Humana Festival 2013: "The Delling Shore"

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

“The Delling Shore” by Sam Marks
Directed by Meredith McDonough
The Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville
Through April 7, 2012

My video blog review with Leslie Wobbe

Synopsis: “Eminent novelist Thomas Wright has invited fellow writer Frank Bay and his daughter Adrianne to stay the weekend at his country house. From the moment the Bays arrive, though, Thomas and his daughter Ellen are out to get them. The shared love of books that should unite these characters instead becomes a battleground where words become weapons.”

Maybe I’m just getting grumpy in my old age, but I think I’ve really seen my quota of acerbic comedy/dramas about dysfunctional middle class (and above) New Yorkers in the arts slicing and dicing each other and agonizing over their failures to make the Big Time. In a nation slowly sliding into third-world status, with millions of citizens facing unemployment, underemployment, and/or crippling debt, these concerns are looking increasingly trivial.

I could also do without plays that use a parlor game as the means to bring out Big Truths about the characters, but that’s probably just me being a curmudgeon.

Bruce McKenzie as Frank, Catherine Combs as Adrianne,
Meredith Forlenza as Ellen, and Jim Frangione as Thomas.
Photo by Alan Simons

I understand that struggling artists are of great interest to folks like playwright Marks, who grew up in the theatre and, according to Kathryn Zukaitis’s biographical sketch in the press kit, “is intimately acquainted with the risks and rewards of pursuing a career in the arts.” But in order for their struggles to matter to the rest of us, the characters have to be something more than just bundles of ambition and resentment. The father/daughter teams in “Delling Shore” just don’t pass that test.

Frank starts off with a chip on his shoulder that would make Atlas shrug and only becomes more abrasive as the evening progresses. Adrianne is so tightly wound from the moment she walks on stage that she’s ready to snap (and eventually does). Thomas is unprincipled and arrogant, and his daughter Ellen seems more interested in clubbing than anything else. It’s an indication of how unpleasant and ultimately uninteresting these characters are that Ellen eventually turns out to be the most fully realized of the lot.

That’s not to say that there aren’t laughs and some decent dramatic tension created during the eighty very long minutes of “The Delling Shore”. It’s just that they’re not enough to compensate for having to spend time with a quartet that you wouldn’t invite to your house on a bet. Worse yet, the play starts at such a high pitch of hostility that there’s ultimately nowhere for it to go without tipping into absurdity—which it eventually does, in a thoroughly unbelievable scene between Frank and Ellen towards the end.

The best things about “The Delling Shore”, in my view, are Daniel Zimmerman’s strikingly realistic set and the solid work by the actors. Catherine Combs’s Adrianne is a bundle of nervous tics from the get-go, tipping us off that she’s not as collected as she seems. Meredith Forlenza nicely manages Ellen’s transition from superficial to sympathetic. Bruce McKenzie is the very picture of resentment and Jim Frangione’s smug complacency is just right for Thomas.

Meredith McDonough’s direction mostly serves the playwright well, although I think she might have found ways to dial down the intensity a bit early on.

Some years ago Scott Adams authored a Sunday “Dilbert” strip titled “Seven Habits of Highly Defective People”. I won’t say that these characters have them all, but they have plenty and (to quote The Bard), “’tis enough, ‘twill serve.”

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.

Humana Festival 2013: “O Guru Guru Guru or why I don’t want to go to yoga class with you”

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

“O Guru Guru Guru or why I don’t want to go to yoga class with you” by Mallery Avidon
Directed by Lila Neugebauer
The Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville
Through April 7, 2012

My video blog review with Leslie Wobbe

Synopsis: “Lila does not want to go to yoga class with you. Not because she doesn’t like stretching or has no discipline or worries she might be bad at it. Not because she doesn’t like you. The reason Lila doesn’t want to go to yoga class is not easy to explain, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t going to try… When you discover that the system of belief in which you once found meaning no longer holds currency for you; when you find yourself a little older, but not necessarily wiser; when the question of ‘where do I go from here’ feels impossibly high-stakes, but impossible to answer, what do you do? Lila is hoping to figure it out today—and she has brought notes.”

Rebecca Hart as Lila. Photo by Alan Simons

“O Guru” is really three interconnected plays in one long (80-minute) act. In the first one, Lila attempts to explain to the audience, with notes and slides, why she can’t do yoga anymore, despite growing up in an ashram. But she can’t show any slides because everything about that ashram is copyrighted, the notes don’t stop her from digressing, and she eventually leaves the stage in frustration—at which point the theatre is suddenly transformed into a yoga studio, complete with an instructor and assistants in colorful saris. They invite audience members to take off their shoes and chant with them. They share personal stories about what yoga means to them. They present a cleverly executed shadow puppet story about the origin of Ganesh. Then they invite everyone to close their eyes and meditate. When the audience opens their eyes, though, the scene has shifted again.

At which point I have to stop summarizing, because much of the charm of the third play lies in the way it messes with the audience’s sense of reality. Let’s just say it neatly brings us back to Lila’s original issues in a way that provides satisfying dramatic closure and a bit of a life lesson.

Rebecca Hart heads a solid ensemble cast as Lila, so convincingly in the moment that when she momentarily lost her place in the script, it looked like Lila was confused and not the actress. Just as impressive, as the yoga instructors and other roles, were Daphne Gaines, Maya Lawson, Kristin Villanueva, Gisela Chípe, and Khrystyne Haje.

Lila Neugebauer’s direction manages the shifts in tone and perspective nicely. Technically everything is beyond reproach (although there was a minor glitch with the slide projector when we saw the show). The running crew shifts Andrew Liberman’s minimal sets with cinematic ease. Ásta Bennie Hostetter’s costumes are well chosen, with the saris for the yoga instructions being particularly attractive. Jay Tollefsen gets credit for the beautiful shadow puppets.

The bottom line on “O Guru” is that while it might not be a profound work, it’s unfailingly charming, entertaining, and creative. And that, to quote a famous song lyric, “is all right with me.”

Humana Festival 2013: "Gnit"

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

“Gnit” by Will Eno
Directed by Les Waters
The Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville
Through April 7, 2012

My video blog review with Leslie Wobbe


Synopsis: “Meet Peter Gnit, the recklessly aspiring, self-deluded anti-hero of Will Eno’s ’Gnit‘—a so-so specimen of humanity whose problem-causing skills may well be his most pronounced ability. Today he’ll disappoint his ailing mother, arriving painfully late at her bedside, full of excuses as usual. Then he’ll get distracted, careening out of the house to disrupt the wedding of an ex-girlfriend, absconding with the bride as an angry mob chases him out of town and into the mountains. So begins a lifetime of bad decisions, for Peter Gnit can’t stay put for long: he believes he’s on a mission to discover his Authentic Self.”

If that sounds a bit familiar, it’s because Will Eno’s “Gnit” is intended as a contemporary comic gloss on Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt.” And, in fact, many of the Ibsen-based jokes work. I especially liked turning the trolls into a family of real-estate brokers, for example. Unfortunately, many of those gags assume a familiarity with the plot of Ibsen’s play that most theatergoers aren’t likely to posses, at least here in the USA, so some of them fall flat.

Dan Waller as Peter and Kate Eastwood Norris as Stranger 2. 
Photo by Kathy Prehyer

That’s not the biggest problem with “Gnit,” though. The real issue is the rapidity with which the title character’s self-centered cluelessness stops being funny and starts becoming annoying. After two and one-half hours (including intermission), I found myself just wishing Peter Gnit would shut the hell up. When the play takes a serious turn in the final scene, I no longer cared about Gnit enough to care that he had finally found something that looked a little like insight.

There’s enough comic material in “Gnit” for a good one-act, but at its present length the jokes revolving around Gnit’s selfishness start to get a bit stale. Worse yet, Gnit behaves with such callousness in a scene towards the end with a disabled beggar that he becomes actively repulsive.

Script issues aside, though, “Gnit” benefits from a top-drawer cast. Dan Waller’s Peter has the sort of wistful confusion I associate with the character of Joel in “Mystery Science Theatre 3000,” Linda Kimbrough is acerbically self-aware as Mother, and Hannah Bos is sweetly self-sacrificing as Solvay. Kris Kling and Kate Eastwood Norris display quick-change artist stills as a variety of Strangers and Danny Wolohan has a virtuoso turn as Town, playing multiple characters at once with nothing more than shifts in vocal tone and emphasis. It’s a great example of theatrical illusion in action.

Les Waters’s direction moves everything along nicely and makes the most of the many gags. Technically the show is fairly solid, although there were apparently some lighting and—judging from the offstage banging—set repair issues the night we saw it.

“Gnit,” in short, might need to go back to the workshop. As it is, this is a very long evening at the theatre in which tedium ultimately overcomes the comedy.