For some strange reason, Edward Albee felt he had to write a first act in 2004 to his 1959 one-act, The Zoo Story. Maybe he felt that more theatres would produce the work if it was a full play? So now, if you want the rights to do ‘Zoo,’ you must do it as At Home at the Zoo. The result is to make patrons sit through a slowly unfolding yet serviceable prequel.
Entering Theo Ubique’s space in the No Exit Café feels like going back in time, an illusion aided by Bill Morey’s Act I costumes. Kellie Cundiff (soprano), Christopher Logan (baritone), Jordan Phelps (tenor), Michael Reyes (bass), and Jill Sesso (mezzo) appear as gritty early twentieth century tramps. The men’s angular facial hair and makeup put a skeletal accent on their cheekbones. I felt drawn into the dissolute Berlin cabaret of the 1920’s world before the music had even started.
His home, his family, and his trappings hold him as a prisoner in life. As he struggles to find a place for himself in a world whose prejudice and racism has shut him out, Bigger suffers from such low self-esteem that when he looks in the mirror, he sees not himself, but what society wants him to be – their “native son.”
Filament Theatre’s latest production is the manic, uproarious, forth wall-destroying story of Scottish teenager Duck Macatarsney’s (Lindsey Dorcus) struggle to care for her multiple sclerosis-stricken father. The Ducati Monster motorcycle Duck is named after has been lying in the hallway ever since her mother was killed while riding it, although as the doo-wop chorus helpfully explains, it is really a metaphor for our refusal to face our problems. Duck and her father, Duke (Andrew Marchetti), live in filth; he self-medicates with marijuana while she cleans up after him and writes a novel based on Harry Potter and Twilight with herself as the protagonist
A mirroring of Bernie Madoff (Ponzi scheme orchestrator that took advantage of the vulnerabilities of Holocaust Survivors for billions of dollars), this father of two is likely to spend his life behind bars for his crimes leaving Judith, who had grown used to a suspiciously comfortable lifestyle, with next to nothing.
We meet Etta (Mary Ann Thebus), spry senior and devoted wife to her 91 year-old husband, Gerald (William J. Norris)-who suffers from extreme dementia. We see Gerald rant oblivious to who is around him. Sadly, we learn that he was a famed music professor. Tom, (Ernest Perry, Jr.), the the other resident who everyone believes is deaf.
These two parts of the healthcare plays are riveting theatre. They play together and separately. I’m not sure who the audience is for Let Me Down Easy or Mercy Strain since 20-30somethings and seniors alike don’t like to speak or thing about death and sickness. But the two performance (by Usman Ally and Michael Milligan) compel us to get to ATC.
With the exception of the extraordinary staging of one of the most memorable ever speeches, Lear’s ‘Blow wind and crack your cheeks..’ being shouted by him with his back to the audience, the production’s modern dress style was filled with engaging movement and visually skillful staging. The attention never wavered, even though it was like watching a foreign language play at times.This reviewer was seated at the extreme right of the thrust stage. Perhaps because of this, most of the language was unintelligible, with actors facing away. Added to this this was the indistinct delivery of the text, with actors allowed, or directed, to speak with great speed, as they would a Mamet text, often with poor enunciation and vocal projection.
Bernie Yvon had just recently celebrated his 50th birthday when he was killed by a Semi truck driving to rehearsal. He was scheduled to play a taxi driver in the musical “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” at Theatre at the Center in Munster, Indiana. George Andrew Wolff will assume the role and the production will now open on September 21, with a tribute to Bernie planned following the show. Yvon was fortunate to be a working actor, and it was abundantly clear that he loved what he did as much as audiences loved watching him.
I can say that I had some issues with the highly theatrical take on the 19th Century Gothic novel. While the color-blind inter-racial casting works fine, the use of such accurate RP British accents was so dominate that the cast got so overwhelmed with their sounds that their characters came off as period-dressed costumes living in their RP speech at the expense of being believable real characters. Add much screaming and, at times, rapid-fire talking and many important plot details got lost in the over emotional over-the-top performances.