6-5-09
Memorable Characters in Rivendell's The Walls
Lisa Dillman has enjoyed a reasonably successful Chicago career with productions at Steppenwolf, American Theater Company and now at Rivendell, a company known for their exploration of the female experience. And her play, The Walls, provides a nice vehicle for a strong production featuring several nice women’s roles.
Inspired by a book featuring personal stories of women incarcerated in asylums, The Walls centers around Carrie (a nicely present Lacy Katherine Campbell), a young student who’s trying to finish her thesis about historic women committed to asylums against their will. She is driven by her relationship with her mother, Virginia (Meighan Gerachis), who has been committed multiple times, and her own fear of her possible mental illness. The play moves around freely in time, jumping before and after Virginia’s death after escaping from her institution. When Carrie meets Lucy (Mierka Girten) at a coffee shop, their emerging relationship allows Carrie to work out some of her extant issues with her mother and herself.
Around this central relationship is a pair of stories from Carrie’s research. In one an aggressive housewife is committed and eventually (presumably) lobotomized. In another a woman’s nervous breakdown leads to her father institutionalizing her.
Working with these three stories, director Megan Carney and set designer Elvia Moreno have created a stage world made up of frames, reminiscing back to Virginia’s obsession with painting and the ongoing story she was creating through images. The black and white set is flexible enough to allow for many settings, but the translucent white frames give lighting designer Diane Fairchild several opportunities for striking images.
And Carney’s cast generally brings the goods. Campbell and Girten have a nice dynamic. Gerachis probably has the best role in the show and makes the most of both the humorous and dramatic possibilities. Mark Ulrich, as (among other roles) the obsequious husband to artistic director Tara Mallen’s overaggressive Alice have the most emotionally loading scene as Ulrich reveals his illness to his wife whose operation has rendered her incapable of emotionally connecting.
But Dillman’s script, perhaps revealing its connection to its source material, doesn’t totally coalesce. Carrie’s ongoing relationship with her mother and Lucy is interesting material and we don’t know how it’s going to end. Dillman does a nice job of keeping everything up in the air. The peripheral stories don’t add to the throughline, and while they’re interesting enough on their own, it’s not clear what purpose they serve.
But, while the script may not come together perfectly, Carney’s production more than makes up for any weaknesses. The Walls offers memorable characters, nicely realized production values and, while it may not be the most uplifting subject matter – mental illness – there’s enough of a feel good ending to keep audiences happy.
The Walls, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
Chris Jones, Tribune—“One wishes that Alice, played with emotional fullness by Tara Mallen, was at the center of The Walls, a laudably ambitious and sincere but meandering and not-yet-focused new work that the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble is debuting at the Steppenwolf’s Garage Theatre. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. She’s just one of several overly shadowy historical characters in this piece about women in asylums between 1840 and 1940.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“Dillman hasn’t limited her harrowing exploration of mental illness to that of her own time, but she certainly has heard the voices of madness loudly and clearly. And with an almost savage honesty and empathy, she has limned the lives of American women from three eras who have been diagnosed as mentally ill and, willingly or not, been institutionalized…Under the seductive direction of Megan Carney, each performance in Dillman’s masterfully written drama is brilliantly played by it leads, with Ashley Neal, Mark Ulrich and John Zinn fine in supporting roles, in a play that truly howls.”
Justin Hayford, Reader—“Two underwritten plays compete for attention in Lisa Dillman’s new work, getting its premiere in this Rivendell Theatre Ensemble production. The first is a series of presentational tableaux emerging from the imagination of Carrie, a graduate student researching the history of women involuntarily committed to mental institutions, in which two of her case studies reenact their tragic fates. The second is a conventional, metaphor-heavy drama about Carrie’s struggles to come to terms with the death of her mentally ill mother while trying to befriend—and possibly romance—a free-spirited, psychotic woman she meets in a coffee shop. Both plays are full of compelling details conveyed with great nuance by director Megan Carney’s eight-person cast. But each interrupts the other repeatedly, preventing either from developing completely.”
Kris Vire, Time Out—“The layman’s diagnosis of The Walls would be dissociative identity disorder. Dillman’s rumination on women with mental illness committed to asylums against their will seems to comprise multiple plays each fighting for dominance…Inspired by a book called Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls, The Walls is one of those years-in-the-making theatrical projects that demonstrate the dangers of over-workshopping and too many hands on the wheel. The historical characters have the more compelling stories, but they take a backseat to modern-day Carrie’s surprise-free framing story.”
Busman’s Honeymoon, Lifeline
Chris Jones, Tribune—“To their credit, director Paul S. Holmquist and his actors clearly understand that there’s certain complacency to aristocratic detectives…Aside from the business of who killed the corpse (about which I will write nothing), most of the fun comes from the existence of an intimate triangle composed of Lord Peter, his modern bride and his faithful manservant, Bunter. It’s a strange setup, as all three of them know, but as Lord Peter observes, a man with faithful wife and faithful servant could never be said to lack for friends. If the many ways to parse that statement get you going, this is your show.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“This is Lifeline’s fourth production based on works of Dorothy L. Sayers, whose between-the-world-wars detective stories captured a period of rigid class lines and burgeoning feminism in Britain. Frances Limoncelli, the deft and witty adapter, has maintained the smart, drolly comic tone that defines these stories. So have actors Peter Greenberg (an ideal embodiment of Lord Peter, an aristocrat far deeper than he lets on) and Jenifer Tyler (a steely twig of a woman clearly altered by love).”
Laura Molzahn, Reader—“Adapter Frances Limoncelli says good-bye to a much-loved writer in this fourth and final of Lifeline’s plays based on Dorothy L. Sayers’s murder mysteries. Limoncelli’s finely honed her appreciation of the novelist’s wit and erudition over the course of the series; Paul S. Holmquist’s lovingly detailed staging does her script justice, lavishing attention on every look and gesture from Peter Greenberg as the lofty Lord Peter Wimsey, Jenifer Tyler as his brand-new bride, and Phil Timberlake as the fastidious valet.”
John Beer, Time Out—“Lifeline Theatre’s brought three of Sayers’s novels to the stage before; Busman’s Honeymoon features both the assured handling and the sense of declining returns that come with a steady franchise. Greenberg and Tyler, as the newlyweds Lord Peter and Harriet Vane, wear their characters like familiar outfits. The deftest performance comes from Timberlake as the reliably unflappable butler Bunter; his second-act fury at finding Lord Peter’s port disturbed is wondrous to behold…While the play might have been streamlined by 30 minutes or so, it’s still a thoroughly entertaining confection.”
Lisa Buscani, New City—“Reprising their roles, Greenberg and Tyler endow their characters with affection for each other and a good mystery. One difference: this story doesn’t stop with the catching of the killer. It follows Lord Peter through the trial and sentencing and shows the toll justice takes: the media frenzy, the execution. Who knew setting things right could feel so wrong?”
Web Behrens, Free Press—“Director Paul S. Holmquist corrals a large cast, deftly staging a number of busy scenes across Mary Griswold’s smart two-tiered set. As they build towards the second-act reveal, we get fine supporting turns from Robert Kauzlaric, Millicent Hurley, Kate Harris and, most of all, Phil Timberlake (as the near-unflappable Bunter). The solution’s charm comes from the reveal that the crime had partly been executed before our very noses—but the play’s lasting punch comes from its unexpected but emotionally powerful coda, reminding us that murder is not really about entertainment.”
Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City—“And all in a swiftly-paced two and a half hours, too. Frances Limoncelli’s tidy script proceeds smartly under Paul M. Holmquist’s brisk, but never over hurried, direction. Peter Greenberg and Jenifer Tyler reprise their roles as the worldly lovers, flanked by Phil Timberlake as their unflappable ( well, almost unflappable ) butler. Millicent Hurley and James E. Grote as sturdy bucolic tradespersons. David Skvarla and Adam Breske as the local constabulary. And Rob Kauzlaric, Kate Harris, Paul Myers and Christopher M. Walsh as assorted suspects.”
Buried Child, Shattered Globe
Nina Metz, Tribune—“‘You think because people propagate they have to love their children?’ goes one of the play’s better lines, and under the finely calibrated direction of Steve Scott (an associate producer at the Goodman), all the zings and verbal punches hit their mark firmly and unhesitatingly…[T]he show belongs to Maury Cooper as the old crackpot on the couch who might just be the sanest member of the family. Cooper has the look of Hume Cronyn, and he plays his man as sourball flecked with cigarette ash.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“[I]n director Steve Scott’s sensational revival of this distopian view of American life—captured in the ideally cast production that opened Sunday at Shattered Globe Theatre—there clearly is no chance of this family making things whole again. Kevin Hagan’s masterful American gothic farmhouse (with expert lighting by Mike Durst and sound design by Kevin Viol) feels truly haunted. And that moment when Tilden scatters corn husks on his sleeping father is surely one of the great ritual scenes in all of American theater.”
Albert Williams, Reader—“The success of this finely etched production lies in how Scott and his ensemble treat the characters as real people—eccentric certainly, but not inhumanly grotesque. Their pain is recognizable, and the actors deliver their long monologues with a masterful blend of plain spokenness and poetry. Maury Cooper is pathetic and bitter yet hilarious as Dodge, whose terrifying confession brings the drama to its climax; Gerrit O’Neill is haunting as the traumatized Tilden; and David Dastmalchian as Vince combines gentleness with explosive vigor.”
Zac Thompson, Time Out—“Director Scott’s actors certainly can let ‘er rip, gothicwise, when they have to, but they’re careful to ground the play in believable anguish. As the clan’s crumbling progenitors, Cooper and Reiter are equal parts nasty and funny, yet both also poignantly convey confusion, desperation and a pitiable sense of isolation. As the grandson who comes home to find that no one seems to recognize him, Dastmalchian likewise tempers his character’s increasingly violent identity crisis with an affecting vulnerability. All this reality-tinged insanity diminishes somewhat the stark, almost biblical epic scale of the buried guilt at the play’s center—the family’s original sin—but it’s a fruitful and compelling take on a great play nonetheless.”
Lisa Buscani, New City—“Vince [David Dastmalchian] and Shelly [Helen Sadler] arrive at his family home to a family that can’t recognize him; the couple proceeds to dig through their sordid past. The ensemble’s bench is deep; Gerrit O’Neill makes troubled son Tilden’s pain palpable and Maury Cooper’s Dodge is a sour slice of lemon. Linda Reiter’s Halie frantically pursues the bourgeois trappings due her; Reiter has cornered the market on slappable shrews. Steve Scott’s direction keeps the show from mucking around in melodrama and makes rebirth seem possible. Radical personality shifts in some characters are never explained, but it’s Sam Shepard, so who cares? The man puts the English language in a death lock; he knows how to express the inexpressible.”
Once on this Island, Porchlight Music Theatre
Chris Jones, Tribune—“[Director Mark] Lococo’s conceit—and it’s a very good one—is that the friendly inhabitants of this street tell this traditional story to a young urban girl, better connecting her to her warm and supportive immigrant community. Cool. It’s like a musical-within-a-musical and, since Lococo’s use of the prosaic space at the Theatre Building is bustling with ideas and creativity, it’s a very effective way into this musical love story about a poor peasant girl named TiMoune, her supportive island gods and her complicated affections for an upper-class fellow named Daniel…Unfortunately—and given the verve and creativity of the staging, it truly kills me to write this—they are just not very well sung here.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times—“But its aura of otherworldly enchantment also gave it a sort of exotic fairy tale wispiness. And now, thanks to the addition of a simple but truly inspired little framing device conjured by director Mark Lococo for his exemplary Porchlight Music Theatre revival, everything about the show feels far more anchored, earthly and necessary. In fact, it has been transformed into one of those works you wish could tour the violence-torn neighborhoods of present-day Chicago.”
Kerry Reid, Reader—“Where Lynn Ahrens set her book in the Caribbean, here director Mark Lococo has the immigrant residents of a New York neighborhood recount the tale of TiMoune—a peasant girl who gives her heart and life for Daniel, a rich boy descended from French planters. The racial prejudices underpinning the story feel even more poignant when transplanted to America, which has its own unpleasant history in that department. Melanie Brezill’s boundless energy as TiMoune lights up the stage (even when she has to strain for some higher notes), and Brenda Didier’s exuberant Afro-Caribbean choreography captures a feeling of communal joy.”
Zac Thompson, Time Out—“Lococo, however, ingeniously relocates the storytellers to a corner in an urban neighborhood (evoked with impressive detail by Ian Zywica’s naturalistic set). This way the characters become immigrants telling a tale from their homeland, at once justifying the folkloric exaggerations and subtly reinforcing the show’s point about the importance of the stories we tell ourselves, in this case because they serve as a connection to a home that’s geographically distant. Too bad the cast members can’t quite pull off the lush score. They have exuberance to spare, but they lack confidence, and when singing they can’t seem to locate the tune. No matter how imaginative the staging, a tone-deaf musical can’t end happily for anyone.”
William Scott, New City—“The neighborhood and its inhabitants appear rather antiseptic. I found myself wondering if I was watching the musical set on Sesame Street. When the cast starts singing though, hardly any of that matters. This is what it should sound like. Powerful and exuberant, songs should lift your soul and move your feet. They do. Lead by Melanie Brezill as Ti Moune, a girl on a journey, the audience is in good hands. She is sweet and powerful and the production is better for having her as a guide. The spirit of this show and the emotional core of the music far out-sing the concept imposed upon it. For that reason go see it. You’ll leave wanting to dance.”
Web Behrens, Free Press—“Director Mark Lococo’s bold decision to place the action in a decidedly urban environment, while initially counterintuitive, actually adds to the show’s inherent celebration of this human need for connection through tale-telling. In a short but cogent new introduction, busy NYC denizens bustling around Ian Zywica’s nicely detailed set, recalling a Washington Heights street corner, are drawn together when a thug knocks a young girl into the street. To comfort her, they begin to recount the tale of TiMoune, the poor peasant lass; Daniel, the spoiled heir; and the sorry legacies of classism and racism that separate their two worlds.”
Scott C. Morgan, Windy City—“Well, I’m happy to report that Porchlight has triumphed yet again with an unconventionally savvy staging of a musical you might have thought you already knew…Assuring that the show works so well is yet another enormously talented Porchlight cast that energetically swirls through Brenda Didier’s calypso-inspired choreography and Gary C. Echelmeyer’s colorful lighting design (once again, the orchestra was top notch under Eugene Dizon’s direction).”
Quote of the Fortnight:
“James Bond and Wolverine are headed for Broadway.”—Miriam Di Nunzio writing about the impending Broadway production of A Steady Rain.