BWW Reviews: THE CAT'S MEOW at Oyster Mill Is Unsettling Piece of Hollywood History

These days, people complain that they don't think they're hearing the "real" news. Are there government cover-ups? Are the mainstream media in a conspiracy to silence something? Why is everything celebrity entertainment news instead of the real dirt? Well, it's nothing new. Back in the day, the news was owned by William Randolph Hearst, and the millionaire press tycoon made sure you knew the news that he thought was fit to print. None of it, of course, was about him. His estrangement from his wife and his celebrity mistress, in a day when people cared about such things, was far from common knowledge. He did what he pleased, did not report on it, and no other press felt safe in reporting on him.

That's the world of THE CAT'S MEOW. The play by Stephen Peros, which also resulted in the 2001 Peter Bogdanovich movie, is set in the Jazz Era world of 1924, when the "One Percent" really lived up being the One Percent. And if it seems a bit lurid in relating how the One Percent lives - and dies - well, the thing is, the tale is mostly true. Mostly, because it's a probable reconstruction of one of the more storied deaths of early Hollywood, with a coverup in the wake of the recent Fatty Arbuckle case that never looms far from the characters' minds. It's only a probable reconstruction because of the efforts Hearst took to obfuscate what happened on a very bad weekend indeed. At Oyster Mill, directed by Chris Krahulec, a fine cast of actors takes on being a group of less than fine celebrities.

Lois Heagy plays writer Elinor Glyn, who occasionally narrates the events taking place on Hearst's yacht. For you who have never heard of Glyn, she was a wildly popular writer who set the mold for Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins, generating romances that were at the time scandalously erotic (and in at least one case based upon her own life). The Englishwoman moved to Hollywood in 1920, where she did equally popular silent movie scriptwriting. Neither young nor gorgeous, but fabulously tart-tongued and caustic, and either loved or feared by those around her on the yacht, she is a wonderfully strong character, and Heagy does her full justice in delivering Glyn's foul observations on everyone and everything.

Hearst (Joel Persing) is there with his mistress, actress Marion Davies (Mary McCleary), throwing a party to celebrate the birthday of then-film-impresario Tom Ince (nicely played by Christopher Gregory), who fails to survive the partying. Ince's death has been the subject of rumor for nearly a century, while the story here follows the most prevalent rumor - that Hearst shot Ince, with whom he had been trying to work out a business deal, either while trying to shoot Davies or the man he thought was her (other) lover, comedian and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin (Sam Eisenhuth). Joel Persing's Hearst is nicely played, a combination of crusty and strict while at the same time flouting conventional morality - it's Prohibition, so guests are limited to only two drinks, you know. McCleary's Davies is charming, and her scenes with Eisenhuth's Chaplin are delights to watch. Eisenhuth's Chaplin is himself a delight to watch; Eisenhuth loves Chaplin, and that affection shows through in his performance. This is the real Chaplin, however, so he's no Little Tramp, but a man who's just gotten a sixteen year old starlet pregnant on a film he's been directing. Ince, as well, has left his wife at home for the weekend while a friend of his on the boat escorts Ince's presumed mistress, actress Margaret Livingston (Amanda Gregory), to the party for Ince's convenience.

The play is a non-mystery; an audience watching it may wonder, at intermission, how the story has gotten so far without someone being killed. When Ince's death does come in the second act, the question is not "whodunit" but "how do we keep anyone from finding out how it happened?"

If there is any difficulty with the play, other than succeeding, as Oyster Mill has, in finding cast to portray vividly a number of known celebrities, it's that the story is not only unsettling but feels, as many unclear criminal cases do, unfinished. There's blackmail, bribery, and hush money on stage, and no clear truth as to what happened in real life, but while this could go to an exciting finale, Peros loses steam and fizzles out like a poorly edited episode of DATELINE on NBC. It's neither Krahulec's or the cast's fault; Peros has written what wants to be, but is not, a murder with little mystery.

Nonetheless, see this for Eisenhuth's Chaplin, and for the Chaplin-Davies interaction. See it for its comic moments mostly provided by two silly flapper starlets, Celia and Didi (Elaine Knox and Kayla van Orner). See it - leave the kids at home - for its amusing and inventive takes on the bawdy below-decks activities at night, which are done with some very funny staging. It's a slice of early Hollywood gossip that few people really know, and that's interesting in itself. All it lacks is a well-written finish. If you don't expect that, you won't be let down by the main cast. The one problem with THE CAT'S MEOW is... that its writing isn't.

Through August 26 at Oyster Mill Playhouse in Camp Hill. For tickets and information visit www.oystermill.com.

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