Humana Festival 2015: Multi-talented acting interns shine in 'That High Lonesome Sound'

The cast of "That High Lonesome Sound"
Photo: Bill Brymer

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Who: Actors Theatre of Louisville
What: That High Lonesome Sound by Jeff Augustin, Diana Grisanti, Cory Hinkle, and Charise Castro Smith
When: March 27-April 12

[Watch my video capsule review with co-critic Tina Farmer]

Every Humana Festival has a late night show consisting of short plays with a common theme and featuring members of the Acting Apprentice Company. "That High Lonesome Sound"—this year's show—is all about bluegrass music and the mountain culture that spawned it. And it's a real winner.

"Punk Bitch"
Photo: Bill Brymer

The show's title, according to Hannah Rae Montgomery's program essay, "comes from a phrase commonly used to describe the wistful tenor twang of many bluegrass singers." I'd say it also describes the way this music conjures up the remote woods and mountains where bluegrass originated, and where the membrane separating the worlds of the living and the dead seems more permeable. Ghosts put in regular appearances in traditional music, and at least three of these plays contain elements of the supernatural.

The eight short pieces in this eighty-minute show are the work of playwrights Jeff Augustin (whose "Cry Old Kingdom" so impressed me at Humana in 2013), Diana Grisanti, Cory Hinkle, and Charise Castro Smith. They're a varied and beautifully written collection of comedy and drama. Most involve some live music, and all of them use music as a dramatic element.

"Dot and the Guitar"
Photo: Bill Brymer

My personal favorite is Ms. Smith's "Dot and the Guitar," about a young girl in a traditional mountain family who saves up for a guitar. When it arrives, the simple beauty of her playing and singing inspires the rest of her fatherless family—and angers her bullying older brother. The script reminds us that this music originates in a culture that can be violent and sexist—and that beauty and ugliness often co-exist.

I was also taken with Ms. Grisanti's "Florence Reece Goes to Camp," about a campaign to co-opt Reece's classic union anthem "Which Side Are You On?" for a corporate marketing campaign. It's a reminder of what happens when we lose touch with our origins.

Ms. Smith's brief "Miss Faye and the Banjo," about an elderly spinster who is convinced—not without reason—that she's turning in to a musical instrument, was also great fun. Cory Hinke's "The Peace of Wild Things" is also about transformation, as a young woman searches for a vanished sibling who may or may not have changed into something else entirely.

"A Buried History"
Photo: Bill Brymer

Every actor in the 21-member student cast does impressive work here, acting, singing, dancing, and playing up a storm. Blake Russell was a standout as the bluegrass-inspired rapper in Mr. Augustin's "Punk Bitch" as was Erika Grob as the guitar-playing Emily. Taylor Abels was spot on as the spoiled rich kid with the marketing inspiration in "Florence Reece Goes to Camp." Lexi Lapp, who has a lovely cameo in "I Will Be Gone," did nice work here as well. Kayla Jackmon had a powerful opening monolog in Mr. Augustin's "A Buried History." And John Ford-Dunker perfectly captured Miss Faye using only a pair of glasses, a walker, and solid vocal and physical acting.

They are all, in short, tremendously talented young performers. It was a joy to watch them. Seeing this level of skill always makes me hopeful for the future of theatre in this country.

Director Pirronne Yousefzadeh keeps it all moving with fluid scene changes and blocking that shortchanges nobody in the Bingham Theater's in-the-round space.

Bluegrass is not one of my favorite musical genres, but I nevertheless found "That High Lonesome Sound" utterly captivating—as did my wife, who is much more of a "trad" music fan. Yes, the 11 p.m. curtain time is a bit late for some of us, but it's worth staying up until well after midnight for theatre as good as this.

"That High Lonesome Sound" runs through April 12th in the Bingham Theater at Actors Theatre of Louisville. It's part of the 39th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. For more information: actorstheatre.org.

Humana Festival 2013: "Cry Old Kingdom"

[The 37th Humana Festival of New American Plays runs through April 7 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.]

“Cry Old Kingdom” by Jeff Augustin
Directed by Tom Dugdale
The Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville
Through April 7, 2012

My video blog review with Leslie Wobbe

Synopsis: “Haiti, 1964. Beneath the watchful eyes of François ’Papa Doc‘ Duvalier’s government, revolution is brewing. Words of rebellion against his repressive regime flood the nation’s radio waves, even as the Tonton Macoutes death squads prowl the villages, killing or imprisoning anyone who speaks ill of the dictator. The people of Haiti face a stark choice: to join the fight or to flee.”

Edwin, a painter, is a kind of self-made zombie. Years ago he faked his own death and now works, appropriately, out of an underground studio. Or he tries to work, anyway. Since his bogus death his inspiration has suffered a real death. Worse yet his wife Judith is witnessing the slow death of her own former vivacity and love of dancing at Carnival, killed by the need to work in an open market all day to sustain her and Edwin.

Jonathan Majors as Henri and Andy Lucien as Edwin.
Photo by Alan Simons

When Edwin stumbles across Henri Marx, “a scarred but beautiful young man” (to quote the program notes) gathering wood to build the boat he hopes will take him to America, he’s fascinated by the young man’s lust for life. Edwin offers a bargain: Henri can build his boat safely in Edwin’s studio if Edwin can paint him. As the two men get to know each other, Edwin finds his inspiration returning, but the estrangement from Judith increasing. When Judith announces her intention to join the rebels, Edwin faces difficult choices—with tragic results.

“Cry Old Kingdom” is profound on so many levels that it’s hard to articulate them. From a purely polemic perspective, it’s a dramatic illustration of the way political repression undermines and corrupts human relationships. It’s also a forceful illustration of both the futility of attempting to remain apart from life and the cost of doing so. Edwin’s self-inflicted burial doesn’t insulate him from having to make choices because, as Henri Marx observes, “Being alive is having to choose.”

Andy Lucien brings the repressed Edwin to vivid life. He’s nicely matched by Jonathan Majors as Henri, still optimistic despite horrific persecution from the regime. Natalie Paul’s Judith is a masterpiece of body language, forcefully illustrating the gradual revival of her character’s spirit as the revolution seems to bring her hope—however briefly. The Haitian accents of the cast are (at times) a bit too heavy, though. When actors were facing away from me, I often lost lines—a pity with a script this literate.

Scenic designer Daniel Zimmerman smartly conjures up the beach, Edwin’s studio, and Edwin and Judith’s home with only a few set pieces and some piles of sand. The lights, sound, Tom Dugdale’s direction, and the fine work of the actors do the rest.

“Cry Old Kingdom” was one of the best things I saw at Humana this year. Its illustration of the horrors faced by so much of the world on a regular basis is so vivid, though, that it makes the angst of some of the characters in the other four plays I saw feel trivial by comparison. Not being able to find yourself, for example, looks like pretty small beer compared to not being able to prevent the Tonton Macoutes from finding you. That’s an invidious comparison, perhaps, but it’s hard to avoid those thoughts when you see five plays in three days.