Month: March 2022

It might be fair to surmise Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus as such: whoever has the stomach for the most vicious, merciless, bloodthirsty revenge, wins. However urgent the need for retaliation might be, where will it end, and who will we be, once it’s over? Shakespeare has written a drama of extremes, featuring one atrocity after another. Without going into a lot of detail, Roman General Titus Andronicus returns from 10 years of war with the Goths. He has taken Tamora, Queen of the Goths, prisoner, along with her three sons. Titus executes her eldest son in expiation for the loss of his own, and we’re off to the races. This is the Shakespeare play famous for the rape of Lavinia, in which her hands and tongue are cut off, and the scene in which Tamora is hoodwinked into eating her own sons.

It’s 400 A. D. Gary, an unsuccessful clown of the same name, is hired to help clear away corpses from the banquet hall of Titus Andronicus, after the recent coup. The room is positively filled with them. The position is definitely a step up for our humble hero, and he arrives for work, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Janice, who has been doing this job for quite some time, is understandably, a bit jaded. Nonetheless, she treats each member of the deceased with due respect, showing Gary how to drain off caustic fluids, and relieve the body of excess gas, lest it explode. (I know. I know.)

I should add here, the male bodies sport some impressive penises. My guess is that playwright Taylor Mac is making a statement about rampant machismo and genocide. Being a clown and all, Gary fools around, quite a bit. But overworked Janice has no time for Gary’s hi-jinks and shenanigans. Enter Carole, another servant who was present when Aaron attempted to murder the baby lovechild he’s sired with Tamora.

Of course, “black humor” doesn’t begin to cover Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, which turns on the fine theatrical tradition of the grotesque. Think Grand Guignol. Titus Andonicus is a commentary on conflating honor with mutilation and retribution. The violence is so excessive, so out-of-control, that nihilism is lost on the perpetrators. Certain characters are actually killed by accident. When despots are lauded as heroes, when they are accountable to no one, havoc is inevitable. Gary, when he stumbles upon the finery of aristocracy, shares it with Janice and Carole. Merely wearing it is intoxicating, and they celebrate their enhanced quality of life.

You might think that the grisly, cynical, anarchy of Gary, might be too dark for enjoyment. But somehow Taylor Mac has found the perfect remedy for the misery and despair of battle that devours the working classes, because it can. Everything in this comedy is so appalling, so dizzy in its audacity and desecration, it becomes the perfect metaphor for self-perpetuating rage and contempt. Gary is remarkable, inspired satire. Loopy prestidigitation. Miss it at your peril. (tee-hee)

Kitchen Dog Theater presents: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, playing March 17th-April 3^rd, 2022. Trinity River Arts Center. 2600 North Stemmons Freeway, Suite 180, Dallas, Texas, 75207. KitchenDogTheater.org. 214-953-1055.

Jimmy shares a small, attic apartment with his wife Allison. Cliff, their best friend, is also a tenant. He helps with the sweets stall Jimmy rents to pay the bills. Jimmy (Joey Folsom) is highly educated, but content to make a living this way. He has a habit of disparaging Allison (Devon Rose) sounding as if he’s teasing her. But eventually the jovial tone gives way to barely concealed contempt. It’s almost as if he’s struggling with the impulse to to be verbally abusive. Allison’s friend, Helena, an actress comes to stay with them. She is more assertive than Allison, and there are confrontations between she and Jimmy. She talks Allison into leaving Jimmy, which she does, but curiously, Helena (Rhonda Rose) falls in love with Jimmy, and stays behind.

The question spinning at the hub of Look Back in Anger, is not so much Jimmy’s motivation, but why those around him tolerate his animosity. When Look Back opens, he seems relaxed, congenial and pleasant. He has antics with Cliff, cutting up and tussling. For some reason, Allison is his primary target, and he lays into her parents, who belong to a more privileged class. Allison’s mother seems especially under fire, and while she’s unfriendly towards Jimmy, most would draw the line at hearing her called a “bitch.” There’s no doubt that Cliff and Allison care deeply for Jimmy, but it’s somewhat astonishing how much torment they take. Jimmy has a fire in his belly, a woundedness that seems to emerge from helplessness and pain. He cares too much. Perhaps both Allison and Helena feel sympathy on some visceral level, and attracted to his “rage against the dying of the light”. Despite everything, Jimmy’s anguish tugs at us.

Directed by Jackie Kemp, The Classics Theatre Project’s production of Look Back in Anger is stunning, yet subtle; straightforward, yet complex. Jimmy is not a bellicose bully, his tirades are more nuanced than furious eruptions. Somehow Kemp maintains a powerful, contemplative tone. Avoiding what might have been histrionic, or frenetic. Folsom plays it low key, even when the cyclone is in full force. Devon Rose has a gentle, convivial quality that suggests how she manages to cohabitate with Jimmy. Rhonda Rose is convincing as Helena, the patrician performer who never lets Jimmy intimidate. Socia is endearing and spot on as Cliff, demonstrating that one can be playful and good-natured, and also smart. Francis Henry is enjoyable as Colonel Redfern (Allison’s father) self-assured and paternal.

Look Back in Anger was a watershed, first produced in 1953, and changing every play that came thereafter. John Osborn introduced a genre that came to be known as “kitchen sink theatre” in which the misery and despair of the everyday lives of the working class were depicted.

In the relatively recent history of The Classics Theatre Project, I have stood in awe of their brilliance for staging from the theatre canon, and making them vibrant, accessible and relevant. Their treatments are intelligent and entertaining, with a keen and kinetic spin. Don’t miss your opportunity to catch this rarely seen milestone in the history of contemporary drama.

The Classics Theatre Project presents John Osborn’s Look Back in Anger: playing March 18th-April 9^th, 2022. Margo Jones Theater in Fair Park. 1121 First Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75210. www.theclassicstheatreproject.com  (214) 923-3619