BWW Reviews: THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA from ACT 1 at Darkhorse Theatre

First-time director Anne-Geri Fann acquits herself admirably with her production of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana which, like so many of Williams' characters, is flawed and imperfect yet somehow compelling, provocative and imminently watchable. With a stunning triad of Nashville actors taking on the leading characters in the play - Cinda McCain, Jack Chambers and Robyn Berg - your rapt attention to the stage proceedings is demanded and the three never disappoint, delivering performances that are stunningly raw yet somehow refined, callous yet heartfelt.

Williams' play - despite its evocation of the poetic nature of his other, perhaps better known, works - takes a grittier approach to the realities of the existences led by his colorful, richly crafted and sharply delineated characters. Clearly, there is a certain musicality to the lines they deliver (and the elements that are needed to create a fiery, theatrical opera), but there is a coarseness underlying which grounds Iguana more significantly than some of the other plays. That thematic difference, as well as the play's down-at-heels Mexican coastal hotel setting, helps set The Night of the Iguana apart from classics like The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire or Summer and Smoke.

Focusing on a triangle (which is a blending of the romantic, the emotional and the competitive - much like many classic operas), Iguana places the fallen Rev. Lawrence Shannon (Chambers), now the somewhat pathetic leader of a ragtag band of tourists from a Texas women's Baptist college, at the apex with two women vying for his attentions and for his very soul, his religious ambiguity notwithstanding.

In one corner is the overtly sexual, yet definitely enabling and self-destructive, Maxine Faulk (McCain), the randy hotelier who longs to sink her claws into Shannon, feasting upon his ravaged carcass to fill the void that once was her heart. In the other corner, Williams places the ridiculously virginal, yet rather worldly - given her station in life - New England spinster Hannah Jelkes (Berg). Hannah travels the world with her dying grandfather, eking out a meager subsistence selling watercolors, quick character sketches and pieces of her heart to "ladies' underwear salesmen" and their ilk, from the glamorous cocktail lounge at The Raffles Hotel in Singapore to Maxine's seedy Costa Verde Hotel.

A confluence of personal factors and world events bring these three wounded, pitiable people together in Acapulco, Mexico, along with a group of German tourists (whose raucous renditions of Nazi marching songs provide comic, however cynical and sardonic, relief to the rather tragic proceedings playing out), the aforementioned Baptist college girls (who probably expected a trip more in tune with the travels of the denomination's saintly Lottie Moon) and two lazy, if horny, Mexican divers who Maxine employs to tote baggage, both real and emotional, and to fulfill her sexual needs. In other words, it's just another day at the Southern Gothic beach (think of it as being further South than usual) that Williams has so effectively created in his body of work.

The almost operatic events that transpire during this one evening, this Night of the Iguana - Maxine and Shannon dance a daringly distasteful tango of sensuality, desire and disdain; Shannon and Hannah engage in a muted, dreamy waltz of mutual seduction and self-realization; Hannah's beloved and devoted grandfather struggles to complete his final poem; and the Baptist ladies try to flee the flea-bitten Costa Verde - lead to an ending that despite its relative peace is ultimately as tragic as Cio-Cio San's suicide in Madama Butterfly or Tosca's dramatic leap to her death.

Fann's direction is very focused, her vision for the piece transforming the intimate confines of the Darkhorse Theatre into Maxine's coastal Mexican resort and her attention to detail betraying her obvious love for and devotion to Williams' story. Much to her credit, she has assembled a fine ensemble of actors who bring the characters to life and who, despite their wide-ranging resumes and credits, appear to be on the same page and as equally dedicated as their director.

McCain stalks the stage with her much-admired intensity and complete understanding of the character she plays, tossing off amusing one-liners and delivering dramatic monologues with the same level of commitment. She is a force to be reckoned with and Chambers provides the perfect foil for her antics, giving a fully realized characterization as the conundrum that is Shannon (atheistic, carnal, misguided, confused - you name it, he's got every iguana on his back you could think of) comes to life before you. Chambers attacks the role with glee, wringing every possible emotion from Shannon, and playing against his female co-stars with unambiguous zeal.

Berg, as the prim and proper Hannah, delivers a performance that is revelatory in scope, showing us for the first time on a Nashville stage her heretofore untapped resources. Her Hannah, quite the polar opposite of Maxine (and perhaps another of Williams' affectionate recreations of his own ultimately flawed sister Rose), is nonetheless as determined and as flinty as McCain's showier character. And unlike Williams' other sweetly damaged heroines, Berg's Hannah has a resolve and backbone of pure, self-sustaining steel.

The three leading actors are surrounded by capable performers, including Jerry Henderson, who gives a superb and completely believable, heart-rending reading of Hannah's grandfather "Nonno."

Ryan Williams, in a very brief onstage appearance, is very impressive as Jake Latta, the tour guide sent to rescue the Baptists - who are led by the effective Elizabeth Hayes as the officious Miss Fellowes, with Savanah White as her songbird charge Charlotte Goodall, whose dalliance with Shannon has led to his most recent downfall.

The quartet of overly effusive and ebullient Germans are played to humorous perfection by Doug Allen, Joyce Jeffries, Michael Welch and Kelly Mitchell, and Treg Miles and Hugh Britt nicely masquerade as Maxine's sexy Mexican underlings, with Patrick Goedicke as the bus driver.

- The Night of the Iguana. By Tennessee Williams. Directed by Anne-Geri Fann. Presented by ACT 1, at Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Avenue, Nashville, through March 19. For details, visit the company's website at www.ACT1online.com.

Pictured (left to right): Cinda McCain, Jack Chambers and Robyn Berg in The Night of the Iguana

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