A Body of Water

Chester Theatre Company, Chester MA
www.chestertheatre.org
through August 23, 2009
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

"A Body of Water" is a skillfully written series of, perhaps, hypothetical possibilities that congeal into a divisive play. As directed by Stephen Hollis, the production holds together in spite of one mind tease after another that spins rational thought off into space. At times, the play serves as an example of what amnesia is like or, even worse, the shrinking brain of an Alzheimer patient. However, with amnesia, new memories can be created; with Alzheimer's, chunks of memory fall away like melting glaciers.

Played against one of CTC's most attractive sets - designed by Sean Cote, the livingroom of a summer home, ringed with trees, that overlooks a lake - the play's beginning suggests one of those wacky, romantic comedies of Hollywood's "golden age." Say, Carole Lombard and Melvyn Douglas with monstrous morning-after hangovers awaken, naked. They have no clue who the other person is, and the romp is on. However, in Lee Blessing's play, they also do not know their own identity. They pose tentative questions, even flirt a little, but as the questions begat more questions, their frustration approaches panic. Enter a take-charge young woman bearing bagels and reprimands because, she alleges, the bewildered middle age couple wrapped in shower robes are where they were yesterday and uncounted days before - no clue as to who they are. She has a name, Wren. She produces their wallets so they can know their names - Avis and Moss. Does this help? Well, it depends upon what your definition of "help" is.

Through every segue of this bedeviling play, the actors persuade the audience to absorb "what you see is what you get." As Avis, Debra Jo Rupp extracts irony out of despair. Her comedic timing is refreshing. Tuck Milligan is Moss, perhaps a former judge, who finds Avis sexually attractive, but otherwise he's ready to shuffle in slippers. Julia Coffey's Wren is not a sympathetic character. She compounds the confusion with malevolence or is she being kind?

"A Body of Water" wraps up CTC's 20th anniversary season which true to Artistic Director Byam Stevens' code has mounted sterling productions of provocative scripts that shake up conventional definitions of what constitutes entertainment.

Railroad Bill

Chester Theatre Company, Chester MA
www.chestertheatre.org
through August 9, 2009
by Donna Bailey-Thompson

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, an audience watched and listened intently to the world premiere of "Railroad Bill" by TJ Edwards. Described, in part, by Chester Theatre Company's Artistic Director Byam Stevens as "a time when America has its first mixed race president and is experiencing the immediate after-effects of a financial crisis fueled by unbridled speculation, 'Railroad Bill' struck me as an amazingly timely play." Indeed it is, especially as this caustic farce seems to channel the obstreperous segment of the population that broadcasts its intent to torpedo the present administration and to fan racial fears. The script manages to offend any honest publishing houses (as distinguished from the bottom-feeders), as well as whites ("there's no such thing as 'Caucasian'"), blacks, African Americans, Jews, Muslims ("and the camel they rode in on"). There's even a gratuitous joke on feminine hygiene, included, one speculates, for the shock of it.

"The Opportunists" could be the subtitle of playwright Edwards' latest play. The discovery of a handwritten journal by the notorious Railroad Bill (an altruistic train robber who shared his booty with the poor) sets off a mad effort by four greedy individuals to make a killing selling the manuscript to a publisher. Upholding CTC's high standards, the production values befit this esteemed Equity theatre. The set (designed by David Towlun) becomes flexible by simply moving a utility cart. Lara Dubin, lighting designer, creates windows by shining spotlights on the wall. Director Regge Life moves the cast about when it's natural to do so.

And, the cast is excellent. Charles Stransky (Abe) is a wheeler-dealer sociopath. His body language includes the tics of smugness (e.g., shoulder twitch). His bombast, insincerity, unconscionable prejudices, and unsupportive sense of entitlement creates a character worthy of contempt. Warren Jackson (Jess), the hapless intern is believable as one who catches the greed bug and also wrestles with his conscience. Melissa Miller (Sam) is a frisky sexpot whose moods and tactics changes are spot on. As Jones who epitomizes concern for his fellow African-Americans, Terry Alexander is as slick as snake oil.

Love Song

Chester Theatre Company, Chester, MA
www.chestertheatre.org
through July 26, 2009
by Donna Bailey-Thompson

"Love Song" has a lot going for it. At times it is opaque. At others it is intellectually stimulating or weird or funny or quirky or sad or giddy. Thanks to Artistic Director Byam Stevens, the production meets Chester Theatre's high professional standards. Everything works - casting, set, costumes, lights, sound. For some theatergoers, playwright John Kolvenbach's script eludes labeling. For some it qualifies as contemporary or avant garde. One thing's for sure: it is not what in years past was considered typical summer theatre fare. A simplistic "John Loves Mary" it is not.

However, married couple Joan (Mary Cavett) and Harry (Paul Ricciardi} love each other, and Joan loves her brother Beane (Paden Fallis). Beane is a lost soul, trapped in a sterile, frightening universe. He opens the play, seated stiffly in semi-darkness at a small table, his piercing eyes stare into a void. His rigid body suggests that at the least, he is odd. Suddenly the scene goes to black and at once, another scene begins with Harry badgering Joan for her irrational firing of a summer volunteer who misfiled a folder. Their rat-a-tat-tat dialog prompts scattered laughter and the question: are both brother and sister nuts?

Beane's isolation is interrupted by Molly (Manon Halliburton) who claims to have burglarized his place. Suddenly they are in love. Joan's relief that her brother is happy helps her to relax and to join Harry in playing hooky from work, the play's most cohesively amusing scene. Even so, the scene that rivets is Beane's and Molly's rapidly alternating dialog about the wonderment of their loving feelings.

"Love Song" conveys more questions than answers. The construction of its many scenes varies from a linear story line to a drama class exercise, a workshop, an extemporaneous musing. This is not everyone's cup of tea but for sure, it's provocative.

Dov and Ali

Chester Theatre, Chester, MA

www.chestertheatre.org

through July 12, 2009

by Donna Bailey-Thompson

"Dov and Ali" is not as densely intellectual a play as its opening minutes suggest. Rather, it is a romantic and spiritual dilemma due to two patriarchs, one Jewish, the other Muslim, who perpetuate rules of behavior originated by their common ancestral leader - Abraham - as interpreted within the sentiments of the Holy Bible and the Holy Koran. Challenges are not voiced by Mahr, Hitchens, or Vidal. Instead, Ali, an intense, tormented student, a Pakistani immigrant (winningly played by Manish Dayal) stalks his yarmulke-wearing teacher Dov for clues on how to torpedo angst driven by frustration with rigid customs. In the process, Dov (Benjamin Pelteson) exchanges guilt-studded bravado with enough global guilt to sustain a kibbutz of mothers.

The cerebral suffering of the student and teacher ennobles their status as males, the designated leaders, whereas Ali's sister, Sameh (Lipica Shah) who serves as the play's narrator, commentator, and occasionally confrontational dialog, and Dov's shiksa live-in girlfriend Sonya (Heddy Lahmann) are emotionally abandoned in keeping with their assigned disposable status as love objects.

In his welcoming remarks, Artistic Director Byam Stevens said that in spite of the economic crisis influencing other theatres to present lighthearted fare, Chester Theatre Company's 20th season is continuing to offer its audiences thought-provoking contemporary plays. Sunday's appreciative matinee audience was prepared to give the cast a third curtain call.

The results of Director Michelle Tattenbaum and Set Designer Sean A. Cote partnership are exemplary. The four well-cast actors move naturally on a small stage that morphs seamlessly from venue to venue.

Playwright Anna Ziegler's script, set in Detroit, demonstrates that internecine conflict is not confined to geographic boundaries. Decades ago, American audiences warmed to the innocence of "Father Knows Best." Centuries earlier, the Montagues and Capulets stirred the sentiments of possibilities. Now "Dov and Ali" carry a banner. And the beat goes on.

Tilted House

Chester Theatre Company
Chester MA
Now through August 24, 2008
August 14, 2008
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

Chester Theatre Company’s problem is one any acting troupe would welcome: regardless of a script’s popularity, their productions are noted for being interesting, indeed, provocative. Again, for their 2008 season, Chester has presented four disparate plays which have elicited reactions ranging from high praise to "Oh, please." The season’s finale, the world premiere of Tilted House by Susan Eve Haar, falls somewhere in between.

Not that Tilted House is a so-so play. The story line is there. The editor husband (Victor Slezak) has invited his wife’s old love, a successful novelist (Michael Milligan) to their summer seaside retreat which confuses the banked ennui in the restless wife (Ylfa Edelstein), mother of Henry (Alex Slezak, making his theatrical debut weeks before entering first grade). These are attractive people who, with the exception of Henry, are rife with nefarious goals, nagging doubts and occasional insights: "I should never marry a man who hates his mother." During an emotional meltdown, the wife begs her husband, "Reach for me, even if you don’t love me," only to have him say, "I can’t," which may be his way of saying, "I won’t."

If ever a play has potential, it’s Tilted House. There are sustained moments that pull the audience into the play but then, suddenly, there’s a glitch that breaks the bond: a succession of scene changes contributes to a choppiness; a few scenes take more time to set up and tear down than they do to play. The audience scrambles to find an opportunity to renew the caring they developed for the characters. These interruptions in the flow beg the question: Is it possible to reduce the number of scene changes, perhaps by spotlighting the actors, and so keep the story moving forward?

Against an idyllic background of sand, beach grass, ocean, blue sky, fair weather clouds and the screech of gulls, the characters cope, and sometimes toy, with the strain of resolving the messy issues perpetuated within a triangle of bruised egos. In sharp contrast is the sweet innocence of the boy. He does not deserve to live in a tilted house.

The Dishwashers

Chester Theatre, Chester MA
through August 10, 2008
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

At various stages of physical growth, it is not uncommon for inquiring minds to ponder what life is all about, and specifically, does one have a choice between accepting or changing one’s lot? Honored Canadian playwright Morris Panych stages such a debate in the windowless basement of an upscale restaurant where rote activity prevails – dishwashing – both location and labor contrived to dull the mind.

Charles Corcoran’s set design drips with authenticity: an industrial-size sink, shelves filled with dishes and cooking utensils, boxes of supplies stacked to the ceiling, and a dumbwaiter that lowers the dirty dishes and raises the cleaned, gleaming plates – a metaphor for the existential parrying of thoughts and beliefs.

The opening dialog of the first act is reminiscent of Waiting for Godot with a dash of No Exit and a dollop of The Zoo Story. Eventually, a story line gels. Dressler (Tim Donoghue), long-time employee, the self-appointed captain of the dishwashing team, believes in trust, patience, and that there is honor in blooming where one is planted. Whereas the new guy, Emmett (Jay Stratton), introduces the disruptive idea of challenging the status quo: to organize, form a union. The third dishwasher Moss (John Shuman) is riddled with cancer, and is too ill to deduce that Emmett was hired as his replacement.

The introduction to the second act shows the dishwashing team operating at full throttle. As the arrival of dirty dishes’ containers gain speed, the pace increases for transforming them into clean plates. The result is Chaplinesque slapstick that entertains and informs.

The comedy is far removed from television sit-coms, although an exchange between Dressler and Emmett prompted the audience’s heartiest laugh: "I was nothing but a prisoner before I came here." Response: "In what sense?" Followed by: "Federal."

The Dishwashers is light fare if one doesn’t try to dissect the dialog but more interesting if one does. Due in part to the "aha!" moment created by the introduction to the second act, the play develops a clarity that elevates its entertainment value without sacrificing its messages. This play may not attract an enthusiastic following but all components of the production – especially the acting and Byam Stevens’ directing – are first-rate, thus contributing to the ongoing admiration of Chester Theatre Company.

Almost, Maine

Chester Theatre Company, Chester MA
through July 27, 2008
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

"Almost, Maine" is a delight, a smorgasbord of vignettes with beginnings, middles, and endings that make sense. Some are poignant, or frothy, or silly, even a tad shocking – especially the latter is to the characters played by two actors, Jim Beaudin and Paden Fallis, who are appropriately direct, awkward and flabbergasted.

A director less skilled and disciplined than Chuck Hudson might have encouraged excessive punching of some lines, even supported an actor’s inclination to go over the top. Not Mr. Hudson. Instead both he and the cast of four (who divvy up portraying 19 characters) respect the creative machinations of the playwright’s mind. That John Cariani’s "Almost, Maine," is included in "New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006" by Smith and Kraus seems a logical choice.

This is an all A-Team production. The ending of one mini play and the beginning of the next are effected a few beats shy of blackout pace. As soon as the lights come up, the actors have nano seconds to establish who they are. Each actor assumes a new identity: Manon Halliburton (six), Tracey Liz Miller and Fallis, (four each), and Beaudin (five).

Halliburton and Beaudin may be sitting self-consciously on a bench. Miller may be waiting for a display of the Northern Lights or arriving at the door of a long-ago suitor. Fallis and Beaudin may be comparing notes on their individual preferences when it comes to spending an evening. Innocuous stuff? Not the stuff of drama? Wrong. And, wrong again.

It is possible to mount a play without sound and lighting designs but when the wind howls hard enough to overcome thoughts of a heat wave baking Chester’s outdoors and a shimmering aurora borealis fills one’s senses, the talents of Sound Designer Tom Shread and Resident Lighting Designer Lara Dubin enhance the many pleasures of "various locales in the small, remote town of Almost, Maine."

Blackbird

Chester Theatre Company
Chester, MA
Now through July 13, 2008
July 3, 2008
By Donna Bailey-Thompson

Some may view this taut, suspenseful pas de deux through two prisms – a baggage-loaded May/December romantic drama or a case study of the after effects generated by the seduction of an innocent girl by a man more than three times her age. Or, there’s a third option – a prism that combines both interpretations.

First performed in Edinburgh in 2005, then London in 2006, and New York in 2007, David Harrower’s script is a high wire act that evokes empathy for the broken heart of Una (Rebecca Brooksher) now 27 and disdain for Ray (Steve Hendrickson) now 56 who maintains that as a 40-year-old man, his seduction of 12-year-old Una was an act of love. But, is he rationalizing? Was it, instead, what therapists have been trumpeting for years, an act to enhance the seducer’s power? Or did the fates play games with timing – Ray was born too soon and Una too late because, really, they were foreordained to meet and love? But because of a quirk in the calendar, they are, instead, destined to continue their lives as walking wounded, burdened with questions that can’t be answered?

Presented without an intermission avoids interrupting the escalation of Una and Ray’s charged emotions; the two actors embodiment of the star-crossed lovers demonstrates they have embraced their characters’ back story. "Blackbird" is lyrical, abrasive, tender, brutal, confrontational, and occasionally peppered with vernacular language. The sterility of the set – a lunch room in a manufacturing plant – designed by Regina Garcia – points up how equally bleak are Una and Ray’s lives. Director Sheila Siragusa varies the tempo of the showdown, from the melancholy to entreaties to eruptive anger and ultimately, what next? She directed last season’s "Mercy of a Storm" starring Mr. Hendrickson who three days before "Blackbird" was to open, responded to Artistic Director Byam Stevens’ SOS by stepping into the role of Ray thus proving that experience (ah, those actor’s chops) made it possible for a compelling show to go on.

New this season: pending seating availability, Chester Theatre Company is offering patrons free tickets to see a production for a second time. Just show proof of purchase (original ticket).