, who’s playing Clyde in the new musical, “Bonnie
and Clyde,” opening at the Playhouse next month). Local actors Monique Gaffney,
Sam Woodhouse, James Winker and Trina Kaplan were there. And the Chair of the
It was heart-breaking, to hear that so many residents of Laramie are
telling revisionist stories, asserting that Matthew was the victim of a robbery
or drug deal gone bad, not a hate crime at all. It was inspiring to watch a
post-performance feed from
NEWS AND VIEWS
… SEE THEATER
FOR FREE!: The 5th annual, national Free Night of Theater is currently taking place in more than 120
cities, with 750 participating theater companies and 75,000 tickets being given
away. The ticket giveaway, which is spearheaded by the Theatre Communications
Group in
… Theater for
Youth: The California Center for the
Arts - Escondido, is providing
an affordable introduction to the world of live theater with its “Center Stage: Performances for Youth”
program, which features quality shows for only $2 each. The season includes
eight weekday performances that plug into the curriculum in history, literature
and music. When classes book their tickets together, a free, standards-based
Educators’ Guide is provided. First up is “Tomie de Paola’s Strega Nona: The
Musical,” presented by Maximum Entertainment Productions. Geared for grades
K-4, the show is based on the award-winning children’s book series by de Paola,
about a friendly witch, her young assistant and a magical pasta pot. Students
will be able to greet the characters after the performance. Wednesday, October
28 at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. in the Center’s Concert Hall, 340 N. Escondido Blvd.
Tickets: (800) 998-4253; www.artcenter.org
… Gender
Bender: It’s a ribald send-up of a movie classic. “Shut Up, Sweet
… Doin’ it for Nina: Calvin Manson, founder/artistic director of the Ira Aldridge Repertory Players, has
been asked by the family of the late, great Nina Simone, to write a play about the beloved singer, songwriter, pianist,
arranger and civil rights activist. The musical, which will open in February, covers the
life of “The High Priestess of Song,” from age 16-65. Manson promised Nina’s
daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, that he won’t even try to have performers imitate
Simone, either vocally or physically. He’s already had 20 audition requests,
but this one will be tough to cast. More info as it becomes available.
… Need
Comedy?: The
Needeman Brothers are here to help. The two-man
musical comedy cabaret show, featuring Jorge Luis Abeu
and Anthony Bollotta (musical director/composer Rayme
Sciaroni), will soon be back at Tango Del Rey in Pacific Beach. These childhood
friends, one Afro-Cuban, the other Italian, look nothing like brothers. But theey move in perfect synch and complete each other’s
sentences. They’ve appeared around the country, with their signature brand of
zaniness and old standards (“Delta Dawn,” “Stop in the Name of Love,” etc.).
Their feel-good show is part camp, part heart, part gay romp, with odes to
Jeannie, Maude and That Girl, and a heavy dose of poking fun at stereotypes –
and themselves (their name seems to reflect their lives, i.e., Need-a-Man).
October 24 at 9 p.m. at Tango Del Rey,
WHAT’S UP WITH…
… The Reynolds
Clan: acclaimed local actor Rosina
Reynolds is spreading her wings -- and her talent – to other locales. She’s
currently appearing in “Steel Magnolias” at the La Mirada Theatre for the
Performing Arts in southeast L.A. county (through Oct. 28), where she earned a
great notice in the L.A. Times. The cast also includes Cathy Rigby and Michael Learned. Meanwhile, husband Rojo has just become the box
office manager at the San Diego Repertory Theatre. And their daughter Kate, a graduate of Yale’s theater
program, was in "Private Lives" in the Finger
Lakes area of New York this summer and then moved on to horror flicks, and an
independent feature-length comedy called “Stick It To Them.”
UCSD Alums:
… Jennifer Barclay (MFA, ’09), who
trained in Playwriting and wrote three fascinating works for the Baldwin New
Play Festival (“Obscura,” “The Attic Dwellers” and
“Freedom NY”) was recently selected as one of five finalists for the
prestigious Goldwyn Screenwriting Award, whose previous winners include Francis
Ford Coppola. Barclay’s “Prank,” a
sexy dramatic thriller about a gang of vigilante sisters, was selected from
among 150 scripts. “I make it a priority to create stereotype-busting roles for
women,” says the playwright/screenwriter. One of the three judges is actor
Hilary Swank; the awards will be presented Nov. 2.
… Kirsten Brandt (BA ‘94) is directing the West Coast premiere of “Groundswell,” by Ian Bruce, at the
San Jose Repertory Theatre (through 11/8). Kirsten is former artistic director
of Sledgehammer Theatre, and now serves as the associate artistic director of
Vox Nova Theatre Company and a lecturer at the U C,
… Larry Herron (MFA
’08), who gave wonderful performances in three Baldwin New Play Festival works,
as well as UCSD productions of “The Physicists” and “The Labyrinth of Desire,” will be appearing
on the following TV shows this fall: “Numb3rs,”
“Lie to Me,” “Cold Case” and “Medium.”
… Matthew Patrick Davis (BA
‘01), who appeared in “Veronica Mars” and several episodes of “Days of Our
Lives,” now has a recurring role on “Greek”
on the ABC Family TV network.
The
… Tweet, Tweet? How much can you say in
101 words? (Twitter, you may recall, is 104 characters). Turns
out, quite a lot. A whole story’s worth, in fact. WRITE OUT LOUD,
the local company dedicated to reading literature aloud, is presenting the
second annual reading of San Diego CityBeat’s “Fiction
101” writing competition winners. The contest has been running since 2002;
the editors of CityBeat select and print the winning
stories. The only rules of entry are: “You have 101 words to craft a
compellingly humorous, sad, tragic, scary, heart-warming, silly or abstract
story.” As Write Out Loud co-founder/executive director Walter Ritter puts it,
these are “terrific examples of how much can be said with very few words.” An
impressive array of
… Lobbying Hard:
PAT’S PICKS: BEST
BETS
“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” – up-close, personal and intense. Superbly acted and directed
Compass
Theatre, through 10/28
“Nine Parts of Desire” – heart-rending stories
of Iraqi women, wonderfully told
Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company, through 11/1
“Man from
Cygnet
Theatre, through 11/1
Read
Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-07/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-sammy-creditors
“Creditors” – a brutal ménage à trois, excellently executed
Read Review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-07/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-sammy-creditors
“Sammy” – a promising world premiere
musical, in its earliest incarnation
Old
Globe Theatre, through 11/8
Read Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-07/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-sammy-creditors
“August:
Ahmanson
Theatre,
Read
Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-09-23/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-things-plow
“Godspell” – inventive, energetic, inspiring
Lamb’s
Players Theatre at the Horton Grand Theatre, open-ended
Read
Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-22/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-42nd-st-twist
Pat Launer is the
SDNN theater critic.
To read any of
her prior reviews, type ‘Pat Launer’ into the SDNN Search box.