BPF: "Owl Bar" at Chesapeake Arts Center

◊◊◊ out of five. 

The Owl Bar, a decades old eatery and saloon in the Belvedere Hotel, is historically significant - it was a speakeasy during Prohibition, and dozens of celebrities have visited.  It is still a Baltimore landmark and a great place to eat, and one of a kind, Baltimore-only places are getting harder to find.  It is this unique restaurant that provides the setting and title of Mark Scharf's new play, Last Night at the Owl Bar, which opened this past weekend at The Chesapeake Arts Center as part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival. The production, directed by Randy Dalmas, is an odd mix of traditional comedy/drama and surreal departures from the norm.  And while there is much to praise here, the play has a whole does not always live up to its potential. 

Mr. Scharf, an acclaimed and published playwright, utilizes an interesting mix of dramatic conventions in this work.  The main character addresses the audience directly, monologues frame each act, and, in an effort to allow us into the narrator's mind, we are magically transported to bizarre locations (think Angels in America with no agenda).  These conventions work for and against the play.  Direct address has become so commonplace; audiences just accept it and understand it.  A few witty observations are made, and we feel we are part of the party.  The transport to bizarre locations (Afghanistan and the Arctic, for example) also holds a little less of an element of surprise than it used to.  The monologues, in which the main character first sets us up with the idea that he, we and everyone in it all know (wink wink nudge nudge) that we are in a theatre being theatrical.  Each monologue reminds us of it, plus it comes up a few times in the course of the central dialogue.  The problem with this is that, well, ok, we get it, already.  Geez.  Of course it might be less of a burden to sit through if the character in question was more interesting and less annoying. 

The basic plot is this:  Jonathan, our narrator (Steve Lichtenstein) is separated from his wife, and is needy, both in terms of companionship and sexuality.  To abate these needs, he has regular dinner/drinks meetings at the Owl Bar with his confidante, Rebecca (Katzi Carver), herself in need of someone to talk to (she is recently a widow), but not nearly as tediously needy.  Jonathan, living with friend, Max (John Lasher), starts a sexual relationship with Max's ex, Annie (Tiffany James).  He is getting companionship, and he is getting some.  And still he whines and complains.  Is anything enough?  Will he ever be complete again?  Perhaps these are the central questions in a play that tries so hard to be about picking up the pieces.  But they are all trumped by an overriding question:  Who cares?

Not having an antagonist that you root for is difficult, but possible.  But combined with the role as written and a deadly delivery by Mr. Lichtenstein - he literally says each and every line like they are the punch line to an absolutely hilarious joke.  When he is actually telling a joke, this works, otherwise, not so much.  Maybe the actor is stressing the "theatricality" of the play, but that is certainly covered in those speeches which frame the acts and elsewhere.  If that is the case, something's gotta go.  If he is trying to play up how annoying Jonathan is, he needs to bring it down a couple of notches.  There is one scene, though, where this works for both the play and the actor.  It is a scene where Mr. Needy has just had mind-blowing sex (unintentionally theatrical, I'm guessing) with Annie, and she wants him to leave so she can get some sleep.  He nags and begs until she lets it slip that not only is he going home, but she will be enjoying another man's company the next night.  He, of course, launches into a tirade of questions and accusations, being so needy.  She says, fine.  Get out and stay out.  You can't blame her, and both Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. James do a terrific job of handling the peaks and valleys of emotion and discomfort that the scene needs. 

John Lasher, as Max, has not been given much to work with - his part could use some beefing up (or cutting all together).  He gets to play good buddy to Jonathan, pleading lover with Annie, and righteously indignant at both when he finds out the two are hitting the sheets.  It might be the actor causing the real problem here, sad to say.  Mr. Lasher looks the part - you can see why the man-eating Annie would go after Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome.  But, like Mr. Lichtenstein, Mr. Lasher has some serious delivery problems - every line is nearly yelled and with little fluctuation in tone, leaving each line devoid of emotional content, and the audience hearing him as so much loud background noise.

The part of Rebecca, played by Katzi Carver, has a lot of potential to be a very interesting counterpart to the excessive Jonathan.  But he dominates every scene with her (is this the point?), and we end up finding out very little about her beyond the fact that she misses her deceased husband, and her daughter has recently moved out.  (This also sets up a very pat part of the ending.)  Ms. Carver, always interesting to watch (she's even interesting as she sits reading a book while the narrator drones on), does the absolute best she can.  Every line she says rings true - she has made Rebecca the perfect friend, patient, accepting of neediness, all at her own expense.  You can see why Jonathan is drawn to this friendship (I'd love to be her friend), but it is harder to understand why she sticks around.

The other two members of the cast, Tiffany James and Mike Ware fare the best, which is interesting given that they are named, respectively, "All-Purpose Woman" and "All-Purpose Man".  Ms. James' main part is that of the randy man-killer, Annie.  She is an excellent actress, using her considerable charm and intelligence to really let us see why men are drawn into her lusty web.  A lesser actress would likely make Annie a slut, which you never really feel is the case here.  Ok, so she's easy.  But she is also smart, witty and strong enough to go after exactly what she wants.  She also knows how deliver a line such that it drips with multiple meanings.  In short, her performance is sexy, beguiling and most importantly, interesting.  Ms. James does well with her other small roles, creating full characters, often in the space of four or five lines. 

Mr. Ware is truly all purpose - he plays a wide variety of roles, and all of them well.  Like Ms. James, he can create believable, complete characters within a few seconds of stage time.   He is particularly funny in a scene where he is asked to play, of all things, Barney Fife (see it to believe it).  Mr. Ware uses his height and gangly presence in that scene to create a few moments of genuine laughs.  It says a lot about this actor, too, that he can make a stereotypical (and here it is blatantly on purpose, and for the good) French waiter work so well.  His accent is Peter Sellers-thick and his haughty disdain for American tourists is a riot.  He also plays other roles which serve the purpose of their scenes, but also serve to point up the shortcomings of other actors who have but one role and pages of dialogue to flesh out.. 

Some, if not a lot, of the problem here must be assigned to Mr. Dalmas.  His staging, as always, is focused and as interesting as can be given many scenes are of two people sitting at a table talking.  No, the problem is that he hasn't demanded more from his leading actor and demanded less from one of his supporting players.  It is surprising, given his track record that he didn't tweak or re-work some of the more mundane sequences.  The whole thing feels undercooked. 

Mr. Scharf's script could use some significant revision - clarifying and fleshing out the under-utilized Rebecca, and toning (way down) the "theatrical" aspect of the play.  Maybe he could open the play and close the play with monologues, but not in the middle.  There is a reason non-theatrical types generally stay away from theatrical folks.  They are annoying.  Is that the playwright's intention?  In re-reading this review up to this point I've noticed I've posed many questions.  That, I think, belies the fact the play needs some pruning and tightening, and clarification.  It is especially difficult to point this out because so much of the play - its structure, its cleverness, and its supporting characters - is so good. 

Michelle Datz's set design is a wonderful recreation of the actual Owl Bar, including a well-utilized screen for projections that help set the scenes, which change quickly and often with little warning.  Ms. Datz has added a wonderful detail to her set, which does as much, if not more, to give us a sense of the combining of reality and theatricality than any element of the script.  The floor of the Owl Bar is solid up to the walls, but just beyond the table where Jonathan and Rebecca sit, the tiles breakaway, and eventually end.  This suggests that the main characters are just "this close" to falling over the edge of reality - a nice, subtle and smart detail.  (The Owl Bar itself has loaned the production authentic props, which really gives a sense of being there.)

As wonderful, and as appropriate as a Baltimore setting is to a local "grown" play, I'm not entirely sure why this location was specified.  Given the inherently grand and unique qualities of the Owl Bar, it makes sense, theatrically.  But why is it called "Last Night"?  Does this mean yesterday?  Or does this mean the final time?  As the play's ending is both pat and open-ended (I seriously love that duality - so real!), the title is ambiguous at best.  This mirrors the play as written to this point.  Surely, it can't all have been a set up for the closing lines of the play which quote the Owl Bar's wall: "A wise old owl lived in an oak; the more he saw the less he spoke.  The less he spoke the more he heard."  If that's the case, let's hope that the main character has finally learned to shut up and listen.

 

PHOTOS: TOP to BOTTOM: The Cast of Last Night at the Owl Bar (Left to Right) Mike Ware, Katzi Carver, Steve Lichtenstein, Tiffany James and John Lasher; Rebecca and Jonathan - Katzi Carver and Steve Lichtenstein; Max and Annie - John Lasher and Tiffany James.  (These photos were taken on location at the Owl Bar in the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore.)

 

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