Review: Local Jewell's LILIES Lacks Levels

As you may know by now, Dear Readers, one of my pet peeves in any performance is the lack of levels. If you don't vary your emotion, intent and delivery for a character then that character might as well just be reading lines from a book. And while there were a few stand outs in the current production of "Lilies or the Revival of a Romantic Drama" from Local Jewell Productions, for the most part the lack of levels made the show monotonously drone on.

Most familiar with the piece probably know it from the award winning gay movie of the same name but Michel Marc Bouchard's play came first. It's 1952 in a prison in Canada and prisoner Simon (Greg LoProto) has called his old school friend Bishop Bilodeau (Ian McIntire) to the prison under the pretense of hearing his confession. But once there Bilodeau is forced to watch a play that Simon and the other prisoners have put together telling the tale of a homosexual love triangle involving Bilodeau and Simon from their youth. A play which also implicates the Bishop in the crime for which Simon has been in prison these past 20 years.

Now I say love triangle except I never really got much in the way of love from McIntire or the man playing young Bilodeau (Jordan Fermstad) to indicate that there was any relationship there other than his disgust for the homosexual relationship between young Simon (played by Michael C Robinson) and his lover Vallier (Dustyn Moir). So until the end of the play where he actually says he loves him, I didn't quite see the point of the play except to make a religious man watch gay sex. Director Christopher Jewell could have spent some more time making that relationship clear in addition to shaking the cast out of the one-note characters many were adopting.

As I said there were a few stand outs. Moir managed the best of the lot to deliver an honest and engaging character with tons of heart. Robinson too was quite engaging but at times did fall into the trap of being a bit one-note with his role. LoProto has a few moments where he shines but for the most part just stayed angry. And I have to mention Patrick Lucey-Conklin who had some tragically beautiful moments as Vallier's insane but devoted mother but felt a bit shaky on his comfort level with the lines.

Overall a valiant effort to tell what I'm sure is a heartbreaking story but the clarity of the tale and the passion just wasn't always there. And so with my three letter rating system I give Local Jewell Production's "Lilies or the Revival of a Romantic Drama" a dissatisfied MEH. For a love story it just felt too static and unclear.

"Lilies or the Revival of a Romantic Drama" from Local Jewell Productions performs at the Ballard Underground through April 9th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.localjewell.com.

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