SAN DIEGO THEATRE SCENE

"CURTAIN CALLS" #272

By Pat Launer

1/23/09

When, this week, you’re out and about,

Check out The Dresser; go see Doubt

Theater gives you titillation

And Six Degrees of Separation.

Riddled with Doubt

THE SHOW: Doubt, A Parable (original title, Doubt, modified on publication), the 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winner by John Patrick Shanley that began off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club and then transferred to Broadway and ran for 525 performances in 2005. The work also won the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Play. The film version, adapted and directed by the playwright and starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best Adapted Screenplay (Shanley).

THE STORY: It’s 1964. The world is changing. Even the church is changing, with the Second Ecumenical Council (AKA Vatican II) modernizing rigidly-held practice and dogma, making Catholicism more user-friendly. But there’s turmoil in the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx. The hidebound principal, Sister Aloysius, frowns on anything new or modern or different. She disdains ballpoint pens, and secular Christmas songs. And being nice to students. For her, the stern way is the best way. She tries to teach this to the naive and sympathetic new teacher, Sister James. The senior Sister is unnerved by the young priest, Father Flynn, who plays basketball with the students, and spends time alone with the altar boys. She wants to bring him down, and a faint whiff of impropriety is her opening. She goes at him with a vengeance, accusing him of unseemly behavior with the only black boy in the school. The boy’s mother is called in. Habits notwithstanding, nothing is black and white. Lives are affected, potentially destroyed. But the scent of Doubt hangs in the air, long after the lights go down.

“The beginning of change,” says the playwright in his Preface, “is the moment of Doubt… we’ve got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word.”

Shanley was enrolled in Catholic School in the Bronx in 1964. This is, in some ways, his story. And it’s ours. Embrace the uncertainty.

THE PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: Director Todd Salovey, the Rep’s associate artistic director, has always excelled in the face of moral/spiritual issues, and this play provides plenty of juicy concerns for him to sink his teeth into. He’s cast wonderfully; this is a superb ensemble. And they have the perfect space to play in. Giulio Perrone has designed a spare but elegant set: stately marble columns, leaded windows, Sister’s bare-bones, uncluttered office, cobbled walkways and a small garden of winter-trimmed roses. Trevor Norton’s lighting accents it ideally, and Michael Roth’s marvelous musical compositions provide a superb soundscape.

As the bright-eyed, enthusiastic young Sister James, Amanda Sitton is excellent; torn between two powerhouse superiors, as well as her desire to do well and her devotion to the church: wanting to be a good and caring teacher, fearful of the principal who tells her to be tough and skeptical. Like all the characters in the play, she’s in conflict, forced to choose between her convictions and her loyalties. Monique Gaffney plays the mother of the young student with all the pride and shame the role demands. She’s strong and upright, a pragmatist used to being beaten down, defensive of her son but realistic about him, too. Her one scene is potent, seminal. It shows how far a mother will bend, how much she will swallow, to give her son a better chance.

As Father Flynn, Douglas Roberts, a frequent visitor to the Rep, sports a heavy Noo Yawk accent (he’s the only one in the cast who does) and an easy way with an argument or a parable. He can be affable or aggressive, particularly with Sister Aloysius. All the protagonists are well aware that this is a man’s world; women have no power in the church hierarchy. Sister Aloysius tries to circumvent this reality, but Father Flynn will beat her at the game. Still, she does make him doubt himself, and we watch the uncertainty play on his face when she suggests that she has hidden evidence against him. That powerful moment fuels our own nagging suspicions.

At the center of the maelstrom, Rosina Reynolds gives a bravura performance as the stiff-backed and inflexible Sister Aloysius; her strikingly pallid face devoid of makeup, her assurance unswerving, until the very end. That moment is the only misstep in an otherwise superlative production. In the final image, when the Sister confesses her doubts, she should be totally alone, isolated, agonized. But Salovey has the younger nun, a caring soul whose life has been turned upside down by the director’s strictures, put her arm around Aloysius and lay her head on her shoulder. That feels wrong. The older nun should suffer, as she’s made others suffer; a woman who has eschewed personal connection, who sets herself apart from human contact and kindness, doesn’t merit comfort. She should be left alone with her tortured thoughts. And after an intense, intermissionless evening with these tormented souls, we leave the theater lost in our own ambivalent reflection.

THE LOCATION: San Diego Repertory Theatre, through 2/8

BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

Connection and Disconnection

THE SHOW: Six Degrees of Separation, a play written by John Guare in 1990, made into a film in 1993. The drama was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards (Best Play), as well as the Pulitzer Prize. It won London’s Olivier Award for Best Play in 1991.

THE STORY: The playwright was inspired and affected by a 1983 newspaper account of a confidence scheme, and he ran with it. The way he tells the tale, set in 1986, an attractive, articulate young black man insinuates himself into the home of a wealthy Upper East Side couple, claiming to be the son of Sidney Poitier, and a friend of their kids at Harvard. He’s intelligent, talented, knowledgeable, irresistible. He knows about art and literature; he expounds theories on Kandinsky and Holden Caulfield. He cooks a delicious dinner. And then, he turns out not to be who he says he is. The kids don’t know him. He’s a petty thief and a hustler. And he pulls the same scam on several other couples, in one case, with disastrous effect. He doesn’t really do anything bad to Ouisa and Flan Kittredge. And yet… the supremely materialistic Flan, a successful art dealer, worries for his possessions and his cash. For Ouisa, lonely and empty in her privileged life, Paul Poitier is a breath of fresh air and excitement. He makes her feel alive again, and she doesn’t want to let him go, even after she finds out some of the truth about him.

That impending connection to celebrity, that potential for being in a Poitier-directed film version of Cats, that titillating thrill of the new and unknown: it stimulates her and makes her maintain contact with Paul. Even though no one knows who he really is. What becomes clear is, no matter how bonded people should be, the more isolated and alienated they actually are. Whether husbands and wives, parents and children, or close friends, no one really seems to know anyone else – or him/herself. Everyone is desperately seeking genuine attachment, each in a more or less unsuccessful way. It’s all about duality and ambiguity, and characters as messy and ambivalent as real-life human beings.

The play is smart, unnerving, enigmatic, filled with mystery, drama, comedy (bordering on farce at times), fantasy, dreams and discomforting thoughts. The title refers to what’s called “the human web,” a social network theory of our ‘shrinking world’ that stems from a hypothesis posited in the 1920s.

“I read somewhere,” says Ouisa with no small amount of fascination, “that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet… I am bound to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.” The trick, of course, is finding the right six people. The play spawned the parlor-game, “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” based on the contention that every actor ultimately comes back, in just six steps, to thesp Bacon. And there’s the online version, “Six Degrees of Wikipedia” (6DW), an attempt to relate any two factoids (by means of Wikipedia entries) by no more than six links. In 2007, Kevin Bacon turned the game productive, creating a social networking site, sixdegrees.org, that inspires charitable giving.

THE PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: The production is a fascinating mix of the real and hyperreal, conspiratorial storytelling, breaking the fourth wall and dream sequences. New York director Trip Cullman keeps all the balls in the air; the pace is lively, the outcome unpredictable. There are histrionics (the actors start out bellowing for the first few minutes), but the cast is outstanding, with Karen Ziemba thoroughly engaging, if somewhat pathetic, as Ouisa, lost in her vacant, wealthy life, craving excitement and ‘experiences.’ Her attraction and attachment to Paul is understandable. Thomas Jay Ryan is quite amusing as her high-strung, mercenary husband, Flan. There’s a bevy of ancillary characters: friends and offspring (caricatures, but funny ones) and other victims of the scam. Samuel Stricklen is wonderful as Paul; he’s charming, smart and endearing; who wouldn’t take him in? The Cats ploy is really far-fetched, but some of the point here is that folks believe what they want to believe. And that gets intertwined with noblesse oblige and collective guilt about African Americans. Add to that the American obsession with celebrity. It’s all credible, and though we’re a lot more paranoid and cynical these days than in the ‘08s, it’s not hard to believe this kind of con could happen again (hey! Look what Bernie Madoff convinced people of!).

The set (Andromache Chalfant) is stunning, high-end elements suggesting a spacious, upscale New York apartment, festooned with modern art. The magic happens when the back wall gives way to the gritty street below, graffiti and all; that’s the world Paul inhabits when he’s not ripping off rich people. The costumes (Emily Rebholz) are aptly character-defining (Ziemba’s outfits are especially beautiful). The lighting (Ben Stanton) and sound (Paul Peterson) bring the action into enchanting relief.

Both play and production are appealing, perturbing and thought-provoking, and shouldn’t be missed.

THE LOCATION: The Old Globe Theatre, through 2/15

BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

Real-life Postscript: In 1983, David Hampton, the con man who inspired the play, managed to convince at least four New York couples that he was a Harvard student, a friend of their children and the son of actor Sidney Poitier. Many of those duped were friends of the playwright, including actor Gary Sinise. After the play became a success, Hampton was tried and acquitted for harassing Guare; he felt he was due a share of the profits, but he was not awarded a penny. In 2003, Hampton died of AIDS.

Dressing Up.. and Dressing-Down

THE SHOW: The Dresser, the 1980 play by Ronald Harwood, which was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Play. Tom Courtenay reprised his portrayal of the title character, Norman, when the piece opened on Broadway in 1981, and garnered a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. Another Tony nom was for Best Play. The last San Diego production (at least in this critic’s memory) was in 1992 at the Coronado Playhouse.

THE STORY: The sometimes comical drama is based on the real-life experiences of the playwright, who served as dresser to the distinguished Shakespearean actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, represented as “Sir” in the play. The character is completely ruthless and self-absorbed. He’s also profoundly driven to perform – even in the face of advancing age, infirmity and total exhaustion. He wanders out into the wintry street, loses his awareness of time and place, winds up in the hospital. But he checks himself out, and with his Dresser’s encouragement, goes on as King Lear (for the 227^th time), even though he repeatedly forgets the opening lines, and even which play he’s doing. Norman is his adoring sycophant, who’s held the job, and known nothing else, for 16 years. Meanwhile, the air-raids are constant outside; it’s London, 1942. But the show goes on. Other characters (mostly window-dressing) waft in: the long-suffering wife, an attractive ingénue, a few other company members, a devoted stage manager. But the main action and interaction are between Sir and Norman, who waits a lonely lifetime for a little acknowledgment, which will never come.

THE PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: Under the expert direction of David Ellenstein, each of the minor characters takes on three-dimensional life… from the disgruntled Geoffrey (Mark Petrich), in full Fool regalia, to the limping, snidely Oxenby (Jason Maddy). Kali Kirk is effective as the adoring Young Thing, Irene, who just wants to get close to the once-brilliant actor, Sir, and doesn’t mind if he ogles or fondles her. Susan Denaker looks wonderful (excellent costumes by Michelle Hunt Souza) and effects a somewhat imperious, high-pitched voice as Her Ladyship. But though she coddles her obstreperous and curmudgeonly husband at times, she also tells him the cruel and unvarnished truth, making fun of the royal monikers they sport and reminding him, with rancor, “You’re a third-rate actor-manager on tour of the provinces.” Lynne Griffin is superb as the no-nonsense stage manager, Madge, who’s always loved Sir from afar; she sadly refers to herself as “the spinster in the corner.”

But when all is said and done, this is a play about the relationship of the two melodramatic men at its center: the willful abuser and the willing abused. As Sir, Jonathan McMurtry is monumental, a force of nature. He rises and falls with grandeur, believably a once-great actor, now a crumpled, haunted man who cannot stop doing what he’s always done, knowing, like Norman and Madge, that there is nothing else for him in life. As the title character, Sean Sullivan is engaging, and ascends to the level of spectacular during the backstage chaos of the Lear storm-scene, and especially in his final emotional breakdown, when his true colors come out, and he’s at his nastiest and most self-involved. But he’s not quite fey or fawning enough, not as prissy or bitchy as written. It’s hard to be bigger than a mentor – especially McMurtry, who commands the stage at every moment. Still, it’s a gut-wrenching relationship, and the acting and directing draw us into its vicious web.

THE LOCATION: North Coast Repertory Theatre, through 2/8

BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET

A Taste of Patté

The 12^th Annual Patté Awards for Theater Excellence was a sellout, a knockout and a huge success. The new venue – the Westin Gaslamp Quarter – was elegant, the food was delectable and the entertainment was terrific: the mega-talented Tonéx opened the evening with “Partay,” from the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s world premiere production of The Princess and the Black-Eyed Pea. Later in the evening, Leigh Scarritt, Mauricio Mendoza and a bevy of beauties sang “Folies Bergère” from the Starlight Theatre production of Nine; the Dreams (Sabrina Sloan, Natalie Wachen and Jessica Jones) sang the title song from the Patté Award-winning Outstanding Production of Dreamgirls from San Diego Musical Theatre. And the grand finale was a tap-happy “Forget About the Boy,” from San Diego Junior Theatre’s Thoroughly Modern Millie. By all reports, the 460 attendees had a super time. Even in this perilous economic climate, the theater community came together in full force, recognizing how important it is to gather and celebrate the tremendous talent among us. If you weren’t there, don’t despair: You can watch the show on Channel 4 – Friday, Feb. 6 at 8pm. Segments of the show will be on youtube, and the webcast – as well as still pix -- will be at www.thepattefoundation.org soon. In the meantime, check out – and congratulate! -- all the wonderfully talented winners:

Outstanding Ensemble

Don’t Dress for Dinner – North Coast Repertory Theatre

A Little Night Music – Cygnet Theatre Company

Bluebonnet Court – Diversionary Theatre/Moxie Theatre

Les Misérables – Moonlight Stage Productions

Outstanding Scenic Design

Amy Chini – The Listener – Moxie Theatre

Mike Buckley – The Hit – Lamb’s Players Theatre

Outstanding Sound Design

Tim Boyce – A Streetcar Named Desire – ion theatre company

Chris Luessmann – A Christmas Carol – North Coast Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Lighting Design

Fernando “Jay” Huerto – Multimedia Design, Hotel Cassiopeia – SDSU School of Theatre, Television and Film

Jason Bieber – Night Sky - Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company

Outstanding Costume Design

Christine Crook – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – UCSD Theatre and Dance

Jeanne Reith – Body of Work

Outstanding Direction

Adam Arian – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – UCSD Theatre & Dance

Claudio Raygoza – The Pillowman – ion theatre company

Sam Woodhouse – Water and Power – San Diego Repertory Theatre

Outstanding Performance

Sean Cox – Three Days of Rain – Compass Theatre

Joshua Everett Johnson – Golden Boy – New Village Arts Theatre

Tom Zohar – Yank! – Diversionary Theatre

Antonio “T.J.” Johnson – Fences – Cygnet Theatre

Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson - Fences – Cygnet Theatre

Deborah Gilmour Smyth – The Light in the Piazza - Lamb’s Players Theatre

Tonéx – Dreamgirls – San Diego Musical Theatre

Outstanding Production

33 Variations – La Jolla Playhouse

The Women – The Old Globe Theatre

Dreamgirls – San Diego Musical Theatre

SPECIAL AWARDS

Outstanding New Play –“The Tutor” by Allan Havis

Shiley Lifetime Achievement Award – Leon Natker and J. Sherwood Montgomery

John Guth Award for Behind-the-Scenes Brilliance – Peter Herman

Theater Angel Award – Pam Slater-Price

The Patté Scholarship: The Dea and Osborn Hurston Award for a Promising Young Theatermaker

Jaime Myers

Honorable Mention:

Jacob Sampson

LaVon Wageman

NEWS AND VIEWS

… Brush Up Your Shakespeare… The Shakespeare Society of San Diego is presenting “A Shakespeare Society Sampler,” featuring selections from their popular Celebrity Sonnet event and Shakespeare Musicale. Keynote speech by educator/director/producer/actor William A Virchis. February 7, 12:15-2:15pm at the Mission Valley Library. Admission is free. www.sandiegoshakespearesociety.org.

… Last weekend of the Playwrights Project’s annual Plays by Young Writers, Exciting productions and readings by budding playwrights below the age of 19. Through Jan. 25 at the Old Town Theatre. Schedule at: http://www.mycommunitytickets.com/organization.info.asp?

… Youth Auditions… The Missoula Children’s Theatre, the nations’ premier participatory children’s theater company, is making its tenth visit to Poway. More than 50 local kids will participate in a one-week theater camp that leads up to two full-scale production of a new musical, The Princess and the Pea (performances on March 21). Auditions for children grades K-12 will be held on Monday, March 16 at 4pm at PCPA, 15498 Espola Rd., Poway.

… Workshop of a world premiere musical… Director/choreographer Javier Velasco and San Diego’s award-winning blues diva/activist Candye Kane are teaming up to present The Toughest Girl Alive, based on Kane’s vivid and dramatic life. Workshop performances will be offered to the public from 1/ 29-2/1 at Diversionary Theatre. Reservations at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=69987520183ref+ts.

… Do something dramatic for Valentine’s Day: The National Comedy Theatre will be presenting a special VD show called “House of Cards” (Feb. 14 at 7:30 and 9:45pm). For the first half of the show, after a couple in the audience is interviewed, the cast will improvise important scenes from their lives, past relationships, first meeting, embarrassing moments, etc. The improv will include songs, inner monologues and plenty of mating anxiety and despair. The second half of the evening will feature “Comedy Court,” during which couples are encouraged to “sue” each other for ‘crimes’ such as leaving the toilet seat up or buying too many pairs of shoes. Reservations and information at www.nationalcomedy.com.

… And for that OTHER VD celebration, don’t miss The Vagina Monologues, presented by InnerMission Productions, in association with Triad Productions and StepUp Theatre. Every February, Eve Ensler makes her work available world-wide to help support girls and women who are victims of violence. Local proceeds go to the San Diego Center for Community Solutions. Carla Nell directs, and I’ll be part of the large cast, which also includes Jo Dempsey, Kym Pappas, Wendy Maples and KUSI’s Kristen Cusato. The event, which takes place on Feb. 26 at the Birch North Park Theatre, will be followed by a gala across the street. Two days later, on Feb. 28, check out the San Diego premiere of the male counterpart of the VJ Monologues, The MENding Monologues (conceived by Derek Dujardin, directed by Christopher Burger), at the Tenth Avenue Theatre. Tickets and info at: http://www.innermissionproductions.org.

'NOT TO BE MISSED!' (Pat’s Picks)

Doubt – stellar performances, provocative play

San Diego Repertory Theatre, through 2/8

The Dresser – a tour de force at the center of this fine drama, with fine performances surrounding it

North Coast Repertory Theatre, through 2/8

Six Degrees of Separation – wonderful ensemble, intriguing play, excellent production

The Old Globe Theatre, through 2/15

Cabaret Dances – smart, sexy, sultry and jazzy – in San Diego’s premier jazz venue

Jean Isaacs San Diego Dance Theatre at Anthology, Saturdays at 5pm through 1/25

American Buffalo – excellent production: intense, menacing and powerful

Compass Theatre, through 2/11

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – superb writer/actor/director showcase, wonderfully executed all around

Laterthanever productions at the 10^th Avenue Theatre, through 2/1

Boomers - you gotta love it, even if you aren’t one. Fabulous band, super songs, high-energy performances

Lamb’s Players at the Horton Grand Theatre, extended again, through 2/15

Cap off this historic week by being entertained and provoked in a theater near you!

For nearly 25 years, Pat Launer has been the only regular broadcast theater critic in San Diego. An Emmy Award-winner with a Ph.D. in Communication Arts & Sciences, Pat sees and reviews more than 200 local theater productions every year. For the past decade, she has hosted and produced The Patté Awards for Theatre Excellence, a gala community event that honors local theatermakers and celebrates the broad diversity of San Diego theater.