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March 29, 2008
March 28, 2008
Know gets 'bare'
Go! feature
“bare: The Musical” is, according to director Jason Bruffy, “sort of an epic story, but it deals with high school students in a Catholic boarding school.”
Peter and Jason, students hiding their relationship from their peers, are publicly exposed after they begin experimenting with “designer” drugs in the club scene and exploring their feelings further, and with others.
“It’s about whether or not they can accept their relationship, or whether the church can or the world can,” Bruffy said.
“bare” has been an underground hit for the last several years, making its Los Angeles debut in October 2000, then finding its way to New York and Chicago.
“It’s a little outside the norm of what musical theater is today,” Bruffy said, “drawing from influences like 'Rent’ and 'Spring Awakening.’”
Bruffy said one reason Know Theatre decided to do “bare” was because it gave them a chance to reach out to the regional college programs.
“We have some solid programs at CCM, Wright State University and Northern Kentucky University, so we went on a little bit of a search,” he said. “There’s a cast of 15, which is pretty big for us, and 12 of them are students or recent graduates.”
To fill out the adult roles, Bruffy not only pulled from the Know regulars but also wrote the Know’s first Equity contract by landing a guest artist appearance from Cincinnati resident Pamela Myers, whose resume includes a Tony nomination for the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” She has appeared on such iconic TV shows as “St. Elsewhere” and in stage classics from “Gypsy” to “Sweeney Todd.”
- WHAT: “bare: The Musical”
- WHERE: Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson St., Cincinnati
- WHEN: April 3-May 4
- COST: $12-$22
- MORE INFO: (513) 300-5669; www.knowtheatre.com
photo by Deogracias Lerma
'Radio Golf' plays the right notes
Go! review
Life is good for Harmond Wilks and his circle. Not only is he on the verge of becoming Pittsbugh’s first black mayor, but a development deal he’s working on will make him rich AND be a boost for the Hill District where he grew up. And there’s more: His wife, Mame, is about to land a prestigious job in the governor’s office and his partner Roosevelt Hicks has been promoted to vice president of the bank where he’s worked his way up the ladder.
So it’s no wonder that everybody seems to be going around humming “Nothing but blue skies from now on.” Indeed, when “Radio Golf” opens, Wilks and his partner are preparing to tear down the last house that stands in the way of their development, which would include prestigious and trendy tenants like Starbuck’s and Barnes & Noble. But on his way to work, Hicks sees an old man painting the house. Known around the neighborhood as “Old Joe,” the man says he’s getting the house ready for his daughter to move in, and as it turns out, he just might have a legal claim to the property because of the way it was purchased even though Hicks and Wilks currently have the deed.
The situation puts everything in jeopardy: The development, the mayoral race and even his wife’s job, and Harmond Wilks has to make a moral decision whether to back out of the deal and let justice prevail, or to bully ahead no matter what the consequences.
Although there were a few rough moments on opening night, the Ensemble Theatre’s production of “Radio Golf” seems to hit all the right notes with a cast of actors all new to the Cincinnati area. It’s a beautiful and thought-provoking production of a play that explores an aspect of Murphy’s Law (what can go wrong, will go wrong).
- WHAT: “Radio Golf”
WHERE: Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, 1127 Vine St., Cincinnati
WHEN: Through April 6
COST: $27-$35
MORE INFO: (513) 421-3555; www.cincyetc.com
photo by Sandy Underwood
The theater never sleeps
Go! feature
Melanie Marnich was happily working away as a copywriter for a Cincinnati advertising agency when she had a life-changing experience.
“I was in the middle of a great career without any interest in leaving,” she said. “Then I went to see a play one night and I saw the light: This is how my brain works.”
She was so caught up in the revelation that today she can’t even remember what play it was, but she started getting involved with a local playwrights’ group, thinking it would be something she could do on her off-hours.
“I didn’t intend to change careers, but I ended up getting an MFA in playwriting and had some wonderful luck,” she said, landing productions at the Guthrie Theatre and the Humana Festival for New American Plays, as well as a staff writing job with the television series “Big Love.”
Now, her “A Sleeping Country” has been awarded the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize. It’s the story of a desperate woman in New York City who becomes convinced that she has the “Worst Insomnia in the World.”
“I’ve been a lifelong insomniac,” she said. “My trouble sleeping has been one of the central worries and wonders of my life, and I started writing a draft of this when I thought that in this day and age, no one should be able to sleep. Of course you’re depressed and anxious — you just saw the news.”
- WHAT: “A Sleeping Country”
- WHERE: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park
- WHEN: through April 20
- COST: $44.50-$54.50
- MORE INFO: (513) 421-3888; www.cincyplay.com
March 27, 2008
Bad Signs: Emergency Bra
Dog and Critter
March 26, 2008
Angel Hands: Old Rugged Cross
Angel Hands: R.I.P. Gloria
Angel Hands: Broken Cross Triptych
Bad Signs: Floor's of Many Color's
I think I'll get me one of those Twister carpet's he's unrolling.
Bad Signs: Confort
March 25, 2008
Bad Signs: Reserved Seating
Angel Hands: St. Mary's Cemetery, Hamilton, Ohio
Bad Signs: Breakfast Served Anytime ... ?
March 24, 2008
Humana Art Show
One interesting thing about the Humana Festival is that the Actors Theatre of Louisville decorates its halls with art exhibitions. Last year they had giant earthenware water pots. This year it was "The Artists of Lowertown Paducah, Kentucky," paintings and sculptures from artists working in Paducah.
My nomination for Best of Show, above, is this encaustic painting by Nikki May titled "Vosro/Mio," which I think is Italian for "Yours/Mine." I'm a sucker for the female figure anyway, but I really like the muted colors and the soft, flowing lines. There's something sexy about wax, too, the way it looks like skin.
I also enjoyed the whimsical "Mixed media with string and staples on paper" by Teri Moore, titled "Mom Says" (below, click on it to get a more detailed view).
I didn't see an explanation at the gallery, but a little Internet research tells me that Paducah has worked hard in the last few years to attract artists in some kind of relocation program. May came there from Atlanta and Moore from Chicago.
March 22, 2008
Humana Festival, Day 2
No exaggeration: This was my best day of playwatching ever.
The morning started with what still remains my favorite play from this Humana Festival: Lee Blessing's "Great Falls."
Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati has done a few Lee Blessing plays, including four world premieres, and I remember that I interviewed him in advance of one of them, but it's been a while and I'm not sure which (and I'm feeling too lazy to try and look it up right now), so I was looking forward to this one anyway, but that doesn't mean I was prepared for this journey.
And it was a journey. Even before the lights go down, we hear a car starting. When they come back up, we see a middle-age man and a young girl in a car, obviously on a long journey. It immediately reminded me of me and my daughter on our recent road trips, except this girl is very surly and the first words out of her mouth are: "You're going to get raped in prison."
It turns out the girl, who we know only as Bitch, is not the man's daughter, but ex-step-daughter, a few days shy of her 18th birthday, and whether she's actually been kidnapped or not is a matter of perspective. Maybe the man, known only as Monkey Man, has just misrepresented his intentions. He just wants to talk to her, he says, but they've ended up in a motor tour of the the American West, in a way recreating a road trip that Monkey Man took with his family as a child. He wants to explain to her the reason why he divorced her mother. He is desperate to make that connection, and before the play is over, he makes one, though probably not in the way he envisioned. Certainly, he never envisioned what it would cost the girl.
To say much more would be to give away the play's secret treasures, but suffice it to say this is one of the rare plays that left me literally speechless at the end for fear of breaking out into tears. It wasn't quite the breakdown I had when I first saw Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women," but once I was safely outdoors and around the corner I did release a few sobs to take some of the pressure off so that I could start talking about this amazing play.
Personal resonance aside, Blessing's script is rich in its poetry and deft in developing two characters so familiar and so rich without ever giving us their names. It's a perfect piece of theater: Two actors and a couple of props (including one hilarious jackalope) on a bare stage creating a universe centered on human drama.
It seems that several of the plays at this Humana includes themes of reaching out to family. "Great Falls" was followed by "Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom" by Jennifer Haley. This is the story of a neighborhood that through the marvels of gaming technology and satellite imaging has fallen victim to either a bevy of zombies or a group of teenagers so game-obsessed that they're not allowing a little bit of murder and mayhem — or alienation from their family — stop them.
It's an interesting concept and an interesting enough script, but some of the staging proved a little difficult. An ensemble of four actors (male and female adult; male and female teen) to play all the characters of similar demographic, but only the male adult (John Leonard Thompson) was successful enough in making each character distinct to avoid confusion, so we spent too much time trying to orient ourselves while the action rushes ahead.
Gina Gionfriddo's "Becky Shaw" turned out to be another well-written and entertaining play. Gionfriddo's "After Ashley" was also one of the highlights of the 2004 Humana Festival. "Becky Shaw," however, is more of a straight-ahead comedy concerned with personal issues while "After Ashley" turned more on societal concerns.
The title character is not exactly the lead character, but more of a catalyst for Suzanna Slater and her sort-of adopted brother Max Garrett, whom Suzanne's parents took in to raise when he was 10 years old. The play opens four months after Suzanne's father's death. Her mother has moved on, much to Suzanne's chagrin, by taking up with a much younger aspiring filmmaker named Lester, while Suzanne still wears black, feeling alone and adrift. Max has grown up to be a savvy and wealthy on his own financial manager, and brings the others together in a vain attempt to settle the estate. Several months later in Scene 2, Suzanne is married and she tries to fix Max up with one of her husband's co-workers, a delicate little bird named Becky Shaw. But the date ends tragically — to Becky's mind, at any rate — and the repercussions of the event haunt the other characters for months to come.
Gionfriddo's script moves quickly and covers a lot of time, but also generates some good, hearty laughs. Max is a particularly engaging character, and I suspect Suzanne would be, too, but actress Mia Barron didn't make her real enough to allow us to love her. That is, Barron's body language and manner of delivery never once convinced us that Suzanne was actually experiencing the emotions she laid claim to.
The evening ended with the only stinker in the Festival so far, Carly Mensch's bit of juvenilia, "All Hail Hurricane Gordo," an anemic comedy about a group of late teens-early 20-somethings trying to make it on their own after being abandoned — some literally, some figuratively — by their parents.
There is one idea in there that had promise: Chaz collects phone books and writes to everyone he can find with the same last time in an attempt to find his parents. It seems to me that a visit from a stranger in this regard might have had more interesting results.
PHOTO: Halley Wegry Gross and Tom Nellis in "Great Falls." Photo by Harlan Taylor for Actors Theater of Louisville.
Live from Louisville
Just finished up our first night at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky. — one of the highlights of my theater year, seven plays in three days.
First up was "This Beautiful City," a musical, or a play with music anyway, a play created from live interviews with people living in Colorado Springs, the evangelical capitol of America. The show was created by The Civilians, the group that created the hilarious "Gone Missing," which we saw last summer at the Barrow Street Theatre in Greenwhich village.
Like "Gone Missing," "This Beautiful City" is played with a minimum of irony, but is very funny at times. I've been to churches like the megachurch New Life, and the group nails both their worship style and the church lingo, and the script doesn't take sides (although the audience surely did), but presents the wacky nature of both the righteous and those who do battle with them.
The story revolves around the fall of Ted Haggerty, the charismatic leader of the New Life church who was brought down by a meth dealing male prostitute a couple of years ago, exploring both the irony observed by outsiders and the pain of betrayal suffered by those who believe.
Performed ensemble-style and including some members of the Actors Theatre intern company, "This Beautiful City" also featured original music and an overhead show that, like much of the script, was too close to reality to be considered parody.
The late show tonight was the anthology the Actors Theatre commissions each year as a showcase for the intern company. "Game On" is one of the funniest, most energetic of the anthologies I've seen. We were particularly bowled over by the segments written by Rolin Jones (no relation), one a look at the absurdity of extreme sports (like lava hockey), and the other a playground drama involving a pepper-spray wielding fourth-grade tether ball champion taking on a sixth grader. Hilarious stuff, and it turns out that Jones is a writer for "Weeds," one of my favorite series. Contributing writers include Zakiyyah Alexander, Alice Tuan, Daryl Watson, Marisa Wegrzyn and Ken Weitzman, with songs by Jon Spurney. There's also a pre-show entertainment with a guy in a chicken suit and another guy in a non-specific mammal suit. The guy next to me thought raccoon. I thought maybe possum. Barb says badger, and I think she might be onto something, although I heard one of the actors calling it a ferret, but that may have just been an insult.
So far, the Humana Festival is looking pretty good. Tomorrow, four plays!!!
March 18, 2008
'Rabbit Hole' shows aftershocks of tragedy
Go! review
“Rabbit Hole” begins with a woman folding clothes, a mundane kind of activity, but a significant act in Becca’s life, for this is the last time that she’ll do the laundry for her son. A few months before the action of the play begins, her 4-year-old son Danny was killed when he chased his dog into the street and ran into the path of an on-coming car.
Undoubtedly the worst thing in the world for a parent is to suffer through such a loss, and “Rabbit Hole” explores how Becca and her husband Howie cope with it — which is not very well. She wants to rid her house of all reminders of her son down to getting rid of the house itself. Howie likes having the stuffed animals around and takes to sitting up alone late at night watching home videos from happier times. She loathes the support groups because the other parents feel their own grief, but not hers. He finds comfort there.
Becca’s sister and mother share in their grief but are helpless to unburden them. In fact, Becca resents her mother’s constant comparisons to the loss of her own son, certain that her grief is unique. And her sister Izzy, now pregnant with her own child, has to remind Becca that the whole family lost Danny.
Most difficult for Becca and Howie, however, is the presence of Jason, the teenager who was driving the car that killed their son, and having to share their grief with him.
“Rabbit Hole” is the kind of play to bring tissues to, no doubt, but that doesn’t mean it’s totally depressing. Indeed, David Lindsay-Abaire’s script is a total delight, the way the characters talk around a point, letting the real story and their real feelings out by degrees.
The Human Race production is beautifully staged on a turntable set (though a little noisy) that reveals three rooms in the house through cut-away walls.
- WHAT: “Rabbit Hole” by David Lindsey-Abaire
- WHERE: Human Race Theatre Company, Loft Theatre, 126 N. Main St., Dayton
- WHEN: Through March 30
- COST: $28-$31
- MORE INFO: (937) 228-3630; www.humanracetheatre.org
Samara Bay and Barbara Calarese Dirr
Photo: Scott J. Kimmins
March 17, 2008
Going pro with a rock star fantasy
Go! feature
Gary Mullen had long been a rabid fan of Freddie Mercury and Queen when his mum pulled a fast one on him.
“I was always singing their songs when I was a kid, using my bed as a stage and a hairbrush for a microphone,” the Scotsman said. “Freddie was my hero: larger than life, super-confident, but also with a dark and insecure side.
“He was also very tongue-in-cheek with what he did and never really took himself seriously.”
Mullen played in a few bands and such in high school, but believed he’d had enough of that when it came time to raise his family and took a job with Compaq as a computer salesman, but continued to wow local karaoke audience with his Mercury impersonation.
Then with the consent of the missus, his mother put in an application for him to be on the British television show “Stars In Their Eyes,” a contest in which people impersonate famous singers.
“She knew I wouldn’t do it myself,” he said, “so when they called to tell me I would be in the show, I was incredibly sarcastic with they guy because I thought someone was having me on.”
But compete he did and when he won the Grand Final in 2000, “No one was more surprised than me,” he said.
He also found an opportunity to really make his dreams of being a rock star come true and put together a band “to re-create the Queen experience.”
“For some, it’s a nostalgia trip,” he said, “but the fans keep getting younger and I see people bringing their children and grandchildren. Sometimes I feel like one of the boy bands up there on the stage.”
Since 2002, “A Night of Queen” has been touring the United Kingdom and Europe virtually non-stop, and this year makes its first swing through the United States with rousing renditions of Queen’s greatest hits, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Are the Champions,” “Somebody to Love” and “Another One Bites the Dust.”
“Like Freddie, we give it 140 percent every night,” Mullen said. “Otherwise, you’re cheating the fans if they're not deaf and blind by song four.”
- WHAT: “One Night of Queen” by Gary Mullen and the Works
- WHERE: Procter & Gamble Hall, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati
- WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 22
- COST: $30-$40
- MORE INFO: (513) 621-2787; www.cincinnatiarts.org
March 16, 2008
Cincinnati Playhouse announces '08-'09 season
Go! Announcement
When it comes time to decide what to put on the stages at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, producing artistic director Ed Stern says he doesn’t pick plays, he designs seasons.
“I could just pick 10 plays that I’d be really excited about, but it would be a terrible season,” he said. “When we put together a season, we want to celebrate the breadth and range of theater.
“If people want the same-old same-old every time, well, that’s what television is for.”
The Playhouse’s 2008-09 lineup includes one world premiere and six regional premieres as well as the return of one of the most popular shows in Shelterhouse Theatre history.
At the Marx Theatre, the larger of the two houses:
• A new musical version of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” with music, lyrics and book by Paul Gordon, who scored a Tony nomination for the lyrics to “Jane Eyre” in 2000. Audio excerpts from “Emma” are on-line at www.myspace.com/emmathemusical. Opening night: Sept. 4.
• John Kolvenbach’s “Love Song,” a quirky comedy about a man in a self-imposed exile that celebrates the rich rewards of embracing life and love. Opening night: Oct. 23.
• Cincinnati playwright Joseph McDonough scores his second New American Play Prize for “The Travels of Angelica,” the story of a writer on the run in Colonial America. Opening night: Jan. 22.
• Larry Shue’s classic comedy, “The Foreigner,” the story of a shy man who pretends to be from another country to avoid speaking to the locals while on a vacation. Opening night: March 12.
• A new adaptation of “Dr. Jeklyll and Mr. Hyde” by Jeffrey Hatcher (“Murderers,” “A Picasso,” “The Turn of the Screw”). Opening night: April 23.
The Thompson Shelterhouse season:
• Julia Cho’s “Durango,” the story of a road trip made by a Korean immigrant and his two teenage sons. Opening night: Sept. 25.
• A revival of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” the love-happy musical revue, with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts, first presented by the Playhouse in 2000. Opening night: Nov. 6.
• “Blackbird,” by Scottish playwright David Harrower, billed as “a cat-and-mouse tale of volatile emotion and sexual intrigue.” Opening night: Feb. 12.
• Arlene Hutton’s “Last Train to Nibroc,” a World War II-era love story between May, a young woman who dreams of doing missionary work, and Raleigh, a soldier with ambitions of becoming a writer, that takes place on a cross-country train. Opening night: April 2.
• “Marry Me A Little,” a new story that recycles songs edited out of popular Stephen Sondheim musicals. Opening night: May 14.
Ticket Packages:
Subscriptions to the 2008-2009 Playhouse season are available now in a variety of packages. Prices range from $111.50 to $304 for the f
• Ten-Show Season: $312.50 to $564.50
• Five-show Robert S. Marx Season: $111.50 to $304
• Five-show Thompson Shelterhouse Season: $202 to $318
• “Build Your Own” package: $164 to $490.50 for four to nine shows
• Discounts available for senior citizens, young professionals and full-time educators.
• The Baby Sitter Rebate Series: Receive $100 at the end of the season to help cover the cost of baby sitters.
INFO: (513) 421-3888; www.cincyplay.com
Anna Bullard, R. Hamilton Wright and Mark Anderson Phillips in Arizona Theatre Company’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Photo by Tim Fuller.
March 12, 2008
Will, We Hardly Knew Ye
Last month, I delivered a paper to the Hamilton Roundtable Club about the life of William Shakespeare and how little we know about him.
CLICK HERE TO READ IT.
or copy this address into your browser:
March 11, 2008
No doubt about the quality of "Doubt"
Go! review
At first blush, Sister Aloysius seems like the cliche educator nun. Even in 1964, when “Doubt: A Parable” takes place, she rails against the ball-point pen and the effect it has on penmanship. She speaks in sentences that seem to be culled from a book of pithy quotes: “Innocence is a form of laziness,” or “Don’t let a little blood muddle your judgment.” And when it comes to being sympathetic to the children in her charge, forget about it. “Every easy choice today will have its consequence tomorrow,” she tells fledgling teacher Sister James.
So when she has concerns about a relationship between the parish priest and one of the new students, the first “Negro” student in the St. Nicholas Church School in the Bronx, we have to wonder if she’s just reacting from her loathing of the priests in general, or if she really has such a keen sensibility in such matters.
Father Flynn’s story makes sense to Sister James, but then again, her pie-eyed enthusiasm is as much a source of the underlying humor in “Doubt” as Sister Aloysius’ crustiness. Nevertheless, the principal is so convinced that something untoward is going on that she bucks the Catholic hierarchy to challenge Father Flynn’s position.
Thus John Patrick Shanley’s script — winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play — presents a moral dilemma with potentially tragic consequences.
Even though it takes place in 1964, “Doubt” resonates with the scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the last decade or so in regard to the behavior of priests. In this time, the nuns are so suspicious of priests that they avoid even passing them in the courtyard.
This conflict, augmented by an insightful wit and sharply-drawn characters that rise above their type, not to mention an evocative set that looks about to implode on itself, makes “Doubt” an important play for our era and surely one not to be missed.
- WHAT: “Doubt: A Parable” by John Patrick Shanley
- WHERE: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati
- WHEN: Through April 4
- COST: $39-$52
- MORE INFO: (513) 421-3888; www.cincyplay.com
Photo by Sandy Underwood
Caitlin O’Connell portrays Sister Aloysius and Ted Deasy is Father Flynn
March 10, 2008
It takes a madman....
Go! Feature
You’d have to be a madman to attempt an adaptation of Herman Melville’s epic 700-page novel “Moby Dick” into a two-hour stage production.
But it would take a genius to be able to not only create a viable, producible work from it, but to also make it relevant and timeless.
“Orson Welles is the guy,” said Timothy Sekk, who plays the narrator — “Call me Ishmael” — in “Moby Dick Rehearsed,” the Acting Company’s touring production that will stop for a night next week at the Aronoff Center.
“In addition to this production being a visually stunning adaptation of a difficult novel that clips along at a wonderful pace, but it is timeless because of the human emotions — revenge and pride — that it deals with,” Sekk said.
“Because of the times we are living in, there are many parallels you can draw about an unstoppable quest for something that cannot be attained, this production can be extremely profound on many levels,” he said. “That’s not to say there’s a political spin on it, but simply that the allegory can affect you in a way you don’t expect.”
The premise is this: A troupe of actors circa 1840s, about the same time as the publication of “Moby Dick,” abandon their rehearsal of a play about one unforgiving, vengeance obsessed man, King Lear, to recreate another of the same emotional stripe, Captain Ahab.
Set in an empty theater, a tyrannical actor-manager leads his crew and transports audiences to Captain Ahab’s fateful voyage across the open seas aboard the Pequod in search of the great white whale, Moby Dick.
“Our director, Casey Biggs, was very interested in a minimalistic approach to telling this story in a visually-interesting way,” Sekk said. “There are a lot of stage pictures that have literally been choreographed, using crates and rolling ladders to create a ship.
“It’s more exciting to have our imagination do the heavy work.”
- WHAT: “Moby Dick Rehearsed” by Orson Welles
- WHERE: Jarson-Kaplan Theatre, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati
- WHEN: 8 p.m. March 20
- COST: $30
- MORE INFO: (513) 621-2787; www.cincinnatiarts.org
March 06, 2008
Never too young to play old
Go! feature
Bruce Cromer figured he’d have to wait until he was in his 60s to perform “King Lear,” but he’s glad to be doing it at age 51 for the current Cincinnati Shakespeare Company production.
He’s been in “King Lear” twice before, including playing Albany in a joint production with the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the St. Louis Repertory Theatre, and so knows the show a bit.
“I watched Joneal Joplin do it” in those productions, Cromer said, “and I saw the toll it took on him, and he was around 62 at the time, so I’m glad I’m doing it now because it takes an incredible amount of energy.”
In spite of his previous experience, however, he said that he’s learned so much about it from the inside of Lear this time around that he’s amazed how much he didn’t know.
“There are so many levels to it,” he said. “You dig around and get more out of it because every layer you push aside reveals something more.”
One thing he didn’t realize, he said, is how whiny Lear could come across if he’s not careful.
“There’s some humor in that, but no one wants to see an old man bemoaning his fate all evening long,” he said. “And then there’s the rage. I count 11 times when he just blows his top, but you can’t stay there all night either.”
So he said he’s taking the advice of director Brian Isaac Phillips to put off the madness for as long as he can.
“He slips away bit by bit, but he still comes up with some clear and lucid points,” Cromer said. “He slides into his madness as he loses everything, and it’s not until he gets thrown out into the street as a beggar that he begins to find himself.
“And I think he ages tremendously because of it and becomes very frail by the end.”
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s “King Lear” also features guest artists Nick Rose as Kent and Skip Lundby as Gloucester along with the resident ensemble.
Phillips’ directorial concept focuses on Lear’s journey as a “stripping down of man to his bare essence to find the center of his humanity again,” Phillips said in a press release.
King Lear, a story of “love and loss,” proves that “familial love is the truest love of all,” he said.
- WHAT: “King Lear” by William Shakespeare
- WHERE: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 719 Race St., Cincinnati
- WHEN: March 28 through April 20
- COST: $20-$26
- MORE INFO: (513) 381-2273; www.cincyshakes.com
Photo by Cottage House: Bruce Cromer as King Lear and Kelly Mengelkoch as Cordelia
March 01, 2008
Williams’ 'Menagerie’ shattered by lack of focus
Go! review
I guess by this point, it would be easy to caricaturize the strong personalities of Tennessee Williams’ plays.
He did it himself in the 1956 film “Baby Doll,” his first time writing specifically for the screen, to parlay the themes of the fallen South into broad comedy.
But there’s something amiss about Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, a troupe devoted to classic plays, turning Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” into a parlour comedy.
Being a self-proclaimed “dream play,” we would naturally expect the characters to be drawn rather broadly and exaggerated in the mind of Tom, the narrator and authorial intrusion on the event.
But Drew Fracher’s direction pitches “The Glass Menagerie” at the level of a situation comedy, as if mining the laughs instead of letting them flow from dreamy surrealism. Amanda is an outrageous character in Tom’s memory, to be sure, but guest artist Irene Crist would have her more at home in network television than serious theater. Brian Isaac Phillips, who has shown his dramatic chops many times over in area stages, gives us a Tom who is far too cheerful through most of the play, and should have used the same melancholy with which he delivers the final, tear-inducing monologue, as a touchstone for the rest of the show.
The second act finds better footing as the family welcomes the gentleman caller (Christopher Guthrie). Here, Amanda’s pomposity seems about right as she puts on happy airs in hopes of landing a mate for her daughter, and by the time we get to the candlelight interlude between Laura and the gentleman caller, this production strikes exactly the right tone.
WHAT: “The Glass Menagerie”
WHERE: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 719 Race St., Cincinnati
WHEN: Previews Feb. 20-21; opening night Feb. 22; continues through March 16
COST: $12 preview; $20-$26 for run
MORE INFO: (513) 381-2273; www.cincyshakes.com
