September 2021 – Sharp Critic : Christopher Soden

ACT plays peek-a-boo with theatre tropes in The Fourth Wall

The “fourth wall” is a theatrical convention that goes back to ancient times. Like other illusions, it amounts to an agreement between audience and players: a wall between that (for all intents and purposes) functions as a window to the characters’ lives. I couldn’t tell you who first speculated that being observed changes the behavior of those being observed. Only that A. R. Gurney has taken this trope and run with it. No stranger to innovation, one of Gurney’s most noteworthy pieces (The Dining Room) features characters that change with the evolving milieu of a dining room in the same home that changes with shifting cultural mores, over time.

At the beginning of The Fourth Wall, Roger has solicited Julia (a family friend) to offer an opinion on his wife Peggy’s unorthodox design choices. In their otherwise posh living room, she has left one wall completely bare. No paintings, no decor, no furniture, no shelves. To make matters worse, everything focuses attention on this blank wall. To what end? Has Peggy lost her mind? Julia vehemently agrees that a serious problem exists. When confronted, Peggy nonchalantly acknowledges that yes, it was intentional. In the current vernacular, this admission is the triggering event.

I don’t mean to sound so grim, though the characters certainly make quite an issue over poorly conceived aesthetic. Now Peggy begins to toy with the conjecture that a theoretical audience exists, watching (and therefore tacitly) and participating in their lives. Upheaval ensues. The characters (performers?) consider decisions in the abstract. Peggy’s dialogue takes on a rhetorical tone. Her marriage to Roger is in jeopardy. Julia connives to exploit this by seducing Roger. Are these turn of events happening because they might, or they must? Are they shaped by a strategy of the playwright, or contemporary standards? A Professor of Dramatic Theory (as I recall?) is enlisted to clarify and hopefully, resolve this quandary that threatens their very existence.

Under the sharp and intuitive direction of Eddy Herring: Kenneth Fulenwider (Roger) Sheila Rose (Julia) Janette Oswald (Peggy) and Kelton Neals (Floyd) navigate this delightfully absurd premise with flexibility and panache. Are they acting on the playwright’s imperative or his whims? Oswald’s very satisfying as the pioneer, who embraces the intrepid with relaxed eclat. Rose is charming and amusing, mixing sophistication with thirsty cunning. Fulenwider is hilarious as the beleaguered, flustered husband, torn between integrity and infidelity. Neals brings zany erudition to Floyd, who juggles between the conceptual and practical. Should he venture into the abstract or the comfortable familiar?

Allen’s Community Theatre presents: The Fourth Wall, playing from September 17^th through October 9^th, 2021. 1210 East Main Street # 300, Allen, Texas, 75002. 844-822-8849. www.AllensCommunityTheatre.net

Rover’s World Premiere of touching, intriguing Proprioception

Kylie and Esther are Mike’s patients, a gifted physical therapist. He is assisted by Randy, who wants to be a P.T. himself. Mike mentors Randy, and they’re friends. Kylie is an extraordinary ballet dancer. Her career is jeopardized when a last minute substitute fails to catch her. She is looking to Mike to achieve miracles. Esther is receiving rehabilitation from knee surgery. She is a Holocaust survivor. Hoping the two will have a healing effect on each other, Mike schedules their sessions at the same time. Perhaps Esther’s fortitude and gratitude, in the face of adversity, might inspire Kylie?

The title of Marilyn Millstone’s drama: Proprioception, means the way your body moves through the world. Millstone tacitly asks, is our mien, our demeanor, a response to internal struggles or in spite of them? Each character has a hidden side, and unresolved issues lurking deeper than personality would suggest. Each character has been deprived of something cherished. Something precious to any of us. Through no fault of their own. Proprioception addresses anti-semitism, racism, the arrogance of privilege, though not in ways we might expect. Millstone reveals painful details of Mike, Esther and Kylie’s lives. Aspects that have kept them from moving forward.

Director Carol Rice has brought a sure hand to this complex narrative. The pacing is spot on and the tone, pitch perfect. Ms. Rice never avoids complicated plays, or involved projects. Show after show exhibits her subtle, bravura expertise. Mike (Jason R. Davis) Esther (Sue Doty-Goodner) Randy (Bennett Frohock) Kylie (Jill Lightfoot) deliver nuanced, heartfelt performances, that are touching and entertaining. This is a demanding script, but you’d never guess from the confidence and precision of these gifted actors. Davis is self-assured, but down-to-earth and accessible. Doty-Goodner carries her burdens with humor and dignity. Lightfoot gradually moves from ahubris, to warmth and vulnerability. Brohock brings an avid congeniality yet pensive undercurrent to the story.

Rover Dramawerks presents the world premiere of Marilyn Millstone’s Proprioception: winner of the 2020 AACT NewPlayFest Award. Playing September 9th-18th, 2021. Cox Playhouse: 1517 H Avenue, Plano, Texas 75074. 972-849-0358. www.roverdramawerks.com

Rover’s World Premiere of Proprioception absorbing, poignant theatre

Director Carol Rice has brought a sure hand to this complex narrative. The pacing is spot on and the tone, pitch perfect. Ms. Rice never avoids complicated plays, or involved projects. Show after show exhibits her subtle, bravura expertise. Mike (Jason R. Davis) Esther (Sue Doty-Goodner) Randy (Bennet Frohock) Kylie (Jill Lightfoot) deliver nuanced, heartfelt performances, that are touching and entertaining. This is a demanding script, but you’d never guess from the confidence and precision of these gifted actors. Davis is self-assured, but down-to-earth and accessible. Doty-Goodner carries her burdens with humor and dignity. Lightfoot gradually moves from hubris, to warmth and vulnerability. Brohock brings an avid congeniality yet pensive undercurrent to the story.

Rover’s Proprioception absorbing, poignant drama

From Cradle to tomb: Outcry’s July production of Cabaret

In 1929 Christopher Isherwood was sent down from University, and as a result, decided to visit Berlin, to seek his destiny as a writer. This was during the Nazi Occupation. There he discovered The Kit Kat Klub, and became friends with the British chanteuse, Sally Bowles. From this intrepid expedition to the underbelly of Germany came Isherwood’s famous novel: Goodbye To Berlin. Next came the play, I Am A Camera, by John Van Druten, and after that, Masteroff, Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret, in the early 1960’s.

Cabaret was a watershed in the American Theatre Canon. Nothing that came after would ever be the same. No one knew what to make of it. Here was a musical that addressed the creeping, sinister triumph of the Nazi Regime, and subsequently genocide, antisemitism, and the “banality of evil”. The premise: a crumby nightclub where people come to ignore their troubles, is deceptively simple. On its face, Cabaret suggests something harmless. We all have troubles, what problem could there be with escapism? How could otherwise caring souls turn a blind eye to the systematic persecution of the Jews living in Berlin? And Sally Bowles (the mediocre nightclub singer) becomes the metaphor for fatuous hedonism. For all her loopy energy, she’s quite likable. Which is what makes her curiously defiant performance of “Cabaret”, all the more disturbing. It comes off as a rebuke to Clifford, who’s disgusted with her unconscionable choices.

Clifford spends his first night in Berlin at The Kit Kat Club. He rents a room in a boarding house from Fraulein Schneider, a sweet elderly woman, who has experienced much disappointment. The club is a dive, hosted by the Emcee, a caricature of grotesque, salacious degeneracy. There he meets Sally, all frantic charm and hopped up chatter. She shows up at his tiny apartment, more or less inviting herself to move in. She introduces him to the wicked nightlife she knows quite well, much to Clifford’s delight. He neglects his aspirations as an author, spending most of his time kicking up his heels. Then he starts noticing the rise of Fascism and escalating persecution of the Jews. Cabaret culminates when Clifford confronts Sally with her appalling, shallow apathy. Sally refuses to go with him, when he returns to America, as the Nazis begin turning everything upside down.

Outcry Theatre has been producing sharp, intelligent, powerful shows for quite awhile, now. Cabaret is no exception. The cast is dedicated, avid and memorably touching. Their ability to evoke such an absorbing narrative with minimal sets and demanding rehearsal schedule, is truly remarkable. It takes unusual skill and chutzpah to bring a musical like Cabaret to the stage, with its chilling irony. It’s odd mixture of wry humor and dreadful portent. Masteroff, Kander and Ebb fashioned a musical where content has cunning, duplicitous meaning. Where the subtext points a finger at the audience. This is not a show for repertory, impulse or amateurs. Outcry has chosen a show with stunning relevance in our current crisis of mob rule and upheaval. And the cast has come through with astonishing virtuosity.

Outcry Theatre presented Cabaret July-15th-18th, 2021 at Cox Playhouse. Outcry’s address is: 1915 North Central Expressway, Suite 120, Plano, Texas 75075. 972-836-7206. www.outcrytheatre.com