ROTM's Variations on Power is Mostly in Balance

SHOW INFORMATION: Through May 18.  Thurs – Sat at 8PM, Sun at 2PM.  $20.00.  BWW readers get a 50% discount!  Mention "BroadwayWorld.com" at the Box Office.  www.runofthemilltheater.org or 410-796-1555.

 

◊◊◊ 1/2 out of five.  1 hour, 50 minutes, including intermission.  Adult language, themes and content.

 

For the past few seasons, Run of the Mill Theater has undertaken a unique (and growing) project.  Each year, a theme is selected, a party is thrown for Baltimore's creative types, and over drinks and finger food, ideas are hatched.  After a play selection process, short one acts that cover the gamut of what a theme could entail are chosen to make an evening of theatre.  Local directors choose pieces; actors are cast, and the project takes flight.  With such a process, one might expect that with the spectrum of a large theme being covered, there will be a variety of styles and quality.  That is certainly the case with this year's project, Variations on Power, which concludes its run this weekend at The Baltimore Theatre Project.  Power, in its various forms, has been addressed by the widest possible variety of playwrights (short of including works by elementary school children) this year, which includes one playwright with a Broadway writing credit, a high school student, and a few of the "regulars" – Baltimore playwrights who have earned their stripes in outing such as these and the upcoming Baltimore Playwrights Festival.  It is natural, then to expect that each play will be at a different level of maturity.  What might be surprising (it sure was to me) is who wrote which play.  That is to say, a Broadway credit doesn't mean that playwright submitted the most polished work, and a high school student didn't necessarily write the play about a power struggle in a classroom.

The cast, six wildly talented local actors really get a chance to show off their acting chops, and each one contributes significantly to the evening.  What is really telling, though, is that with the same six actors taking on all the roles, it really exposes both the strengths and weaknesses of a particular work, and the strengths and weaknesses of the four directors, who each worked on two of the eight plays.  Before I go further, I think each part in each play was correctly cast from the pool of actors, so miscasting isn't the issue.  Finally, though no credit is given, whomever it was that decided to stage the opening and between play scene changes did an excellent job, giving the whole performance an air of completion and solidarity.  (I don't think I could adequately explain it, you'll have to see it for yourself.)

Because of the unique structure of the evening, I'll rate each play separately on the play itself, the staging, and the acting.

Latin Fair by Julie Lewis, directed by Dwight Cook

◊◊ 1/2 (out of 5) Power Connection:  The play portrays the balance of power in a high school classroom, between the students and between the teacher and a particular student.  As with most power struggles, the sides aren't as clearly drawn as they might appear.  Here, equal weight is given to the idea that the teacher can be a power hungry bitch, and that the student brings on all of her own problems by being willfully disobedient and purposely antagonistic.  The down side to the play is that it relies on stereotypes, and the climactic reveal comes across as more "After School Special" than a commentary on the power struggle between adults and children.

◊◊◊◊ Staging: Mr. Cook's direction is very proficient in that given the potential for static direction in this situation, he finds several innovative and still realistic reasons to have movement and shifting focus.

◊◊◊◊ Acting:  Tracey Farrar and John Cramer are pretty funny and almost shockingly realistic in their portrayal of students who both participate in and observe the power struggle between the student and teacher, especially given that they are both clearly NOT high school age!  Beverly Shannon, as the teacher, is that infuriating blend of piety and control freak that drives high school students crazy, and to that end she is perfect in the role.  Stacey Downs is also quite good as the student in question, managing to keep us in some sort of suspense over who is right, the teacher or the student.

 

Comfort by Ken Greller, directed by Susan McCarthy

◊◊ Power Connection:  This two-hander mines the familiar territory of a couple where the woman brings home the bacon and the man feels less manly because of it.  This would have been a great variation on power, had the play been put together a little better.  In a short play, the audience can't be left so long in the dark as to the conflict.  On the plus side, the dialogue is very realistic, almost as if the playwright lived through it or heard it first hand, and the almost Pinter-esque pauses are quite good most of the time, leaving us room to connect the unspoken dots.  And the ending…

◊◊ Staging: Ms. McCarthy's staging comes across as more improvisation than deliberate staging.  There are awkward moments where the two actors are at odd angles and it looks uncomfortable.  More than once, those long pauses felt like forgotten lines, and nothing about the direction even hints at the ending, let alone helps to make its purposeful ambiguity rife with possibility.

◊◊◊ 1/2 Acting:  Nancy Flores, as usual, provides a polarizing performance.  She is a magnetic presence, and when she takes the stage, you watch her, almost to the exclusion of others on stage, which is perfect for this role.  Amazingly, John Cramer, another actor with that kind of draw, holds his own and then some.  Both look to be struggling with the ending, but the intensity between the two makes the power struggle here palpable.

 

Bookends by Kathleen Barber, directed by Brian Francoise

◊◊◊ Power Connection:  This odd little play details the punishment of a daughter to the attic without food or water until she apologizes for embarrassing her father with the local bishop.  Her sister sneaks up water and a bit of cake, and uses the opportunity to beg her to make that apology.  The whole thing feels like an excerpt from a larger work, though I think were it longer it would be a boring dramatic exercise in period acting and writing.  As it is, it is interesting and the details of the situation are parceled out to create tension and drama.  The power of a parent over a child and the power of how we appear to others is always ripe for examination, and Ms. Barber's play handles both well, especially considering that the parental side of the equation remains unseen.

◊◊◊◊ Staging:  What is amazing about Mr. Francoise's direction is that on the expansive black box stage, with only two actresses and a stool, he still manages to make the attic seem claustrophobic and hot. 

◊◊◊◊◊  Acting:  Beverley Shannon and Stacey Downs both do the period acting (think The Crucible) very well, with each quaint turn of phrase naturally spoken and easily understood to the modern ear.  Both actresses play the unseen power very well, too, to the point where we might actually fear that they will be caught.

 

PUNCH by Joe Dennison, directed by Courtney Weber

◊◊◊◊ 1/2 Power Connection: PUNCH is an intense, mystifying work – mostly a one-man show, with a second person twist at the end.  PUNCH concerns an Ali-like boxer who chronicles his rise and fall in the world of Championship Boxing.  Clearly a man with passion and not a wee bit of ego, the rise is triumphant, the fall catastrophic.  Curiously, on the fringe of the playing space is a frail old man observing/reliving the memory of this iconic life.  Is he the boxer as an elderly man?  Is he the referee that brings down the champ?  The ambiguity only lends itself to make this little play all the more interesting.  Which is more lasting – the intoxicating power of victory or the victory of a life able to pick itself up after a downfall?

◊◊◊◊◊ Staging: Ms. Weber's staging is breathtaking for its power (no pun intended) and its simplicity.  As the Champ rises in prestige, he is able to move into more spotlights (brilliantly lit by Kendra Richard) and as his career diminishes so too does the breadth of those spotlights.

◊◊◊◊◊ Acting: Singularly named Mawk gives a memorable, powerhouse performance full of passion, ego and, ultimately, humility.  His brief co-star, John Cramer does all he can to make his character the enigma it should be.

 

Unplugged by Jacob Hellman, directed by Courtney Weber

◊◊◊◊◊ Power Connection:  With Unplugged, Mr. Hellman has tapped into power as a literal thing, and, at the same time, he has given us the most telling play of the evening.  The entire company of actors circles the stage with all of today's modern conveniences – iPods, hand-held gaming devices, cell phones and, of course, a Blackberry and a Blue Tooth.  Simultaneously, the power goes out to all and each character is plunged into unknown territory – life unplugged.  What they are forced to do to cope is both sad and amusing, and a somewhat harsh commentary on society in the 21^st Century.  Nowhere is the play more unsettling than what happens when power resumes.

◊◊◊◊◊ Staging:  It would certainly give too much of this play away to describe Ms. Weber's staging.  Suffice it to say that she captures the big themes and the minute details equally well.  Her simple use of stage space is invigorating in a time when plays have become over staged.

◊◊◊◊◊ Acting:  The entire company is in this play, and they are uniformly well-suited to their roles.

 

Be More 282 by Rich Espey, directed by Dwight R. B. Cook

◊◊◊◊ Power Connection: Like the play title, which refers to the 282 people murdered in Baltimore City in 2007, Rich Espey's play itself requires much thought on the part of the audience.  It is purposely ambiguous and purposely provocative so that as an audience member you must engage your brain to fully recognize the power of the piece.  The subject matter is often glossed over by the media and the citizens whose lives have mercifully remained untouched by this atrocity, so it only suits that, for a few minutes at least, we really sit there and think about what is staring us in the face.  And that, folks, is the power of theatre, media, an uncaring society, etc.

◊◊◊ Staging:  Mr. Cook moves his two actors to the point of distraction.  As they crunch over trash and circle like nervous sharks, they sometimes get in the way of focusing our attention where it needs to be.

◊◊◊◊ 1/2 Acting: Beverley Shannon and Mawk were well cast in this play.  She exudes that missing pregnant white woman pertinence and dignity that affords such women an almost unfair share of media attention.  He exudes that confused "just another black guy dead on the street" generic quality that affords young African-American men a surely unfair lack of media attention.

 

Fore by Christopher Graybill, directed by Susan McCarty

◊◊◊ 1/2 Power Connection:  Mr. Graybill's play broaches on the power of big money companies over the little guys in business, and more glaringly at the power structure of third world countries, led by nasty, power hungry men.  This two-hander reveals the bidding process for a huge account in an unnamed, probably Hispanic nation.  The woman, in addition to bringing a deal has brought along a golf club as a gift for the leader, an avid golfer.  The man she is dealing with is just the deputy to the leader, a rather abrupt, vicious gatekeeper.  In a particularly gruesome detail, we find out exactly what the leader does with the golf clubs he has collected.

◊◊ Staging: Ms. McCarty's short comings in her other staging are the same here.  The two actors are all over the place physically, which is really obvious in a play intended to be an intense, in your face work.  The whole thing has an off-handed, under-rehearsed feel to it, which certainly diminishes any intensity the play brings forth.

◊◊◊◊ Acting:  John Cramer is frightening as the deputy.  Tracey Farrar manages to play both strength and abject fear equally well despite the staging and thankfully without any stereotypical histrionics.

 

Pissing Match by John Magruder, directed by Brian Francoise

◊◊ 1/2 Power Connection: Here, the power is that of the crudest kind.  Perhaps this was meant to be a response to The Vagina Monologues.  But even the most "guy's guy" there is would eventually get squeamish at all of the talk of the male genitals in this one.  At first, it is funny.  Then it is even kind of emotional – a man's elderly father, not yet ready to give in to being old insists on going to the bathroom by himself rather than be assisted by his son.  Then it is just vulgar and crude for the sake of laughs.  The end has the son's lover going in to help get the old guy back to bed, but he is really going just to sneak a peek.  Apparently, the lover didn't get enough of seeing his own father's when they showered together when he was a boy.  I know we men hold our penises with the regard usually reserved for heads of state, but I have to wonder if this is really a variation on power or on locker room banter.

◊◊◊ Staging:  Mr. Francoise does what he can with what the script calls for – no more or less.  Let's be thankful he didn't get "creative."

◊◊◊ Acting:  John Cramer and Mawk get credit for keeping a straight (even if they are supposed to be a gay couple, ba dum dum) face throughout, even managing to find some pathos in the male bonding that comes when discussing pubic hair. 

 

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