Merrimack Repertory Theatre
Lowell, MA

The Last Days of Mickey and Jean by Richard Dresser
Through April 11, 2010

Going to the theatre is not unlike going to a restaurant. If the restaurant’s food is good, the service friendly and prompt, the ambiance relaxing and interesting, then it’s a positive experience. With theatre, the script is the food and if the acting is good (the delivery of the ‘food’), the ambiance is enticing (the set) and the ‘food’ is meaty or a sweet fluff of dessert, then the experience can be enlightening or delightful. Unfortunately my ‘meal’ of The Last Days of Mickey and Jean weren’t quite what the MRT usually serves up.

Although the ‘delivery’ was fine, especially the performances of several personalities by Christopher Mchale, who’s range in creating diverse characters who are warm and endearing is impressive. Rae Wright’s Jean was complex and expressive and Jack Wetherall’s Mickey had its moments although sometimes his rants were tiresome. The set was enhanced by a slideshow that provided a Parisian atmosphere, otherwise missing in the bland hotel room. Would it have hurt to hang a picture on the wall? Most European rooms have art and charm and I found this interpretation distracting by its inauthenticity, discordant with the lifestyle of Mickey and Jean.

All that could be forgiven if the ‘food’ was better. It’s Dresser’s script that was the problem. The premise of the story isn’t totally developed; a couple in exile facing tedium, unable to return to the States for some ambiguous crime of Mickey’s. Even when Mickey confesses his felonies previously unknown to Jean, it’s unclear if that’s what he is wanted for, and it seems like having been away for seven years, it might come up in the dialogue. The script couldn’t make up it’s mind if it was a drama or a farce and it didn’t quite make it either way, although it had a few insightful and authentically funny lines such as “I’d rather go somewhere I don’t want to go, than wait to go.”

Having seen his A View of the Harbor, an exceptionally well written script with complex characters, I was shocked at Dresser’s departure into a farce baked with stereotypes and cliches. Jean is a interesting character of intelligence who “wants to die smart,” but her lines lapsed into soap opera-speak. “You don’t love me any more,” and Mickey’s drunken Oh Danny Boy could by likened to an inebriated Afro-American crooning Ol Man River, which some might think of as racist. There are point of view problems as well. Bobby seems to know of Mickey’s incontinence problem, something of which he would have no knowledge. My impression was that this was a show written in haste, needing to be developed and edited – a little sauce and more baking time, and maybe then it might be a good meal.

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Heroes, running November 19 – December 13 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell, MA

By Gerald Sibleyras, adapted by Tom Stoppard

Left:  Jonathan Hogan, Ron Holgate & Ken Tigar, Center: Jonathan Hogan, Ron Holgate and Ken Tigar, Right: Ken Tigar, Ron Holgate and Jonathan Hogan. Photos by Meghan Moore

Aging WWI Vets in a 1950’s French nursing home attempt to muster what they’ve got left for one last mission, hoping to escape the tedium of their lives on the terrace in one of the funniest comedies I’ve ever seen.  The characters will touch you with their frailties, just under the surface of their bravado, and the combination of the three personalities is a set-up for a terrific farce. The award-winning cast is perfect: Johnathan Hogan as Philippe, a sweet soul with a piece of shrapnel inching towards his brain, Ron Holgate, as Gustave, an ex-commando who is now terrified to go beyond the doors of the patio, Kenneth Tigar as Henri, the optimistic, rational one, who has made the best of living with a peg leg, and a two-hundred pound stone statue of a dog, played by himself. The brisk repartee goes from touching to hilarious.

The MRT, outstanding in its set design, doesn’t fail with a perfect replica of a patio, but I can imagine how the characters must have tired of it, because halfway into the hour and a half show, I wanted a little variety.  It finally came when the garden hose became a rope, in a delightful scene where the characters practice their intended escape.  Later, we get some fall leaves dropping which Henri sweeps away, but I was wanting the very green shrubs to have a tinge of autumn red in them as well.  That however, is a very small point in what was overall a very satisfying, delightful, and almost perfect production.

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Photos by Meghan Moore.

The Seafarer, by Conor McPherson
Merrimack Repertory Theatre
Directed by Charles Towers

October 15 – November 8
132 Warrren St.
Lowell, MA 01852

The Seafarer, by Conor McPherson, opens in a dingy row-house basement, outside of Dublin, where we meet two brothers, Rich (Gordon Joseph Weiss) and Sharky (David Adkins), and their hung-over friend, Ivan (Jim Frangione). The darkly funny first act hardly seems like the fable that the play is supposed to be, where the characters snipe at each other in a pre-Christmas, alcoholic binge, but it is a set-up for the real story which comes to life in the second act. At first we don’t know the character’s motivations or their stories, and without reading the publicity first, I wouldn’t have known that Richard had recently become blind. He stumbles with what seems to be a gimp leg, or which could have been partly due to his drunkenness. Sharky, who is his younger brother and now his caretaker, takes a lot of verbal abuse that seems uncalled for.

The second act reveals all when two new guests arrive, one a reminder of Sharky’s dark side. Still, Sharky is trying to stop drinking and it’s not easy with liquor flowing freely, each character exhibiting his particular flavor of drunk. When Mr. Lockhart (Mark Zeisler) one of the guests threatens to take Sharky’s soul if he loses the poker game, it appears that all is lost. But it is Christmas after all, and Sharky , “the one with potential.” has the audience rooting for him. The story ends in redemption, a tale of inner strength and second chances.

Each character is totally believable and I am transported to Ireland, no question, but Rich, the blind brother lights the stage with his character’s effervescent yet mecurican personality. As usual at the MRT, great attention is given to detail in the set design, and the on-stage flat is perfect from the unfinished stucco and panelled walls to a real staircase, to the wood stove that glows when Sharky adds logs to the fire. A must see, but remember that the second act is where it’s at.

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Photos by Meghan Moore.

Like the Bard himself, the Karamazov Brother’s world premiere of Flings and Eros, based on back stage rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet, is both bawdy and brilliant. It is quirky and wacky, but it takes a while to get there. Unfortunately, unlike Shakespeare, some of the opening jokes and slapstick antics fall flat, and the premise of staging the story in a rehearsal mode struck me as a thinly disguised motif for a penny pinching approach to set design. Except for the very funny balcony scene, there’s no set at all until the last scene when the story comes together in a lively musical number in front of a stunning backdrop of Verona. Not that the brothers aren’t entertaining.

The Karamazov Brothers, known for their juggling, don’t disappoint as they draw you into the story. Pins and sometimes colored balls artfully fly throughout the story, at one time or another cleverly symbolizing verbal communication and even sex when Romeo and Juliet consummate their marriage. The songs in the production are original and wonderful, sometimes soulful, sometimes hilarious. The voices are great, but the performers need either to be better miked or to project for a large theatre, since they lack the power to get them across and I had to strain to hear them. (continue reading…)

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Tina Silverio is a warm glass artist who currently displays, sells and teaches out of her studio, tmsStudios, in Lowell, MA. www.tmsStudios.org. tmsStudios is a Kilnformed Glass Resource Center which teaches a variety of fused glass and kilnformed glass classes, also selling Bullseye Glass and tools to students.

“I have always loved the way glass let in the light, radiated warmth and danced with reflections. But, glass not only lets in the light, it can also light the space with color. It not only radiates warmth but fills the room with a warm glow. And now as a glass artist, I can create and manipulate its reflections to dance gracefully across the room. Because of its natural ability to say and convey so many things, I typically allow the glass to speak for itself in most of my art.”
-Tina Silverio

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Michael Canavan (Jim Tyrone) and Kate Udall (Josie Hogan) photo by Meghan Moore

A Moon for the Misbegotten
by Eugene O’Neill

Directed by Edward Morgan
Merrimack Repertory Theatre
April 23-May 17

Under the moonlight, illuminating the steps of a ramshackle Connecticut shack, we discover that strident Josie (Kate Udall), conniving Hogan, her father (Gordon Joseph Weiss) and playboy actor/landlord Tyrone (Michael Canavan) are not at all as they seem. The play begins as an Irish comedy of wit, but the tough-talking characters evolve the story into bittersweet tale of regret and tenderness.

Written by Eugene O’Neill in the 1920’s, the characters are vibrant and as true today as when the play opened. Industrial-strength Josie, is on stage for almost the entire show and we never tire of her moods and hidden longings. Hogan, her impish father, delivers his lines with impeccable timing and wit, using hilarious body language as he schemes and plots, and Tyrone is perfect as the alcoholic landlord and object of Josie’s love. He reveals his dark secrets to Josie with candor and longing and becomes vulnerable, but staying in character, never reachable. O’Neill has been the only American to win a Nobel prize in literature and he won four Pulitzer prizes. This play, where the characters are plot, makes the audience understand why; O’Neill’s universal understanding of his characters motivations is not only dead on, but timeless.

The MRT’s sets are consistently spectacular, from creating facades of actual houses to working kitchens. This show is no exception, where the the set is a dilapidated farmhouse, complete with a barrel of water for washing and realistic stone fence. The audience is not required to imagine it, since it is created in exquisite detail. The sound and lighting enhance the set. The play opens with the arrival of a train, announced by sound and lighting so real that you could swear you were at the whistle stop. Later under the moonlight, the projected twinkling stars are of actual constellations and you can practically feel the summer breeze. This kind of artistry immediately puts you in another place, and you sense that you are in such good hands, you only need to sit back and let the story unfold. Be sure not to miss it.

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Bad Dates
by Theresa Rebeck

The Merrimack Repertory Theatre
March 19 – April 12

Directed by Adrianne Krstansky
With Elizabeth Aspenlieder

Haley Walker’s (Elizabeth Aspenlieder) bedroom houses her collection of 600 pairs of shoes. As she tries on various pairs with her outfits while dressing for dates, Haley mesmerizes, peeling off one outfit after another, talking all the while of her search for love as a single mom in NYC. Aspenlieder is a hilarious clown and delivering her lines with personality and warmth. I for one, felt at home in this familiar landscape of her tossed-off clothes. Haley delivers her lines intimately, like we’re her closest girlfriends. In case you’re not a member of this girl club, Bad Dates is a glimpse into the other side, but be warned, a fair amount of man-bashing occurs. A few men I spoke with at intermission told me that they weren’t quite comfortable with the script, but hey, the truth can hurt.

With an immediate sense of intimacy, the audience is drawn into Haley’s banter as we learn about her dates. The script is honest and refreshingly non-PC, but I raised an eyebrow when Haley imitated a gay date who spoke with at lisp, a cheap shot. After Haley’s first bad date sticks his tongue down her throat she philosophizes that “you have to kiss a lot of frogs,” but unfortunately, the script only provides us with two frogs, and as any single woman knows, that unless you’re really lucky, you’re going to have to have more frogs than that. Hell, I’ve had enough to fill a pond.

There is no doubt about the fact the MRT consistently puts on quality productions. As usual, the set was perfect; a completely furnished and warmly decorated woman’s bedroom with a closet full of clothes. There is only one set, but Haley’s constant clothing changes provide the needed change of scenery to keep us interested and the costumes are terrific. The mood is enhanced as lighting goes from warm to cool, to emphasize Haley’s stories. This is a comedy not to be missed for a good laugh, even if you’re a guy.

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Zainab Jah and Mark Zeisler in Bob Climan\'s Tranced at the Merrimack Theatre, Lowell, MA

Tranced
By Bob Climan
Merrimack Repertory Theatre
Lowell, MA
February 12 – March 8, 2009

From Philip’s (Mark Zeisler) opening soliloquy where he explains his multinational upbringing, to its dramatic ironic ending, Tranced rivets the audience. The complex characters are skillfully drawn by Bob Climan and as the convoluted plot unfolds on the spare yet elegant set of two offices, he gives us just enough to keep us intrigued, but something doesn’t quite add up.

Philip, a prominent hypnotherapist, reluctantly takes on a new patient, Azmera (Zainab Jah), an African graduate student whose volunteer trip to Africa involved her in the ongoing Kanguya Dam Project, now suffers from panic attacks. Philip thinks that he can help her. He tapes her sessions, and when hypnotized, Azmera eventually reveals a shocking story. Phillip calls in Beth (Kimber Riddle), a journalist. I question the ethics of sharing a patient’s information with a journalist, but of course his dilemma is the treatment of his patient versus the prevention of deaths. Beth in turn, takes the story to Logan, (David Adkins) a government official.

The themes are layered and as we ponder our numbness to yet another African genocide, Beth, a Jew turned Unitarian, verbally spars with Phillip, whose Syrian roots raise questions about his possible anti-Jewish terrorist connections. He delivers some zingers like, “Just the word Unitarian makes me giddy with assumptions.” When married Logan flirts with Beth until she appears to be available, he then announces that “He loves his wife.” The story twists and turns into a brilliant and totally plausible surprise ending.

The writing, the slick use of sound and lighting, the beautiful set with hand-carved African sculptures, and Zainab Jah’s riveting portrayal of Azmera are the strongest points of the show. Perhaps it was opening night jitters, but although Kimber Riddle delivered her lines adequately, Beth’s character, the least sympathetic of the cast, was devoid of personality. Riddle could have had much more fun and played Beth with more sparkle and guile. Still, to flip a quote from Azmera, “Sometimes you only have to know a few bars to know you won’t like the tune”, but in the case of Tranced, the audience knows from the first bars that they like the production.
The Merrimack Repertory Theater is a gem, offering extremely high quality productions at a reasonable price.
Don’t miss it.

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A View of the Harbor, a snappy one-act play by Richard Dresser is a classic case of “I’ll have what she’s having.” Although Dresser’s writing is compared to a modern-day Mark Twain, I found his droll humor more like Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Ernest. From the first well-delivered opening lines, it’s obvious that we are in good hands, as the witty dialogue engages and entertains. He evolves his characters slowly, leaving the audience to puzzle over incongruous clues to their inner selves, subtly woven into the character’s costumes and demeanor. As the play unfolds and we start to understand their motivations, it becomes obvious that Dresser is major talent in developing character, plot, dialogue, and humor, all with a thought-provoking punch.

The set is an actual facade of a ramshackle Maine beach house, complete with a screened porch. Although we don’t see the ocean, we hear the surf, and the monochromatic house is believable backdrop for flawless portrayal of the characters. Paige, (Stephanie Fieger), is an idealistic young union organizer, trying to lose her guilt from being from a wealthy family by hooking up with Nick, a blue collar guy (Kyle Fabel). They arrive on the scene after Nick’s sister Catherine (Andrea Cirie) has called him, reporting that Daniel (Anderson Matthews), their father, has had a stroke.

I was confused by Catherine’s hostility, Daniel’s portrayal of seemingly poor man, and wealthy Paige’s interest in a factory worker. As the story unfolds, we learn their secrets as the confusion fades and the characters become multi-dimensional and believable. Each actor’s performance was strong, delivering banter or memorable quotes with perfect timing and unself-conscious humor, like “everything dies if you don’t watch it like a hawk,” or “if you feel happy for a moment, don’t tell a soul, or that will be the end of it.” A View of the Harbor, the last of Dresser’s trilogy on happiness will undoubtedly be long-lived even if you tell someone about it, but be sure that you venture to the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell by February 1st to see it.

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Skylight, by David Hare
Merrimack Repertory Theater 
Through Dec.14, 2008
50 E. Merrimack Street, Downtown Lowell
Box Office: 978-654-4678
www.merrimackrep.org

PHOTO CREDIT: Meghan Moore
(Left) Amanda Fulks, (Right) Christopher McHale

First let me say that mostly the acting is fabulous, creating totally believable characters, and that in itself makes this is a play worth seeing.   Skylight, refers to Tom’s dying wife Alice, who spent her last days gazing through the skylight in a room he’d built so she could die in style. We can only speculate on the causes of her illness, but she’d retreated from him upon discovering his affair with Kyra, a young woman who had come to live with them six years earlier.  In an Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf style autopsy, Kyra and Tom deconstruct their relationship, and Kyra’s abrupt departure three years before.

If there are weaknesses in the play, it’s not in its execution.  The set, a perfect replica of a shabby, unheated London flat where it actually snows out the window and when Kyra cooks in the kitchen (we can practically smell the onions), is masterfully lit. The characterizsations are “spot on,” dealing with fears of intimacy, dishonesty, and betrayal.  Christopher McHale is perfect as Tom, a boorish entrepreneur, but it is hard to know what Kyra might have found lovable about him, even though she mentions that he’d changed.  Kyra, brilliantly played by Amanda Fulks, is a strident inner-city schoolteacher, but evidentlyy loves him for some mysterious reason.  

The script however, both tremendously insightful and biting, revealing its characters through sniping dialogue, could use a trim.  It could easily lose the first scene which is cryptic, stilted, and flat, a  rather unpromising beginning.  The audience is befuddled by the visit of  eighteen year-old Albert, who wants Kyra to see his father.  We are both confused at the stilted conversation and not yet caring enough about the characters to know for sure if we’re going to want to find out more. That said, it’s worth sticking with it, since the play soon comes to life when Tom appears.  A simple rewrite – simplifying the first scene to much briefer phone call from Albert might take us right into the drama.  Kyra ’s s dialogue also tends to be a bit preachy, expounding on her reasons for teaching the poor. If Hare is making a point of her being tedious, we get it, and much sooner than he anticipated. 

Altogether, this is a thought-provoking drama with insight and honesty and occasional humor.   At the reasonable ticket rate of $28, it is not to be missed. 
-Chava Hudson
   

 

 

 

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