BWW Reviews: A.D. Player's MALCOLM AND TERESA is Gripping and Absorbing

The A.D. Players is kicking off the summer with a vibrant and thrilling production of Cathal Gallagher's MALCOLM AND TERESA. The play is a fascinating biography of British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who is credited for popularizing Mother Teresa. In 1932, he visited Moscow as a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian. He was one of the few journalists that looked into the reports of famine in the Ukraine, and he traveled there without the permission of the Soviet authorities. He sent his reports back to England in the diplomatic bag, to avoid censorship; however, he found that the British people and the journalism world in general were not ready or willing to accept that the new Socialist nation was not the utopian worker's paradise that the USSR claimed it was. Later, in 1968, with a reputation for being a tough interviewer for the BBC, he interviews Mother Teresa. She opens his eyes to the squalor and suffering in Calcutta, a city he had lived in the 1920s. After his initial interview with her, he re-examines his personal faith while championing Mother Teresa's charitable ministries.

Cathal Gallagher's script is powerfully written and entrancing for those with or without Christian faith. A majority of the production is presented in a non-linear fashion, progressing the thematic elements of the plot and showing how interrelated Malcolm Muggeridge's exposés on inhumane conditions in the Ukraine and in Calcutta are. The scenes are riveting and impactful and transition beautifully from one to the other.

Direction by Katharine Hatcher, with assistance by Christy Watkins, is powerful and alluring. They have excellently cast the show with skillful precision and have coached their cast well. Each character is fascinating and magnetizing, keeping the audience fully engaged through the twists and turns of the plot. Also, they have a noticeable understanding of the urgency in the writing. They have ensured that a majority of the scene transitions are done with a shift in the lighting, so each transition is fluid and seamless.

As Malcolm Muggeridge, Marty Blair adopts a scholarly and erudite persona. It is clear that he has done research on Malcolm Muggeridge as these adoptEd Mannerisms mirror those that can be found in videos online. Marty Blair also imbues the character with an exhilaratingly tangible intrepid nature. His Malcolm Muggeridge bravely risks everything to report truthfully and in doing so discovers the truths that lay within his self.

Vicky McCormick brilliantly portrays Mother Teresa on stage. She is warm, compassionate, encouraging, uplifting, full of faith, and overflowing with charity. For audience members who remember seeing Mother Teresa on television, there is no denying that Vicky McCormick has pristinely captured the woman in her performance. Her cadence and delivery of Teresa's dialogue is rich and enthralling as well. She stirs something inside every member of the audience and gently takes hold of our hearts.

Kitty Muggeridge is flawlessly played by Christy Watkins. In the scenes that take place in 1932, before the trip to Moscow, she is ebullient, cute, and charming. However, once she returns from Moscow and especially in the scenes that take place in 1968 she is authoritative and wonderfully strong.

Craig Griffin's Alec Vidler is fantastically personable, intelligent, and understanding. As a member of the Anglican Clergy and one of Malcolm's best friends, he never applies pressure on Malcolm or his family for their almost atheistic views.

Terry Shaler, as played by Blake Weir, is extremely proficient and skilled at his job. He is concerned about ratings, perfect lighting, and all of the other aspects that ensure that the interviews captured on film are successful. Yet, what makes Blake Weir's performance so fascinating is that his character is consistently amiable and congenial as well.

Patty Tuel Bailey breathes mesmerizing and charismatic life in Aunt Bo, Kitty's aunt who consistently and rigidly upholds the banner of Soviet socialism. She is warm and friendly, even when she rails against Malcolm's reports from Moscow.

Stephen Hurst is incredibly impactful as the frightened Doctor Rosen. His brief scene adds sincere emotional depth to the play. Likewise, Christian Rebresh's Ukrainian Boy and Indian Orphan are silent and moving visages of the issues that Malcolm is exposing to his audience.

Scenic Design by Mark A. Lewis is inspired. He has created a multileveled set that is adaptive to the different environs of the show. His upstage wall is covered with newsprint and enlarged photographs. Set into this are the three main, distinct, and separated performing spaces that can be slipped in and out of with ease to ensure smoothness in scene transitions.

Light Design by Mark A. Lewis is simplistic and wholly effective. He keeps the cast mostly in realistic ambers. However, he uses a stark and unfilterEd White for the Ukrainian Boy, which gives a ghostly and emaciated feeling to his appearance on stage. Similarly, he uses a great lighting cue with the Calcutta interview to signify the lighting miracle that occurs.

Costume Design by Patty Tuel Bailey is wonderful. She captures fashions of the 1930s and 1960s with skill. Her costume for Mother Teresa is a perfectly and precise recreation of her nun's habit as well.

Eric Domuret's Sound Design skillfully indicates which decade each scene takes place in by using music from the era during the transition to that scene. Of course, the use of The Beatles for the 60s is a great choice, but it is interesting considering how much Malcolm Muggeridge contemptuously disliked the band for their promotion of pills and marijuana.

The A.D. Players presentation of Cathal Gallagher's MALCOLM AND TERESA is a gripping and absorbing piece of theatre. It is easily the best production they have produced all season. The characters and plot are so well constructed and well acted that the audience is drawn into the production and kept engrossed from beginning to end.

MALCOM AND TERESA runs on the A.D. Players' Grace Stage through June 23, 2013. For more information and tickets, please visit http://www.adplayers.org or call (713) 526 - 2721.

All photos by Bara Photography. Courtesy of The A.D. Players.

Christy Watkins as Kitty Muggeridge, Marty Blair as Malcolm Muggeridge.

Craig Griffin as Vidler.

Craig Griffin as Vidler, Blake Weir as Terry Shaler.

Blake Weir as Terry Shaler, Craig Griffin as Vidler.

Vicky McCormick as Mother Teresa, Marty Blair as Malcolm Muggeridge.

Vicky McCormick as Mother Teresa, Marty Blair as Malcolm Muggeridge

Marty Blair as Malcolm Muggeridge, Christy Watkins as Kitty Muggeridge.

Vicky McCormick as Mother Teresa.

Vicky McCormick as Mother Teresa, Christian Rebresh as Indian Orphan.

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