What's on in DC

Michael Cerveris @ ARTSpeak

2009-05-29T13:43:15Z

The ArtSpeak! series has been bringing the best of Broadway's talent to Fairfax County schools for the last decade, introducing generations of students to legends such as Audra McDonald and Stephen Schwartz. The latest edition in the series brought one of my personal favorites, Michael Cerveris, best known for his Tony nominated performances in Tommy, Titanic, Assassins and most recently, the innovative and minimalist take on Sweeney Todd. He also has performed in Shakespeare at the Public Theatre - King Lear and Cymbeline, and was most recently seen on Broadway in Hedda Gabler with Mary Louise Parker. At the same time, he can be seen performing regularly with his band, Dog Eared, at the Bowery, and spotted in a recurring role as The Outside on JJ Abrams TV show, Fringe.

Act I of ArtSpeak began with Cerveris' performance of "I Sing the Lord a New Song" from Leonard Bernstein's Mass. This introductory glimpse into Cerveris' performing power revealed a singer of great range and complex lyrical phrasing. Marc Shugoll began with a fairly straight-forward interview, asking Cerveris to share details of his life and work in the performing arts. Cerveris shared some very interesting anecdotes and insights into life in the professional theatre, a life that began with music constantly in the background. His Juilliard trained parents (one in dance, one in piano) consistently took him to various cultural events, and pushed him onstage into university and community theatre productions at a very young age.

Despite his birth at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Cerveris claims West Virginia as his true home, but graciously returned to the area to share his wisdom. While Shugoll occasionally used the interview more as a forum for pushing his own stories, Cerveris responded to his myriad of questions about the Tonys with grace, noting how ridiculously overblown the hype associated with the event has become. He stressed the importance of competing against yourself every day as an artist, to become just a little bit better, rather than building up expectations for awards that frequently have very little to do with merit. Given his unique perspective as a performing artist, he was able to declare his own personal love of live theatre as a performance medium, far above movies, television and rock concerts.He stated that he valued the way that it allows actors to be different every time they perform. He related a piece of advice given to him by Blythe Danner - that he should always take the opportunity to leave the theatre between performances, so that he might have the chance to see something different on his way around the block, that might make him a different person, and therefore create a different performance.

In a break between the "acts" of the evening, Cerveris sang two songs originally sung by women in shows he admires - "Loving You" from Sondheim's Passion and "In a Most Unusual Way" from Maury Yeston's Nine. Both love songs showed off his tender vocal stylings and unusually rich tenor voice, very unusual for a man who proclaims that he is far more of an actor than a singer.

One of the best features of ArtSpeak is the way that the format allows theatre students to interact with artists, allowing them to literally take over the interviewers' chair in a segment called Three Questions. Some of the students took the opportunity to ask hypothetical questions, or insightful questions into how he prepares for his roles. He mentioned his love of Stephen Sondheim's work, particularly the first Broadway show he ever saw, Sweeney Todd, which he returned to 7 times in its original production. He described his experience on that show as the most powerful one he has enjoyed working in the theatre, and praised John Doyle, the director of that production, as his ideal. Doyle allowed his actors the freedom to play with the material, and gave them a large degree of autonomy in the creation of their roles, a trait very obvious in the intensely original revival.

He discussed his concept of acting - the business of throwing oneself out there and demanding an audience and criticism "no matter how much you want to run home and hide under the covers." He shared the difficulties inherent in constantly re-learning the things you do every day - all of the unconscious actions that you must make conscious onstage. His advice to young theatre students trying to make it in the world of theatre was that they remember that theatre should be about the process and the storytelling, not ego. He encouraged students to think carefully about the sacrifices they must make to work in the arts, but to work as much as they could. He also sang the praises of gratis work in regional or community productions if they truly love their craft, since it allows them to both gain experience and connections with others on the rise.

He also shared that the only dream role he never played was George in Sunday in the Park with George. Suitably, he closed with a tour de force performance of "Finishing the Hat," Sondheim's ode to the sacrifice inherent in the artistic process.

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Vital Statistics
Seen on: Thursday, May 28th, 7pm
Seen at: Fairfax High School, sponsored by ARTSpeak
Moderated by: Mark Shugoll
With Songs By: Stephen Sondheim, Maury Yeston, Leonard Bernstein</div>

Dealers Choice * * *

2008-03-26T16:37:44Z

An early Marber play from 1995, receives its West End revival after a sold-out run at the Menier Chocolate Factory. The more conventional structuralist style of this play comes as a bit of a surprise after Marber’s recent run of success on fairly unconventional films, with Closer and Notes on a Scandal. While the material is not as polished as Marber's later work, this gambling play is slick and fast and funny, thanks in large part to the ludicrous but rhapsodical waxings of Stephen Wight as the waiter Mugsy, who plays to win his dream of poshing up Mile End Road by turning a run-down public toilet into his own restaurant. Unfortunately, the central characters' lives, motivations and monologues are not quite so engaging.

The action revolves around a restauranteur (Malcolm Sinclair) and his tenuous relationship with his son (Samuel Barnett of History Boys fame). His Friday night poker nights with his staff are the only interaction he has left with his son, who's supposedly sworn off his bad gambling habit. The humor is raunchy yet sharp, even stinging as we see the flaws in each character’s dream to better his lot. The second act is all poker (or life) as we see no clear winners emerge, only the eternal optimist Mugsy leaving a few quid ahead, but enough to make him feel a winner. ach tries to reach out and is rebuffed by the other, the son lying about his need for money and the father unable to get beyond the son’s derelict ways to truly help him. The play ends with the father wrapped around his son’s chair in despair, knowing that the poker world he has created is the only context in which he will be with his son and the biggest trap for him as well.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: Monday, March 17th 2008
Seen at: Trafalgar Studios, Studio One, London UK
Directed by: Samuel West
Written by: Patrick Marber
With: Stephen Wight, Samuel Barnett, Malcolm Sinclair, Roger Lloyd Pack

The Sea * * * *

2008-03-25T16:15:31Z

A first-rate production of a strange yet somehow familiar play from the 1960's by Edward Bond, a relatively little-known English playwright. Thematically, the play touches on quite a few Chekhovian themes, but has enough distinctive quirks of its own to still be in a class by itself. The play centers on a young man's mysterious drowning in turn of the century England (an interesting setting choice on Bond's part), and its effect on the sea-side village he left behind.

The play opens the day after the drowning as Mrs. Rafi, a member of the imperious aristocracy played with relish by the superb Eileen Atkins, quickly comes into conflict with Mr. Hatch, her local draper and haberdasher (David Haig at his most giddily hysterical) who moonlights as a member of the Coast Guard. She blames him for negligence of his position, and refuses to pay him for his services or materials (citing moral turpitude), as well as launching a smear campaign against him in the town. Hatch's mounting debts and loss of business combined with an ever-increasing sense of despair, whip him into a frothy frenzy, as he begins to imagine that creatures from another world must have been responsible for the death in this one. The two actors work in counterpoint, as Haig's Mr. Hatch becomes more and more delirious in his obsession, and as Atkin's Mrs. Rafi becomes more and more determined to play her "expected role" as the demanding old bully.

While the play is billed as a comedy, its probably best described as an anachronistic dark comedy. Certain sequences verge on the hysterical, particularly a scene detailing Mrs. Rafi's amateur theatrical attempts in which she casts herself as Orpheus searching out his Eurydice, and casts her vicar as Pluto, the "god of hell," barking directions at her beleaguered relatives. The humor of most of the play however, seems thoroughly rooted in the absurdities and incongruities of concepts and objects transplanted in places where they don't belong. The talk of outer space and alien life forms seems well, alien in a play that's set fifty years before man first started throwing himself at the moon. In a particularly off-putting scene, Hatch ventures down to the beach to attack the body of the dead boy, believing it to be one of the alien forms. He stabs the corpse savagely, upset to find no blood on his blade, wailing, "Why do anything if you're not afraid of death?" In the funeral scene set on the beach, a piano sits on the cliffs, accompanying the mourners' descants in a very out of joint picture, which becomes progressively more absurd as Mrs. Rafi's dotty confidant (Marcia Warren) ornately swoops and swoons within the sombre hymns, as military guns intrude on the less and less solemn proceedings, and as Mrs. Rafi inadvertently spills the ashes of the deceased upon herself. Through all these episodes, Bond seems to favor the idea of the absurd intruding on the mundane.

Even after a lengthy running time of 2 and a half hours, its still unclear what it all adds up to, but the final monologue from Evens (David Burke as the old wise 'master of the seas'), gives Bond the chance to be anachronistic and prophetic at once - allowing Evens to comment on the advent of the X-Ray and the imminent arrival of commuting as a major factor in daily life for people crowded together who still fail to truly see their fellow man. Bond has created a play that in a sense obscures its own themes in the dressings of another time. The final monologues make it clear that he is more concerned with the disconnect in the here and now (that so often neglects what has come before), and seems to celebrate what will never change - the realities of man's inhumanity to man as played out in war, class, paranoia, and of course that constantly changing and change-less emblem, the sea.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: Saturday, March 15th 2008
Seen at: Theatre Royal Haymarket, London UK
Directed by: Jonathan Kent
Written by: Edward Bond
With: Eileen Atkins, David Haig, Marcia Warren, Harry Lloyd, William Chubb

99 Comedy Club * * *

2008-03-25T14:43:01Z

The MC Jim Woroniecki was pretty good, though he spent most of his time onstage straining to find characteristics in the audience to deride. The first act, Matt Green, was very effective, and did some cleverly self-effacing bits of comedy. He’s a bit like the younger brother you’d want to have, since he kept sharing stories that really happened to him, that were self-effacing enough, and slightly banal enough to be true, mostly regarding his personal (young-looking) appearance, and bathroom faux-pas. His best bit mocked his own reactions to homeless people on the tube in left-brain right-brain fashion.

The second comic, the American Dwight Slade opened with an apology on behalf of the US, a practice that’s nearly de rigeur in the UK today. He was the best comic of the evening, mostly due to his impeccable delivery, in a deadpan middle American accent (in his words, an accent “like a square turd”), frequently with his tongue hanging out. Most of his humor involved bitterness toward happy people, my favorite part being the gunshots he might fire if there were no gun control, either at happy people, Julia Roberts fans, American Idol voters and people who take more than 10 items into the express check out lane. Very funny, and genuinely made my sides ache.

The third comic, Michael Fabbri, was the least successful by far, mostly due to some comments about abortion that were a bit too off-color for the crowd, since he was particularly targeting the drunken Irishmen to our left. He did have a good schtick about non-religion being sold door-to-door as if it were religion, but it wasn’t good enough to elevate his generally raw material about the virgin Mary’s hymen and drowning babies to keep them from screaming into the realm of good-natured humor. Not a great closer, but not bad for a half-price ticket on a rainy Sunday.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: Sunday, March 16th
Seen at: Storm Nightclub, Leicester Square, London, UK
M.C.: Jim Woroniecki
With: Matt Green, Dwight Slade, Michael Fabbri

Shakespeare Meme

2008-03-14T16:18:55Z

Because angevin2 did it first, I can't wait to go to London, and, like angevin2 , am feeling like an enormous show-off...

Bold the ones you've seen stage productions of, italicize the ones you've seen movies of, underline the ones you've read or listened to, asterisk the ones you've performed in or directed.

I've put in parentheses the number of times I've seen it live (since I've seen most multiple times) and any truly superb actors I've seen in a live performance of that play.

All's Well That Ends Well (x1)
Antony and Cleopatra (x1)
As You Like It (x2, Julia Osman, Sarah Marshall)
The Comedy of Errors  (x2)
Coriolanus  (x2, William Houston, Susannah York)
Cymbeline (x1, Mark Rylance, Imogen Stubbs)
Hamlet (x4, Anthony LePage, Stephen Dillane)
Henry IV, Part I  (x1, Lex Shrapnel)
Henry IV, Part II (x1, David Warner, Clive Wood)
Henry V
Henry VI, Part I
Henry VI, Part II
Henry VI, Part III
Henry VIII
Julius Caesar (x1, Annie Mueller)
King John  (x1, Guy Henry)
King Lear (x1, Corin Redgrave)
Love's Labour's Lost (x2, Guy Henry, Jeremy Northam, Owen Teale)
Macbeth (x3, Sean Bean, Samantha Bond)
*Measure for Measure (x2, Nina Millin, Ian Merrill Peakes, Karen Peakes)
The Merchant of Venice (x3, John McEnery, Philip Voss)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (x1, Susannah York, Christopher Luscombe)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (x4, Andrew Long, Blair Singer)
*Much Ado about Nothing (x1)
*Othello (x3, Delilah Shandy, Bell Shakespeare Co.)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Richard II (x1, Jonathan Slinger)
*Richard III (x2, Ian McKellen)
*Romeo and Juliet (x3)
*The Taming of the Shrew (x1)
The Tempest (x2, Ted van Griethuysen, Wallace Acton)
Timon of Athens (x1, David Strathairn)
Titus Andronicus (x1, Sam Tsoutsouvas)
Troilus and Cressida
*Twelfth Night (x2, Guy Henry)
Two Gentlemen of Verona (x2, Ian Merrill Peakes, Karen Peakes, Holly Twyford)
The Winter's Tale (x1, Alex Jennings, Imogen Stubbs)

So I still have 7 plays to see before I can claim to have seen the whole corpus of Shakespeare. Sadness. And only one of them is performed with any kind of regularity.

Oh well, off to London now. Hopefully I'll remember to do a brief online journal of this trip and its attendant theatricals when I get back...

No Child * * * *

2008-02-04T17:15:04Z

As a teacher, I think its fairly safe for me to say that Nilaja Sun's one-woman show, No Child, is a pretty accurate depiction of what's going on in public schools in this country. Ms. Sun switches deftly between various characters to illustrate her point that the most important parts of education are the parts left behind by the No Child Left Behind laws.

In relating the story of her own experiences as a teaching artist in New York, Sun first takes on the persona of an elderly janitor, reflecting on the disrepair of the public schools, and admitting his amusement at the alternating naivete and cynicism rampant within the educational profession. Sun's monologue turns to lightning-fast dialogue as she (playing herself this time) enters the classroom for the first time, meets an overwhelmed and intimidated new teacher and faces a barrage of profanity and generally disruptive behavior from the students. Her impressions of the dialogue and mannerisms of her students are hysterically funny, as she portrays her difficulties in winning the classroom over to the side of Thespis, and presenting the play "Our Country's Good" for the school.

Unlike the average feel-good-about-teaching play, Sun does not labor under any illusions about her influence on the students. They don't have a complete turnaround in their behavior, they don't all thank her in grandiose gestures and they still must face tragedy in their own lives. She also does not issue any platitudes about education, or how the system should be changed. The climax of the play revolves around the class performance, the culminating project of Ms. Sun's stay at Malcolm X High School. She has the grace to admit that the performance wasn't earth-shatteringly, heart-breakingly good, but it gave the students a chance to shine, just as the arts allow for all students. In schools that are so full of students who face poverty, violence, drug abuse and sexual abuse, it becomes increasingly important to allow them an outlet to express that which does not fit into a bubble test.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: February 3rd, 2008
Seen at: Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Written and performed by: Nilaja Sun

The King's Singers * * * * *

2007-12-10T17:16:57Z

While many (myself included) may regard Christmas as an event quickly disappearing amidst the crass commercialism of the holidays, thankfully, the King's Singers' concert Friday night at George Mason proved an effective antidote. The concert was deliberately patterned after the Festival of Lessons and Carols held each Christmas Eve at Kings College in Cambridge (their namesake school), full of lovely carols from around the world, and readings illustrating the Christmas spirit, from the letter of a World War I officer to a reading from Thomas Hardy to a humorous take on the twelve days of Christmas. The selections chosen for the concert were superb, and particularly nostalgic for me, as my favorite Christmas memory hails from my time in Cambridge, when I did get in to see the famous Festival of Lessons and Carols, but without their superb musicianship and polished theatrics, these choices would not have delighted.

The King's Singers as a group have been performing for nearly 50 years, though with none of the original members (new members move in and out on a shuffling basis), but with the enduring formula of 6 singers - 2 countertenors, 2 tenors, 2 baritones and 2 basses. The formula has served them well, and I would still argue that they are the best a cappella group in the English-speaking world. The aural delights of hearing their Riu Riu Chiu or their God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Take Five hybrid are quite unparalleled for anyone who treasures their carols or enjoys such innovative arrangements of vocal music. Really a fantastic night with a fantastic group of performers.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: December 7th, 2007
Seen at: GMU Center for the Arts
Written by: Various
With: The King's Singers

Cairo Symphony Orchestra * *

2007-12-06T17:34:59Z

This rather underwhelming program gave me some rather sad insight into the role of the arts in Egypt on my last night in the desert. While the Cairo International Film Festival (which I bluffed my way into for free the previous day) raged next door, the beautiful opera house was filled to only one tenth its capacity for this relatively unambitious program of two Sibelius pieces: the Finlandia Symphonic poem and Symphony No. 2 in D Flat Major. The Norwegian conductor, Kjell Seim (interestingly from Bergen, though without credits from the Bergen Philharmonic...) did no favors for his players, the music or his audience. His asynchronous direction, and uninspired tempo turned the Finlandia into a snooze-fest. The second Sibelius piece was even worse, as many of the players clearly had trouble deciphering their entrances from their guest conductor's enigmatic style. The tuba seemed irredeemably lost in the murky depths, without any sense of timing or tone, and the winds were only a little better. The only real meat in the program came from the solo clarinetist, Mohamed Hamdy, who brought out a technically proficient (if occasionally breathless) performance of Rossini's clarinet concerto in E flat major. His trills were pitch perfect, and the more virtuosic passages were a real showcase for the capabilities of the clarinet, though several high notes in the breezier bars squeaked more than swayed. By the end of the concert, the lack of professionalism on the conductor's part was clear as he refused to take hands with either Hamdy or his first violinist, or even return for the final set of bows.

In the last few months, I've been lucky enough to see several wonderful symphony orchestra concerts, mostly from my local, the FSO (Fairfax Symphony Orchestra). Based on this performance from a clearly under-funded, under-appreciated and under-playing group, I do find a rather stark contrast between the fripperies of the music-going habits of the DC metro area, generally shelling out hundreds per ticket and Cairo's lack of same at about 7 bucks a ticket. A strange kind of commentary in a very different society.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: December 1st, 2007
Seen at: Cairo Opera House, Cairo, Egypt
Conducted by: Kjell Seim
Written by: Jean Sibelius, Gioacchino Rossini
With: Mohamed Hamdy (clarinet)

1984 * * * *

2007-11-17T05:00:48Z

The scene opens on a beaten and bloodied Winston chained in the interrogation room just outside of Room 101. Rather than the traditional opening of "the clocks were striking thirteen," this production uses the interrogators as the narrators. O'Brien (Nathan Kornelis), the closest analog to Big Brother onstage, interrogates Winston in unsettlingly calm tones as each of the interrogators play out the roles in Winston's diary. Interestingly enough, the crisis before the act break revolves around the fact that the 'actors' are beginning to identify a little bit too much with their roles, particularly as the female interrogator re-enacts a love scene very convincingly 'onstage.'

The talk-back at the end was very informative as the actors revealed the amount of time they've put into presenting this play, and the various receptions they've had in different areas of the country and the world. Many of the staging decisions appear to have stemmed from the CIA interrogation handbooks, and their attention to detail shows in the production. Its no longer such a stretch of the imagination to see Big Brother staring back out at us from our telescreens, and to be subjected to mind-games inside prison walls, rather than just physical torture. A very powerful piece that reminds us of Orwell's compelling arguments for personal freedom and private thought.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: November 16th, 2007
Seen at: George Mason Center for the Arts
Directed by: Tim Robbins
Written by: Michael Gene Sullivan (adapted from George Orwell)
With: Brent Hinkley, Nathan Kornelis, Justin Zsebe, Kaili Hollister, V.J. Foster, Steven Porter

As You Like It * * *

2007-11-16T20:20:02Z

As You Like It, while it's never been my favorite Shakespearean play, is not one I've ever seen done really well. While this current production at the Folger is good, I cannot honestly say that it hits Shakespeare's intentions on the nose. However, this is more the fault of the strange visions of the director and costume designer, than any fault of the performers onstage.

Overall it was a sweet production, full of singing, dancing and marrying, and strong performances from specific quarters, particularly the exuberant Celia (played with innocent zeal by Miriam Silverman), the languourous Jacques (Joseph Marcell) and the quicksilver-tongued Touchstone (Sarah Marshall). The central pair of lovers, as in most Shakespearean comedies, were more dippy and idealistic than actually sympathetic. Amanda Quaid's Rosalind was a bit too squinty and stiff to be believable as a woman in love, though these traits served her well in her cross-dressing journey through the forest. Noel Velez's Orlando fared somewhat better, though he missed much of the tongue-in-cheek humor in such a dramatically ironic play.

The least successful element of the play, however, was the staging of the wrestling match. While this may seem a trivial point to dwell on, the scene fit so little into the overall staging concept of the play that in reflection, it becomes the most memorable point of the entire play. While all characters introduced to that point wore simple, elegant, mostly conservative modern clothing, the scene begins with a set of mop-topped men in stilts progressing out in strait-jacketly long-armed yellow and green dresses, unlike anything I've ever seen before. Picture an array of these doing the macarena as they herald the entrance of Orlando and his challenger, decked out in a Mexican wrestling uniform, possibly left over from Jack Black's Nacho Libre. On top of these rather vivid but uninspired costuming decisions, every moment of the bout is projected onto the screen behind the stage to very little effect.

The good news is that the set dressings could only improve from there, which they did. The Forest of Arden was rather effectively created by a series of bright green ladders cluttering the front of the stage, and projections of leaves adorning the proscenium. Throw in some fine atmospheric singing from Matt McGloin and Jon Reynolds as clowning minstrels from the court of the banished duke, and the play convincingly relates the same fall theme set up by its setting.

The conclusion of the play worked well, though the director chose to show Orlando as already understanding the secret of Ganymede's gender, and never specified who Jacques pines for in his monologue. Tonya Beckman Ross' turn as the fickle Phebe saved the ending from any possible dippy drudgery, and the rounded tones of Kiah Victoria as Hymen blessing the quadruple wedding at the end worked rather nicely.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: November 10, 2007
Seen at: Folger Shakespeare Library
Directed by: Derek Goldman
Written by: William Shakespeare
With: Miriam Silverman, Joseph Marcell, Sarah Marshall, Tonya Beckman Ross

Extreme Exchange #5: Adopt a Candidate * * *

2007-11-15T20:21:32Z

The fifth edition of the politically-minded guerrilla theatical troupe Extreme Exchange took place Monday night in Melton Rehearsal Hall. While I was personally involved in the production, I do still think I can safely say that it was at the very least, a thought-provoking evening.

The most rousing play of the evening was written and directed by Kathleen Akerley (currently starring in Caligula at Clark Street), with John McCain as her subject. The play began as a banal television interview that turns into an interrogation from McCain's POW years with his former captor. The flashback worked as a neat theatrical device to get to the heart of McCain's politics and personality, which was, after all, the point of the evening's works.

The other plays included were a little less successful at exposing the candidates at their center. The opening piece, starring the brilliant Michael John Casey and Marietta Hedges as disillusioned Kucinich campaigners, became more of an ode to the life of a losing candidate's staffers. The Hillary piece had more to do with how Hillary is perceived by the left, as two radical anarchists attempt to burn her (like Joan of Arc, perhaps?) to keep the Democratic stock pure and true to the ideals of the left. The Gravel piece was a very talky piece, wherein Gravel bemoans his lack of popularity, the Huckabee piece featured a running (and cross-gendered) Huckabee on a youtube campaign video, while Romney was represented by his son in the future, trying to distill his father's legacy into 21st century media-friendly soundbites (a media winningly represented by Veronica Leek as a deliciously b*tchy reporter named Drea).

The discussion afterwards was not quite heated, though it certainly was animated, as people debated the relative merits of the candidates and how they were portrayed onstage. One local blogger reviewed the performance, though he talked more about the post-performance discussion in this artcle in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/extreme-exchange.

Not a bad way to kick off election season.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: Monday, November 12, 2007
Seen at: Woolly Mammoth Theater, Melton Rehearsal Hall
Directed by: Kathleen Akerley, Stephen Carpenter, Carrie Klewin, Bob Bartlett, Melissa Blackall, Chris Niebling, Ariel Baska
Written by: Kathleen Akerley, Brett Abelman, Bob Bartlett, Melissa Blackall, Llewellyn Hinkes, Michael Merino
With: Stephen Carpenter, Michael John Casey, Marietta Hedges, Veronica Leek, Charlene Smith, Rachel Manteuffel, Blythe Crawford

Trees and Ghosts * * * *

2007-11-15T16:43:12Z

On a whim, after leafing through the Washington Post on Tuesday for reviews of Extreme Exchange's Adopt A Candidate, I came across a picture of an old theatre friend of mine (who I hadn't seen in about a decade), with a complimentary review of his show. I was intrigued enough to venture out to Georgetown on a school night and witness a truly stellar production.

The play takes its themes from three as-yet untranslated graphic novels by the great God of Manga, Osamu Tezuka, best known state-side for his creations Akira, Astro-Boy and Kimba the White Lion (the uncredited inspiration for Disney's Lion King. Just as Tezuka was a great innovator of manga, who explored new forms within the format, this production is a highly innovative and stylized take on his work, and an interesting meta-analysis of theatricals in general. All of this requires heavy work from a multi-talented ensemble of actors, who sing, dance, draw manga live onstage, play various musical instruments, engage in traditional taiko drumming, and of course, act.

A live-on-film Japanese propaganda piece reminding everyone to turn off their cell phones and locate the nearest exits in the event of a nuclear holocaust set the tone perfectly for the very war-conscious and frequently tongue-in-cheek work of Tezuka. The first piece, The Great General Goes to the Forest, centers on a general from the Japanese Imperial Army who survives a crash and subsists in the forest, fending off wild animals, until he is helped by two people, later revealed to be the spirits of two trees in the forest. The story focuses on his decision to die in the protection of the two trees, even in the face of the meaningless advances of his own unit. Jamieson Baker's performance was a comical rendering of Japanese stereotype, rendered more comical by the meta-theatricals of the piece, complete with on-set director, understudies, and live (though unenthusiastic) English dubbing. While the live-to-film video integration was one of the weaker elements of this story, the digital projections of Ugetsu running backwards on the stage's back arch, and up and along different elements of the set, was one of the most visually arresting moments of the evening.

The second piece, The Sacred Plaza, begins as a story told to schoolchildren about a family of birds, and unfolds in a sequence of imaginative portraits of birds imbued with special powers by the Sacred Plaza (really the site of a nuclear blast). The actors take different cards to represent each bird they must portray, then fit the opposite sides together to create a phalanxed image of a giant-mouthed and irradiated bird of iridescent black and purple. The story evolves into a classic David and Goliath story as the hippy Finch vanquishes the mutated and dying birds as they do battle on the sacred sand, and all the while, the actors draw live manga to illustrate the battles, don outrageous costumes (including a giant sheet of paper that effectively swallows several cast members), and "film" the live nuclear explosions in the Sacred Plaza.

After this second story, there followed a very strange "intermission," filled with in-joke ads for plays coming up from Georgetown University, and in-flight entertainment from several cast members dressed as gay Lufthansa air stewards. While this was entertaining, it was ultimately a bit distracting for people outside of the Georgetown theatre community, and the addition of more, similarly-themed references continued to be lost on half the audience in the last part of the show.

The finale involved the story of the Spirit of the Cypress tree, the story of a young boy who would rather become a soldier than the classic drummer his grandfather would like him to be. After his grandfather dies, he is visited by the spirit of the old cypress tree who inhabits his grandfather's drum, and the boy decides to teach himself to play the instrument. He is successful (as are the entire cast in a superb bit of taiko drumming mixed with Stomp-ish choreography), but is called up to join the army in the war where he loses an arm. The story follows him as he tries to persuade his own son to pick up where he left off, and care for the old cypress drum. After many years, his dreams are realized as his son performs with it in a rock concert, and he sees the spirit of the old cypress tree once again.

The stories in this play were touchingly realized, and performed by a truly amazing cast. It is important to note, however, that its clear that Georgetown University's drama department clearly has a lot more funding than most any department (and many professional theatre companies) in the area. The amount of video and voice capture technology used in the play alone could have merited a budget well beyond the means of most liberal arts universities. Whatever the cost however, this production earns the right to rest on its own leafy and shapely laurels.

Vital Statistics
Seen on: Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
Seen at: Georgetown University, Davis Performing Arts Center
Directed by: Natsu Onoda
Written by:Natsu Onoda (adapted from the graphic novels of Osamu Tezuka)
With: Jamieson Baker, Clark Young, Kevyn Bowles, JoJo Ruf