5-25-07
A Stirring Look at Katrina’s Water
Given the number of 9/11 plays that have emerged in the last six years, it’s surprising we haven’t seen more Katrina plays. Of course, it’s only been a year-and-a-half since the biggest natural disaster of our time, and the main victims of Katrina occupy a less powerful social stratum than the 9/11 victims. MPAACT’s world premiere of Shepsu Aakhu’s Trouble the Water seeks to reveal the stories of Katrina’s victims.
Starting with a dramatic retelling of the first two days of Creation, Aakhu’s play gradually settles into a series of vignettes that explore the experiences of several of those trapped or displaced by Katrina. Escorted by Naomi (Emily Butts) and Yehosua (Sati Word), these individuals relive the pressures and difficult decisions the rising waters brought. One man abandons the body of his dead mother. A woman watches her husband and his friend reach a crisis over drinking water. Another woman searches for her elderly parents.
The first quarter of the play proves the most interesting, as it’s least rooted in realism. The cast performs choreographer Lisa Johnson-Willingham’s graceful movement, recreating images of and interactions with water. These images recur periodically, but the bulk of the script concerns itself with more mundane stories that, for the most part, won’t surprise anyone who followed Katrina’s destruction. Families are separated. Friendships are broken. Faith is tested.
While the scenarios may be predictable and the characters sketchily written, there’s still a palpable feeling of tragedy. Aakhu has a way with a phrase, so even his most unsubtle exchanges manage a certain ring. And though the play sort of moseys along, director Mignon McPherson Nance wrings some resonant performances from her cast. Amos Ellis as the optimistic Moses and Elizabeth Isibue as the worried Lisa have some of the strongest moments, though everyone shines on occasion.
While Trouble the Water focuses only on victims—no blame is assigned, even to relief agencies or those who might have escaped the hurricane’s path—it still has an undeniable emotional weight. Aakhu’s script might have benefited from tightening and trimming, but MPAACT has nonetheless conspired to accent its positives and give it an honest and worthy production.
Trouble the Water, MPAACT
Christopher Piatt, Time Out—“The central conceit of Shepsu Aakhu’s new play—that black people are afraid of water, and have plenty of reason to be—is provocative in both the abstract and the current political moment. In the opening scene, we see African slaves being jettisoned off a ship, and then we’re fast-forwarded into a flooding New Orleans where trapped citizens without the resources to flee prepare to drown. The metaphor is killer, but despite Lisa Johnson-Willingham’s dynamic choreography (aqua-clad dancers create engulfing waves) and the multiple a capella gospel numbers, Aakhu’s script doesn’t deliver on its excellent premise.”
The Constant Wife, Griffin Theatre Co.
Chris Jones, Tribune—“[Vanessa] Greenway, a classy, articulate young actress, gets some of the way there in the lead role, but I wish she’d show us more of what’s going on beneath her facade. And [Craig] Degel, who avoids histrionics until the last scene, is pretty decent too. You just want to see a more complicated emotional relationship. Throughout the play, [director Paul S.] Holmquist misses opportunities to reveal many personal agonies floating below the surface… Overall, the piece trundles along enjoyably enough, without scaling the heights of Griffin’s best work.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Directed with a keen eye and alert ear by actor-turned-director Paul S. Holmquist, The Constant Wife unfolds in the elegantly appointed London drawing room of a well-to-do surgeon, John Middleton (neatly underplayed by Craig Degel), and his devoted wife of 15 years, Constance (an expertly controlled performance by Vanessa Greenway). The doctor has been having a little fling with Marie-Louise Durham (Stacie Barra is a hoot), a deceptively shrewd gold digger and flirt married to a wealthy fool, Mortimer (a deft cameo by Robert McLean).”
Mary Shen Barnidge, Reader—“W. Somerset Maugham’s 1926 exploration of the connection between economic independence and sexual liberation rewards its savvy heroine with the best of both worlds. A smart cast under Paul S. Holmquist’s agile direction and Elise Kauzlaric’s meticulous dialect instruction renders the period repartee briskly provocative in this Griffin Theatre Company production, which is enhanced by Chris Tisone’s ebullient incidental music and Elizabeth Schroeder’s scrumptious gowns.”
Kris Vire, Time Out—“Holmquist’s crisp production proves Maugham nearly as adept at politely caustic drawing-room comedy as Wilde or Coward, with a streak of feminist-economic social commentary we might expect from a gentler Shaw. Vanessa Greenway’s knowing-but-not-winking Constance leads a sparkling cast, in fab period costumes by Elizabeth Schroeder on a set by Joe Schermoly that we’re almost legally required to call ‘well appointed.’ It’s an added pleasure to note that in this 81-year-old comedy of manners, the smart and witty women outnumber the men.”
Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City—“Directed by Griffin company member Paul S. Holmquist, The Constant Wife provides constant joy. The well-matched ensemble is crisp and literate, and take obvious pleasure in the verbal style without being overly arch. They are masters of the accents, politesse and badinage of polite 1920s British society. In short, they create comfortable and believable people, from the martini-dry comedy of Kate Harris as Constance’s mother, to the cool allure of Vanessa Greenway as Constance, to the passionate stiff-upper-lip yobbery of Rom Barhordar as Constance’s would-be lover.”
Living in the Wind, ETA Creative Arts Foundation
Tim Lowery, Time Out—“Michael Bradford’s powerful (if a tad bloated and meandering) Civil War–era drama gets an enthusiastic treatment by director and set designer Jahi. It’s clear from the get-go that he fully committed to the details. His personal stamp here is so noticeable, you might imagine him pacing around a room filled with scribbled stage notes, trying to pack in as much zest—graceful physical movements, live musical accompaniment, snappy time shifts—as he can muster. But a question still hovers over these moves: How can a play with this much heart feel like it’s going through the motions?”
Widowers’ Houses, TimeLine Theatre Co.
Chris Jones, Tribune—“Shaw works best when the comedy and the social themes are at constant war with each other, ensuring that neither has the upper hand. That’s not sufficiently the case with this production, and the show surely would have benefited from a directorial injection of more truthful social discipline. That doesn’t mean all the laughs should have been killed. On the contrary, it would have deepened them. Those Shaw capitalists are invariably handed persuasive arguments. They’re meant to be persuasive figures—an unflattering part, perhaps, of our very selves—not melodramatic villains who are easily dismissed.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“After watching TimeLine Theatre’s sublime production of Widowers’ Houses, you can easily reach one conclusion. And that is: The current crop of Chicago actors and directors have few peers when it comes to nailing Shaw, and they bring to his work all the sparkle and bite it demands. TimeLine has mounted an altogether glittering production, from its zestily paced, pitch-perfect direction by Kevin Fox to the snap-crackle-and-pop performances of its cast to its swell-elegant set design by Brian Sidney Bembridge.”
Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald—“Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre delivers a sparkling, fast-paced revival of the playwright’s first and reportedly least favorite (but still exceptional) play. In Widowers’ Houses, Shaw pairs a pointed attack on the slumlords of 19th century Britain with an unsentimental romance between unlikable lovers. The result is a sardonic, convention-defying comedy centered around the romance between well-meaning physician Henry Trench (PJ Powers, whose nervous energy and easy affability recalls a less-mannered Hugh Grant) and Blanche (a daunting Kathy Logelin as the antithesis of the traditional romantic heroine).”
Tony Adler, Reader—“George Bernard Shaw grouped this 1892 effort among his ‘unpleasant plays’—those that ‘force the spectator to face unpleasant facts.’ The unpleasantness starts pleasantly enough when young Harry meets spoiled, seductive Blanche. Then he discovers the unsavory source of her wealth. The rest is a witty, unsparing inquiry into the exchange rate for innocence. This production suffers from a couple of disappointing performances, but overall Shaw’s humor and critique are nicely stropped.”
Christopher Piatt, Time Out—“The bright staging by Kevin Fox (usually a thespian) is so ridiculously arch it threatens to scrape the proscenium. The story of a young man who finds himself betrothed to a woman whose family fortune is in tenements gets played with ripping but controlled excess. The Victorian faux-hawk on David Parkes’s dapper slum lord; the blanched, heaving bosom of conflicted daughter-of-privilege Logelin—are all hallmarks of Fox’s flamboyant but intelligent staging. That Lisa Fernandez, in the small role of a parlor maid, carries so much weight proves Houses is directed by an actor’s actor.”
Scotty Zacher, Gay Chicago—“Director Kevin Fox has done an exemplary job finding the sardonically biting humor that oozes within the dialogue. Fox has also added some creative levity through choreographed scene changes that are liltingly accomplished by the butler and maid. The best performances occur through the smartly directed trio of Trench, Cokane and Sartorius. The three work wonderfully together, playing off each other’s piquant characteristics. A special mention must be paid to Terry Hamilton playing the smarmy rent collector Lickcheese, whose pompous entrance in the third act is one of the funniest moments I’ve witnessed this theatre season.”
Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“If this interpretation sometimes teeters on the edge of clownish farce—Gilbert and Sullivan without the songs—it scores points for consistency of tone and quality of execution. A cast of off-Loop regulars revel in their larger-than-life personae: David Parkes’ Sartorius all but coils and hisses when threatened, Kathy Logelin’s Miss Sartorius manhandles the servants like a fishwife disciplining sluggish apprentices and Mark Richard emerges as the quintessential prototype of the modern spin doctor.”
Quote of the Fortnight:
“And, let us remember, this is entirely original work, created from scratch. Lobpries has penned a new take on the Greek myth involving Pandora and that notorious box.”—Chris Jones reviewing House Theatre of Chicago’s production of Hope Springs Infernal in the Tribune.