BWW Reviews: Take the Voyage to Everyman Theatre's SHIPWRECKED!

The full title is Shipwrecked! An Entertainment. The Amazing Adventures of Louis De Rougement (As Told By Himself).  A theater would need  a very large marquee to fit this entire title.

Written by one of my favorite playwrights, Donald Margulies, who is a Pulitzer Prize winner for his Dinner With Friends and author of Brooklyn Boy and Sight Unseen (all commissioned by the South Coast Repertory Theater in Orange County California), this is family friendly way to open the 2010-2011 season. This is a relatively new play, written in 2007 and fairly unknown. It was done by Primary Stages in New York in February 2009.

The cast unites the entire talented ensemble of the Everyman Theatre's hit comedy The Mystery of Irma Vep, Clinton Brandhagen and Bruce R. Nelson.  Add to the mix is the talented newcomer to Everyman, Tuyet Thi Pham.  For some reason, the three other actors who help with sound effects and add to the madcap fun are not mentioned in the program:  Tim Boucher, Sophie Hinderberger, and Trevor Williams. Under the direction of Derek Goldman, this play takes the audience on a wild ride that is full of surprises.

Nelson gives a superb performance as the title character who was born in Paris and raised in England.  As a child, he's bedridden due to illness and spends most of his time listening to his mother read to him adventure stories such as "Robinson Crusoe" and "The Arabian Nights."  The play then turns into a something akin to "Around the World in 80 Days" when Louis becomes 16 , he leaves England on a ship to search for pearls in the Coral Sea near Australia.

What happens next? Well, of course a shipwreck.  Louis and his dog Bruno (you'll never see a better dog on a stage than that portrayed by Brandhagen) somehow survive on a deserted island. There's his marriage to an Aboriginal woman (played by the wonderful Pham)  and finally his return to England in 1898 after 30 years, where he writes about his incredible exploits. If "People" magazine had been invented, he would have made the cover. As a famous playwright has written, this a tale full of "sound and fury" but it does signify something.

Shipwrecked has been an incredible  success. But you only have until Oct. 24 to see it. It's a shame it could not be extended.

Coming next is Arthur Miller's wonderful play All My Sons running Nov. 10 to Dec. 12.

For tickets, call 410-752-2208 or visit www.everymantheatre.org.

For comments, write to cgshubow@broadwayworld.com.

 

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