2-13-09
Casting Makes Shepherd's Classic Less True
Sam Shepherd has an uncanny ability to get at the roots of failure. In his plays, fathers have frequently failed and, generally, the next generation is well on its way, gripping broken-nailed to the sides as it is pulled down after its forebears.
While we don’t meet the father in True West, his presence is felt in the collision of his sons. One has found a level of success by escaping his parents and making a budding career for himself as a screenwriter. The other has followed in his father’s footsteps and become a hard-drinking, petty thief who seems thoroughly trapped in a downward spiral. When the two meet at their mother’s (out-of-town on a trip to Alaska) the main question is whether they will help each other up or pull each other down.
Given that it’s Shepherd the answer is obvious. But the fun is in the struggle. Paparelli skews his cast younger than is typical. Shepherd calls for Austin, the younger, successful brother, to be in his 30’s and his older brother Lee to be in his 40’s. But in American Theater Company’s production Matthew Brumlow’s Austin appears to be in his mid-20’s and Daniel Bryant’s Lee could easily be in his teens, if not his early 20’s. This also changes the dynamic of older and younger brother.
If Austin and Lee are younger, the presence of failure in their lives is much less acute. After all, Lee might have screwed up, but he has decades ahead of him to straighten himself out and go right. Austin’s actually quite a success if he’s making a living as a screenwriter as a 25-year-old.
In effect, this production is akin to a storefront version, with a younger-than-usual cast, but a nicer set. Brumlow and Bryant bring the intensity in spades, but lack some of the nuance you might see with an older pair of actors.
In other respects this is a handsome production. Designer Keith Pitts puts the kitchen setting in the center of the space with the audience on all sides; a configuration I, at least, have never seen at ATC. Projections before each scene announce the day, time and temperature, which mirrors the growing tension between the brothers. Of course it also calls into question the lack of air-conditioning in an otherwise updated production.
It’s unlikely this production will make you see True West anew or obliterate past experience with the play. The choice to use a younger pair of actors, rather than deepening the experience, actually makes it all a bit more trivial. It’s hard to believe this is either brother’s last chance at escaping the familial cycle of failure. It will be interesting to see how Stephen Louis Grush and Anthony Irons, currently appearing in Topdog/Underdog handle Shepherd’s dynamic.
True West, American Theater Company
Chris Jones, Tribune—“PJ Paparelli’s new take on True West is not as successful in this go-round. The director puts some interesting ideas in play, but as frequently happens with this iconic post-Steppenwolf play, the actors tend to play the violent end right from the start. Stephen Louis Grush certainly kicks up a seductive fuss, but it’s never surprising, nor does it feel real. Matthew Brumlow is much better rooted as Austin, but you still never see a pair of journeying brothers in front of you so much as a pair of mostly invulnerable actors on an emotional rip. That has its theatrical pleasures, but not much revelation. We’ll have to see what happens here next month.”
Kris Vire, Time Out—“Staged in the round, the two intimate productions feature strong, nuanced performances from the four central actors. Parallels have been drawn before between the two plays and their playwrights, but producing them side-by-side clarifies the links. The gone-straight Austin and Lincoln envy the Wild West freedom their brothers seem to enjoy, while Booth and Lee both crave the power and respect they see in their respective siblings. Working in different milieus, Shepard and Parks both illustrate that the always out-of-reach ‘American Dream’ is a con we play on ourselves; Brumlow, Bryant, Grush and Irons deftly demonstrate that our own perceptions of our proximity to that dream are defined largely in relation to our relations.”
Not Enough Air, TimeLine Theatre Company
Chris Jones, Tribune—“At this point, this potentially powerful drama is much too cautious to catch fire. It feels overly academic and analytical. It’s tediously multivalent and tiresomely politically correct. It lacks danger. It lacks heat. It doesn’t make tough, clarifying dramatic decisions. That’s decidedly at odds with Nick Bowling’s racy, stylized, noir production, very much in the tradition of 1920s crime dramas. Danica Ivancevic (who plays the real Snyder) and Mechelle Moe (who plays the Snyder dancing in Treadwell’s head) try to catch some sizzle. Both have their moments. But Janet Ulrich Brooks, who plays Treadwell, doesn’t seem to know what to do with them. That’s not the fault of a capable actress; the play does not yet provide the necessary blueprint.”
Laura Molzahn, Reader—“Obolensky seizes all the disparate, fascinating threads of her subject, from Treadwell’s ‘neurasthenia’ to her complicated but congenial marriage and her troubled relationship with her father, and weaves them together, not seamlessly, but believably. Slightly expressionistic, this feminist but never didactic work suggests similarities between the vastly different characters of Treadwell, Snyder, and the protagonist of Machinal, the Young Woman. But what it does best is represent the gender-neutral act of creation—its bewildering, all-encompassing heat. Nick Bowling’s world premiere boasts impeccable performances and dazzling, ingenious design and staging.”
John Beer, Time Out—“Not Enough Air contains several promising ideas for a play: the simultaneously sympathetic and exploitive relationship between Treadwell and Snyder, the frenzy of a writer literally haunted by her subject, the tender and complex marriage of Treadwell to sportswriter William McGeehan (Parkes). But all remain submerged within a haze of voices barking into telephones and furniture moving about; at times the piece feels like an evening at a Walter E. Smithe showroom. TimeLine gives Not Enough Air a characteristically snappy production, featuring a restrained but versatile Brian Sidney Bembridge design and fine sound work by Andrew Hansen”
Lisa Buscani, New City—“The crackerjack ensemble masters the fast-paced staging and rapid-fire language. Each performance is strong and well-defined; standouts include Terry Hamilton and Danica Ivancevic in their many roles. The second act drags slightly as Treadwell (Janet Ulrich Brooks) confronts the figurative (and literal) ghosts that haunt her; she and her husband, sportswriter William O. McGeehan(the charming David Parkes), must avoid the pitfalls of their unconventional marriage. But Brooks never lets Treadwell’s fire extinguish; we see how Treadwell’s passion comes close to consuming her.”
Lawrence Bommer, Free Press—“Janet Ulrich Brooks’ Sophie works wonders to make it hurt as much to see as it did to feel. Brooks’ swift and certain performance, a feat of barely controlled anger and everything that’s the opposite of writer’s block,feeds on and fuels all the others—Mechelle Moe’s mysterious presence as the fictitious Snyder, Danica Ivancevic as the real husband-killer and David Parkes as Treadwell’s remarkably non-abusive husband. They, along with Andrew Hansen’s ferocious sound design and score, do as much for the play as an author could hope for and, because of the static storyline, even more so.”
Stop/Kiss, The Gift Theatre Company
Jack Helbig, Reader—“[D]irector Michael Patrick Thornton’s ensemble is willing and able to supply the intensity and emotional honesty sometimes missing from the heavy-handed script. As Callie, Anna Carini is particularly adept at bringing out the hidden depths in an emotionally wounded, commitment-shy character who finds herself falling in love. A scene in which she helps her wheelchair-bound lover dress is especially moving. Even at only 90 minutes, though, parts of this tale drag.”
John Beer, Time Out—“[I]n the hands of Thornton and his talented cast, the love story between the two women comes to life. The chemistry between Speckien and Carini is palpable, and each turns in a performance that makes manifest what the other is seeing: Sara’s fearless openness to new experiences, Callie’s frantic and half-glamorous love-hate affair with her city and her life. The actors carefully invest the play’s key moments with a thrilling pathos. A halting, frustrated seduction scene on Callie’s fold-out couch is a small monograph on desire’s twists and turns.”
Fabrizio O. Almeida, New City—“[T]hese moments, beautifully observed by director Michael Patrick Thornton and his fine ensemble, can only go so far. And if the play’s dozen or more scenes, some no longer than a few lines, weren’t scattered about flashing forwards and backwards in non-chronological order—a shopworn structural device even ten years ago—I think more people would realize just how average this piece and its writing truly is—almost devoid of subtext and intelligence.The production’s only saving grace is its performances, and since this is The Gift, a group of actors who could wring pathos from a greeting card, they imbue the piece with a lot more than is actually there.”
Scott C. Morgan, Windy City—“Director Michael Patrick Thornton delivers a capable production of Stop/Kiss, though he and his cast are ultimately hindered by Son’s back-and-forth structure (too much time feels spent moving scenery). Designer Courtney O’Neill’s outside-inside set no doubt was meant to symbolize the private-public dichotomy, but it comes off as too PBS Kids for me.”
The Unseen, A Red Orchid Theatre
Chris Jones, Tribune—“As skillfully directed by the unstinting Dado in the aptly claustrophobic confines of A Red Orchid, The Unseen finally gets some dirt under its fingernails. Not only does Dado create a very clever and intense theatrical environment—the prisoners are in cheese-wedge cells, separated by the point—but this director clearly understands that the key to this drama is not the politically charged evocation of torture, but the focus on how people try to cope with life’s horrors, whatever their type and scale. As you watch, your head starts going to how you would deal with life shut away in a cell.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Not surprisingly, Wright (a playwright who also has penned scripts for television series such as Six Feet Under and Brothers & Sisters) assumes these prisoners are innocent. It might have been even more intriguing had he suggested they might indeed be guilty, for that’s when the moral dilemma of this kind of punishment is most fully tested. The crushing impact of Dado’s visceral direction is enhanced by Matt Reese’s angled, airless set (shoehorned into Red Orchid’s shrewdly reconfigured space), and by the chilling effects created by Matthew Gawryk’s lighting and Joe Court’s sound design.”
Zac Thompson, Reader—“Toyed with by forces beyond their control, the men reach the limits of hope, understanding, and even language. A Red Orchid Theatre’s searing production, directed by Dado, boasts heartrending performances from Steve Key and Danny McCarthy as the prisoners, and a riveting turn from Keith Kupferer as a guard with empathy in spite of himself.”
Christopher Shea, Time Out—“In lesser hands, the snarky bullying that pervades The Unseen could wear thin. But under Dado’s rigorous hand, McCarthy shades Wallace’s witticisms with a desperation that indicates the itching urge for freedom that incites his endless browbeating. Yet more remarkable is Key’s dim-witted Valdez. Designed primarily as an obtuse foil to Wallace’s cutting wit, Valdez could easily be played in the one-note key of dumb. Key opts instead to tote a faint, tight-lipped smirk that belies his simple words. Amid bleak Gitmo allusions and weighty theoretical concerns, the details of one mismatched relationship glue us to our seats.”
Monica Westin, New City—“The Unseen makes important if not original inquiries into what we can know and beautifully explores the kinds of religious and other anti-intellectual impulses that take the place of failed reason and empiricism, and it’s at moments very moving. Technically the show is sound, if not striking, with smart use of lighting that makes audience both prisoners and panopticon; but in the end, the ideas turn out to be far more interesting than the dialogue, characters and production as a whole.”
Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“Wright’s nebulous exercise seldom exceeds the limits of its well-worn genre. But in a dramatic universe where survival, both physical and spiritual, is dependent upon the unceasing perpetuation of empathy in times of stress, audiences will find comfort in the supply of that precious commodity generated by the intimacy of the Red Orchid space.”