5-11-07
Scotland Road—Questions Unanswered
Sean Ewert and Lindsay Kane in Oracle’s Scotland Road.Jeffrey Hatcher’s Scotland Road takes “ripped from the headlines” one big step into the bizarre. There are plenty of plays inspired by current events. But I’ve never heard of a play whose genesis was in a tabloid headline. Apparently, while traveling in South Dakota, Hatcher saw a tabloid story about a woman who had been picked up from an iceberg and was claiming to be a survivor of the Titanic. Scotland Road supposes that this headline were true. A man, a direct descendant of one of the Titanic passengers, has isolated the woman and her doctor in a converted gas station on the coast of Maine to try to identify who she is and why she’s claiming something that obviously can’t be true.
Unfortunately the woman (gamely played by Lindsay Kane) isn’t speaking. So the entire first act consists of John (Sean Ewert) and the doctor (Kerri Van Auken) discussing what they should do and occasionally trotting the woman out for a futile attempt to get her to talk. It’s not until John reveals his last name that the woman begins to speak. This doesn’t really clarify issues, as the woman may be the only person who actually is what he or she seems.
Oracle Productions augments Hatcher’s storytelling with some exceptional video segments shot by Gimpydog Productions. We see the woman’s rescue. We see her breakdown, trapped in her room while no one watches but the cameras. The video offers some of the most compelling segments in the show, but they don’t add too much to the actual questions. Is the woman what she seems? What’s her connection to John? Seeing her trapped on an iceberg suggests that she’s telling the truth, which removes some of the ambiguity of the play. John’s key questions don’t matter, because we’ve seen the facts of the case. It’s strong artistry, but not a great contribution to the overall experience.
As for the production itself, Ewert and Van Auken manage reasonably well in their respective roles without ever completely subsuming themselves. Ewert fares a bit better, particularly in his later scenes with Kane, but director Ben Fuchsen fails to overcome the script’s problematic first act. The necessary tension that would keep this production popping never materializes.
Oracle has taken an interesting approach to merging film and theatre, and they seem to have the talent on the film end to make their aesthetic stick. But their work in Scotland Road, while impressive, in the end doesn’t serve a difficult story.
Scotland Road, Oracle Productions
Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City—“I guarantee that anyone coming out of a performance of Oracle Productions’ Scotland Road will be hard-pressed to forget its exceptional musical score. An original work by local composer Nicholas Troy and featuring the sublime vocals of local performer Laura Glyda—think a darker Enya or Julee Cruise’s ‘Falling’ and you get the idea—the musical soundscape immediately places you within Scotland’s emotionally solemn world. This is a good thing since neither director Ben Fuchsen nor the technical capabilities of Gimpydog Productions, Oracle’s multimedia partner in crime, know what to do with you once you are there.”
Apple, Profiles Theatre
Chris Jones, Tribune—“[Darrell W.] Cox mostly cuts away his usual bluster and forges an interesting fellow who’s neither likable nor easy to hate. Brady Fuqua, as his love interest, is nicely ambiguous, even when almost naked. And although Amy Matheny’s performance is less layered, it’s still credible and, on occasion, moving. Under Joe Jahraus’ simple direction, the whole evening, an American premiere, has a foggy, sensual quality. It feels as if these confused souls can’t fully bite into the limitations of their own mortality.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Accept all this as a meticulously crafted fable (one with nudity and graphically simulated sex), it makes perfect sense. And though the marital relationship is somewhat too sharply drawn at the start to allow for a believable reconciliation, the play has a cumulative emotional wallop. Under Joe Jahraus’ direction, Cox captures a neatly beaten down quality (though he mumbles too much at moments of intimacy), and Matheny comes into her own when her character falls ill. But it is [Brady] Fuqua who is the revelation here, capturing the play’s strange undertow to ideal effect.”
Christopher Piatt, Time Out—“Andy, an unhappily married government specialist, has just been laid off after 10 dedicated years. His frigid realtor wife drives him into the arms of a pretty young medical student. The preposterous coincidences that link the three (including subplots with condos and cancer) are the same you’d find at any new-play reading festival. Yet what makes this American premiere of Canadian Vern Thiessen’s play so enticing is the three performances by Darrell Cox, Amy Matheny and relative Chicago newcomer Brady Fuqua, all of whom flourish under Joe Jahraus’s direction.”
Brian Kirst, Free Press—“Joe Jahraus directs this unbeatable ensemble with a haunting fluidity and a dancer’s grace. He displays a conductor’s musicality, highlighted by William Jason Raynovich’s passionate live cello playing. Like Thad Hallstein’s marvelously basic but multi-dimensional set, this production of Apple reveals the complexities and fragile layers of relationships in jeopardy. It is fine, poignant work.”
Hamlet, Signal Ensemble Theatre
Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald—“In Hamlet, the name of the game is play and prey. And in its version of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, Signal Ensemble Theatre plays it straight with a masterful production—faithful to text and tone—marked by a bravura performance by Christopher Prentice in the title role. Disciplined and deferential, Signal’s Hamlet directed by Ronan Marra, runs virtually uncut and without a trace of revisionism. Ambitious and passionate, this is a Hamlet for purists. If you count yourself among them, you won’t want to miss it.”
Justin Hayford, Reader—“Signal Ensemble Theatre’s self-described straightforward production is blessedly free of conceptual clutter. But it doesn’t have a clear point of view. Like the generic velvet capes, tin crowns, and black tights here, little in the staging is detailed enough to leaving a lasting impression. Marra tries to keep things at a rolling boil all night, creating three and a half hours of unvarying, exhausting energy. And too often the performers allow indiscriminate outrage to render their dialogue unintelligible—even the usually meticulous Christopher Prentice as Hamlet.”
Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City—“To varying degrees, both of these problems afflict the company here with actors Christopher Prentice, in the title role, and Joseph Stearns as the loyal Horatio, the most notable exceptions. Delivering performances that are vocally dynamic, consistent with an American argot and un-self-consciously restrained, they seem to be the actors whose vocal work speaks best for Marra’s original vision. But at more than three hours long, everyone should hit the Bard’s language out of the ballpark in order to prevent this Dane from being remembered solely for his dullness.”
Kris Vire, Time Out—“Since Marra doesn’t bring anything new to the table, all we can do is compare the performances to those we’ve seen before. Prentice’s sweet prince is hot-tempered and unusually wry (and in terms of the eternal debate, this Hamlet is just playing mad, whereas Myers’ Ophelia isn’t interesting until she goes mad). Siemsen is a sympathetic Gertrude, though perhaps that’s helped by Bender’s non-threatening Claudius, who never seems too interested in politics or power, making Hamlet’s railings against him seem like overkill. Against his blandness, the lad protests too much.”
Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“The physicality required in moving bodies over so huge an area makes for heightened urgency in the dramatic action as well, but director Ronan Marra and his cast are not content to coast on sheer spectacle. Every word of Shakespeare’s text has been carefully analyzed for what it reveals about the characters’ emotional dynamic with subsequent weight meted appropriately. We never doubt Polonius’ fatherly affection for his children. King Claudius is allowed a moment of genuine remorse over his fraudulent ascent to the throne. And when Hamlet rejects Ophelia, his visible pain at having to carry out his cruel charade is enough to break our hearts.”
Poker Night at the White House, The Neo-Futurists
Nina Metz, Tribune—“Harding was a language-mangler and an overgrown frat boy with a taste for women. The play is emphatic about connecting these traits to recent officeholders, which is fine up to a point. What the play lacks is a sense of cohesion and clarity. One theatrical concept after another is tossed on the wall to see if it will stick. (A Benny Hill-like chase scene is one example.) Benjamin can be a thoughtful and witty writer, but not enough of that is in evidence here.”
Kerry Reid, Reader—“Earlier this year Porchlight Music Theatre set the Harding administration to music in The Teapot Scandals. This new comedy for the Neo-Futurists, written by Sean Benjamin and directed by Sean Daniels, also looks at corruption in the Harding cabinet but focuses more on the 29th president’s fleshly sins and linguistic shortcomings. The result is an uneven but funny portrait of a man who, unlike W, is keenly aware of his own limitations. Jay Torrence handles Chris Brown’s life-size Harding puppet with fluid skill, and Noelle Krimm and Luke Hatton are guffaw worthy as Mrs. Harding and H.L. Mencken. As a portrait of Harding the show’s incomplete, but as a commentary on Americans’ love of the second-rate it’s depressingly effective.”
Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City—“While Poker Night at the White House is too long, too prolix, at times too puerile and could use another puppeteer, by the time an actor in a gorilla suit was running around in a madcap Keystone-cop chase through various doors they had secured my vote for their inchoate blend of theatrical history and hijinks… Packed with real interesting yet real useless historical information, the performance is memorable for the cute and clever shadow-puppet work that dominates the show’s visual stamp, as well as the comical and charismatic turns by Neo-Futurists Noelle Krimm, Jay Torrence, Luke Hatton and puppeteer Barbara Whitney, who almost steals the show with that gorilla suit.”
Brian Kirst, Free Press—“Sean Daniels directs this affair with giddy accuracy and a sense of exuberant fun. His potent talent shines through even when certain bits drag on too long. But, sometimes that is even the point. After a long, skillfully delivered list of Harding’s inadequacies ends, a line about the overuse of exposition soon zings out of one of the cast member’s mouths. Headed by the enormously appealing Luke Hatton, the cast works even the most inconsequential moments into zany magic.”
Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—“The opening-night audience found everything hilarious and, while not quite as genuinely raucous as all that, much of this show is funny, imaginative and well-executed. Poker Night at the White House borrows puppet techniques—a life-size Harding mannequin and very clever shadow puppets—from Redmoon Theatre and a satirical comedy edge from Second City. In 100 fast-moving minutes, three actors play characters ranging from journalist H. L. Mencken—Harding’s most scathing critic—to First Lady Florence Harding, to a Secret Service agent, to various Harding mistresses (heard but not seen).”
Quote of the Fortnight
“We like that this edition of the show, which played New York for months, is tighter than the purse strings at the Goodman.”—Chris Jones, reviewing Forbidden Broadway in The Tribune.